Is it possible to start a story too late?

Lakey said:

I’m not sure there has to be immediate action. What there has to be is immediate interest. You can have a car crash on the first page - action - but if readers don’t know who is in the car, they aren’t likely to be terribly interested.
It also might help to read the notion of “action” a little broadly - not just car chases or fist fights, but rather something happening - anything at all that happens in front of the reader and creates tension, such as a tense conversation, or a character tearing apart her apartment looking for her lost keys. Anything other than passive description and scene-setting. When I think of creating reader interest by putting that kind of action on the first page, it’s helping me reconcile the notion of “action right away” with the slow-burn approach to plot building.

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This is great advice. As stories are about people (for the most part), it's the human connection which needs to be made.

Basically, all ways to start a story have pluses and minuses, whether the start is early, late, or in-between. It's up to us to decide what best serves the story we want to tell. Then have the creativity and skill to pull it off.

Lakey said:

I’m not sure there has to be immediate action. What there has to be is immediate interest. You can have a car crash on the first page - action - but if readers don’t know who is in the car, they aren't likely to be terribly interested.

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Agree there has to be immediate interest. This could be supplied by either character, setting, or plot.

We do not have to be interested in the characters if the setting is sufficiently exotic or beautiful or noir-ugly. Or if the plot/action elements are strong enough.

The character can be effectively anonymous at the beginning. But fairly soon after the beginning we have become interested in them. It's a rare setting or plot that's sufficiently interesting to carry an entire book.

Lakey said:

It also might help to read the notion of “action” a little broadly - not just car chases or fist fights, but rather something happening - anything at all that happens in front of the reader and creates tension, such as a tense conversation, or a character tearing apart her apartment looking for her lost keys.

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Good point. Action isn't just physical action. It can be emotional or mental or social action. Dialogue is one way to deliver either one of those three kinds of action, but description can do it too.

EMOTIONAL: Her heart actually felt as if it had been crushed, the hurt was so strong. Her eyes stung with tears, and she widened them to keep the wetness from spilling over.

MENTAL: She picked up the ransom note and looked more closely at the handwriting. Something about it... She had seen it before... God! The friendly door guard, who'd looked so young and innocent and harmless! The handwriting was his!

SOCIAL: "Sorry, Judy. The vote is in, and you aren't prom organizer effectively immediately."

Action means a change of some kind. I used the acronym PEMS to remind me of what kind: physical, emotional, mental, social. And the more interesting actions for we humans is that willed and done by other humans.

Lots and lots of great info here.

I don't know this that well: what are cliches used in starting in the middle of the action that I should avoid? Are metaphors used to foreshadows in that list, like playing chess or something else? Also talking about if I were to start a story with a flashback happening at some point during it's present scene. Cliches generally associated with that.

If you start a story with a flashback, I would say you're either starting too late, because it's immediately leaping backwards.

Alternatively, it's wholly unnecessary backstory dump that can usually be skipped or slotted in later through dialogue etc.

I don't wholly follow what is being asked here, but a flashback is usually more meaningful when we already know something about the character who is having the flashback - if that was the question.

HD, at the bottom left of this - and every - page, is a site specific Google Custom Search box. Enter any brief phrase in there such as - Cliches to avoid - or whatever you are looking for and (below a few Ads) you will be given a stack of links to threads that have either dealt with or touched upon that subject. The higher the reference number, the more recent the thread.

Be very wary about re-opening any long dead threads.

Good luck.

HD Simplicityy said:

Lots and lots of great info here.

I don't know this that well: what are cliches used in starting in the middle of the action that I should avoid? Are metaphors used to foreshadows in that list, like playing chess or something else? Also talking about if I were to start a story with a flashback happening at some point during it's present scene. Cliches generally associated with that.

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Bufty said:

I don't wholly follow what is being asked here, but a flashback is usually more meaningful when we already know something about the character who is having the flashback - if that was the question.

HD, at the bottom left of this - and every - page, is a site specific Google Custom Search box. Enter any brief phrase in there such as - Cliches to avoid - or whatever you are looking for and (below a few Ads) you will be given a stack of links to threads that have either dealt with or touched upon that subject. The higher the reference number, the more recent the thread.

Be very wary about re-opening any long dead threads.

Good luck.

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Ahh alright. I didn't know that was that search bars function. I'll do that, and keep in mind responding to those long gone threads.

Lielac said:

I've read plenty of advice about the pitfalls of starting a story too long before the action starts, but not so much about whether it's a bad idea to drop the reader right at the important bit.

For example, my current project is a portal fantasy, and the important part is when the protagonist and her friend find the portal into the other world. But the portal fantasies I've read don't go straight to "bang, portal into another world, hop through", there's some idea of the normal life the MC is leaving behind. To my mind the important part in those cases is still the portal to another world, and yet the glimpse of the normal life isn't boring, it's necessary somehow.

The Hunger Games didn't start with the Reaping; it started the morning before. Harry Potter didn't start with "you're a wizard, Harry"; it started on Dudley's birthday. So what's the "right" amount of normal life to showcase before the life-changing event?

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It's common for much to happen before the Ordinary World.

You can start at the portal, which is almost like a flash forward. The important thing is what's happening in that sequence character-wise.

The portal isn't the life-changing event, just the beginning of the change.

I've struggled with this same issue in my sci-fi novels. I overcame it by placing a type of action that was critical to my story in the first few paragraphs of the opening of chapter 1 of book 1. It was not the protagonist doing the action, but another minor-ish character, yet it outlined one of the major elements of my story. Then I went on to world building and a bit of description before coming to my protagonist in chapter 2. According to those who have read it it works quite well.

With most sci-fi/fantasy there has to be some form of world building (usually) as we're creating worlds, but then you need to juggle the interest of the reader.

I'm having that issue with my current manuscript. How do I grab the reader's attention, yet set the scene. I need to make her life seem "normal" in the world I've made yet also interesting to the reader. It all takes editing I guess, and helpful beta readers.