What Scenes Should I Write?

Questioner · May 7, 2018

Hi!
I'm currently working on a post-apocalyptic novel, and I'm in the beginning of the story. I have an idea laid out for the rest of the novel, but it doesn't matter how I write the first scenes, they just read as crap. There's so much I need to keep in mind at the same time -- captivating the reader, showing and telling, writing description, filtering etc.

I'd like to write one chapter where I introduce the world that these characters live in, the struggles they have to encounter. But I don't know what scenes to write that captivates the reader and introduces the world.

Does anyone have any ideas you could share with me?

Thanks.

Bufty · May 7, 2018

You're not experiencing Writer's Block, Questioner.

You will gain experience, and find many answers to the questions you keep raising, if you read books of the type you wish to write, and see how others tackle these issues.

Even browsing the SYW Forum here will show you how many others have opened their stories.

lizmonster · May 7, 2018

1) There's no hard and fast rule that says you have to write the story in order.

2) There's also a good argument to be made for revisiting where you start the story after you've finished it.

3) Your readers probably don't need an explicit introduction to the world and the struggles of the characters. They'll see it when they watch the characters interact with the world. Start with the plot, and trust the readers to infer.

In your first draft, though, most of this doesn't really matter. Get the story down, beginning to end (writing it in whatever order you like!), and worry about this kind of thing in revision.

Maggie Maxwell · May 7, 2018

Write the crap scene. Accept that it's crap, and then write the next one. Opening scenes are HARD. Plenty of books in progress start at the wrong place or with a weak chapter that just needs to be cut. The best way to figure out the right place... is to write the rest of the book. You can cut, move, rewrite, add, whatever you need later. Just get through it. You may find it's perfectly good, but it's just chapter 3 instead of chapter 1. You'll never get there until you've written it though.

Elle. · May 7, 2018

My advice is just write your first draft without trying to second guess yourself. A first draft is there just to get the whole story on paper. Once you have completed your first draft then you can start editing, refining, making sure you have a strong start, etc... Once you think you can not refine or edit it further, give it to a few beta readers and based on their feedback edit again and continue the process until that draft is the best version of your story it can be.

DanielSTJ · May 7, 2018

Yeah, I'm going with just write it. Worry about making it great later. Michael Crichton once said: "Books aren't written - they're rewritten. Including your own."

Old Hack · May 7, 2018

Stop trying to write the scenes which explain stuff to the reader. Write the action. The excitement. You might well find that once you've got those really exciting stuff down, you don't need the rest of it that you're struggling with.

blacbird · May 7, 2018

Beginnings are hard to get right, right at the beginning, because you have nothing following to make the beginning fit. As lizmonster said, nothing says you have to begin your writing at the beginning. If you are thinking in terms of scenes, and know what you want some of those to be, write those. Good stories, like good movies, are often assembled from parts, and not necessarily constructed in linear order.

caw

Anna Spargo-Ryan · May 7, 2018

So many beginnings end (sorry) up cut from manuscripts. Write the crap ones, know they will either be gone or made better later, and move on to the next part.

And as others have said, there's no rule saying you must write scenes in order. Write whatever you like until you find a groove.

ReignaFTW · May 8, 2018

Like the others have said, best thing to do is write through it. Lay the words down, press forward, then come back and figure out whether to keep it or not. It'll be easier to analyze once the rest of your story takes shape.

blacbird · May 8, 2018

You can borrow a beginning I have used three or four times in my own writing:

(I need to figure out a beginning.)

Go from there.

caw

Jack Judah · May 8, 2018

Start with your inciting event. Then make a list of the things people will need to know in order to understand fully the nuance and context of said event. Then go back and write the preceding scenes with that list in mind. This is what finally got me out of a year-long rut of starting and discarding beginnings.

What Scenes Should I Write?

Questioner

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

lizmonster

Possibly A Mermaid Queen

Maggie Maxwell

Making Einstein cry since 1994

Elle.

DanielSTJ

The Wandering Bard

Old Hack

Such a nasty woman

blacbird

Anna Spargo-Ryan

Just pokin' about

ReignaFTW

blacbird

Jack Judah

Lost somewhere on the Nile