Am I starting in the wrong place?

K.A Adams · Oct 31, 2019

With NaNoWriMo starting tomorrow I decided that this year I would do it since I have never done it before and I'm always seeing posts for it in groups and people I follow on twitter, fb, tumblr ect. Now since this is my first year doing it I just kind of wanted to test the waters and just do a rewrite of a story I have written from start to finish instead of a brand new story. I begin the story in the past where my MC meets her love interest when he saves her from getting kidnapped but he gets arrested for being a thief, they're both young at that point in their life and my MC is the princess of the kingdom. Her father imprisons the LI and my MC beings him food and they start talking. Then after the scene closes its a few diary entries from my MC that sort of shows how they became friends, he trained her to fight and they fell in love until it gets to present day when the story begins with my MC training and late for a lunch with her grandmother. Am I starting in the wrong place? I feel uncertain about the dairy entries but wasn't sure how to go about showing how they became close growing up, any advice?

Bufty · Oct 31, 2019

You don't explicitly mention time-span or say they're still in love, but if they're still in love now - when apparently your story starts, why do I need to know in advance how they grew close while growing up?

Maggie Maxwell · Oct 31, 2019

I'd say start where the story starts and put the rest in as flashbacks or drizzled in dialogue as needed.

That said, it's NaNo. Do what you want that makes you write. Figuring out the rest is for December.

K.A Adams · Oct 31, 2019

It's an eight year time span, they're still in love even with complications along the way. Other things do happen in those eight years beside them growing close but it was mostly for those two but I do see what you mean.

KTC · Oct 31, 2019

I would say start where the story starts and do flashbacks to bring in the past.

quicklime · Oct 31, 2019

flashbacks and just plain asides....

"She looked at him again; he'd picked up a few wrinkles on his forehead, mostly from his stupid habit of making faces with his eyebrows arched to the sky, but he was basically the same boy who had won the prize goose at fifteen, the faire's youngest Riddlemaster, and given it to her. A few gray hairs at the temples, and maybe the boy had acquired the barest signs of a paunch over the years, but otherwise--the same."

whatever, but you don't need a full flashback and you don't need to make a story linear....they're all techniques and options at your disposal.

indianroads · Oct 31, 2019

I meditate on my story for a long time - getting to know my characters, hearing them talk, and getting a sense of the world they live in. In this process I wait for a clear vision of where the story starts - a place, time of day, who is there, the smell, the temperature - I make it as visceral as possible, then I start to write.

Ankari · Nov 1, 2019

Before you can ask where the story should begin, you need to ask where does the story end and what is the story.

From what you described, your story isn't about how the two met. It's background information, something that can be shared throughout the story. I don't want to make a definitive statement because of the lack of information.

As as aside, I'm of the school of that that flashbacks should be used sparingly. You can relate the intimacy you want to reveal through character interaction, or through character reflection.

Good luck.

Am I starting in the wrong place?

K.A Adams

Bufty

Where have the last ten years gone?

Maggie Maxwell

Making Einstein cry since 1994

K.A Adams

KTC

Stand in the Place Where You Live

quicklime

all out of fucks to give

indianroads

Wherever I go, there I am.

Ankari