Grabbing an Agent's Attention: How do you start your story?

 Fire update: Our family is still on standby evacuation. The heroic fire crews have made huge strides in fighting the Waldo Canyon Fire. Hopefully the wind here in the mountains will not complicate things. If you're interested, here's a simulated video fly-through of the fire. It starts in my town and flies down through the fire area.

My first manuscript began with a scene of an orphan girl and her encounter with a peddler. It started kind of slowly, and culminated in a violent end. As a novice writer, I read that first chapters were important for grabbing an agent or editor's attention. I didn't think my first chapter was up to snuff (despite the fact it placed in a contest), so I changed it.

My new first chapter had my orphan running from a group of bandits. She's terrified, and has to fight for her life. Full of action, and emotion, I felt sure it was better.

It wasn't. Why?

Because even though I dropped the reader into a life-or-death situation, I didn't give the reader a chance to connect with my character. They didn't care what happened to her, so even though the situation was compelling, the reader's emotions weren't involved.

Kristin Nelson's recent blog post explained this well. I confused an action scene with an active scene. I thought my original slow start wasn't enough, and that I had to have action from the first sentence. Not true. Read through Nelson's post to see what the difference really is.

So, I got thinking about novel beginnings, and what advice others had. Here's a sampling of what I found:

Though it's for short stories, this post lists seven types of story openings, and why you might choose one over another.

Fiction Notes uses actual novel openings to come up with ten common ways to open a novel.

Helium collected a nice list of blog posts on how to write an excellent first chapter.

And two sites with great first chapter advice: Terrible Minds and Story Openings by Theresa Rizzo.

So I've decided to stick with my original first chapter. Once my readers are invested in my character, I can throw her into all kinds of situations. First of all, my job is to connect my readers to my characters.

How about you? What kind of first chapter have you written? Is it more active or action oriented? Have you made changes to it as you've learned more about the craft of writing?

What's a writer to think about the #HungerGames?

The group dressed up and headed to the premiere.

My house is unnaturally quiet. It's the first official day of Spring Break, and I have extra teens in the house besides my own four. Yet no one's stirring.

Why?

They all attended the midnight showing of the Hunger Games, based on the bestselling books by Suzanne Collins. If you haven't heard about the movie by now (and there will be several sequels), it's time to understand what the hype is about. After all, you do want your own books to be made into movies, right?

What is it that made Collins' books so compelling? I have a couple of opinions.

The writing is good. Even the most fantastic idea will fall flat if the execution is not there. Collins is not a debut author, and spent years writing fiction and for television. Though her novels are written in present tense, which not all readers enjoy, you'll be surprised how you don't notice it because you're pulled in by the characters. Though it's a young adult book, adults have caught the fever and devoured the series. If you haven't, you should. All in the name of writerly research, of course.

She employs constant conflict. Collins not only fills her novels with nonstop action, but the characters each have complex inner and outer conflict. For a fantastic analysis of how the conflict is used to its best advantage, check out Randy Ingermanson's article Characters in Conflict. I guarantee reading it will improve your manuscript.

She takes advantage of screenwriting techniques. Collins has written for children's television for over twenty years. That kind of long-term experience brings huge benefits for novel-writers. Making use of screenwriting techniques helps to pull your reader along, instead of letting the story meander. When it came time for the screenplay to be written, Collins wrote the first draft herself, and collaborated on the further evolutions. For more information on screenwriting techniques, check out the free plot tools from Save the Cat.

I'm sure there are many other opinions of what Collins did right. What's your opinion?

Midnight madness over the Hunger Games

Guest Post: Characters in Conflict, by Randy Ingermanson

This article by writing teacher Randy 

Ingermanson may very well revolutionize 

the plot of your novel. Read all the way 

through to discover how to make your 

fiction as gripping as a NYT bestseller.

Creating: Nothing is More Important Than...

Long ago when I began learning to write, I 

picked up this handy definition of fiction:

Fiction is "characters in conflict."

That's a good rule of thumb, and yet it isn't 

the whole truth, nor is it always strictly true. 

Let me give you a couple of counterexamples:

Imagine a novel about two thugs, each trying to 

kill the other. These thugs are mindless brutes. 

Neither one much cares about anything. Neither 

one even cares whether he himself lives or dies.

Therefore, neither does the author. Therefore, neither does the reader. The entire story is 

nothing but pointless violence.

Are there "characters in conflict" in this story? Yes.

Is this fiction? No.

This is not the sort of story anyone would want to read. Having "characters in conflict" 

is not enough.

Imagine a second novel about a lone character, the last survivor of an ill-fated run 

to the South Pole in 1901. Our hero's goal is to make it home alive, bringing important 

scientific data gathered along the way. But lugging those rocks slows him down and 

makes it far more difficult to survive.

There's only one character in this story, so we don't exactly have "characters (plural) 

in conflict."

But is this fiction? Yes, and it could make a gripping tale. (It would be similar in spirit 

to the real-life Scott expedition of 1911, which had no survivors.)

Clearly, "characters in conflict" is not even necessary.

So the old definition of fiction as "characters in conflict" seems to need a little revision.

What is fiction, really?

I've been thinking about this lately and my conclusion is that a better definition of 

fiction is "values in conflict."

I define a "value" as a "core truth" for a character, which can be phrased in this form:

"Nothing is more important than ________."

A "value" is any word or phrase your character would use to fill in the blank. Most 

characters will have several values. Good characters will have several conflicting values.

In the first counterexample I gave above, neither of the thugs have any values that 

your reader can identify with. Most characters in most novels could at least say, "Nothing 

is more important than survival." But the two thugs in question lack even that basic value.

No values. No story. It's that simple.

In the second counterexample, our hero is all alone in his world, but he has two powerful 

values:

* "Nothing is nore important than survival."

* "Nothing is more important than scientific discovery."

These values are at odds with each other. The character can dump his load of rocks and 

improve his chances of getting home alive. Or he can risk his life for the sake of science. 

When the going gets rough, which will he choose?

Fiction is about making hard choices between conflicting values.

We should note that one particular value, "Nothing is more important than survival," 

is practically universal. Virtually all characters in fiction have this value. Virtually 

all readers have it too.

Deep fiction comes when a character has one or more values that rival the survival instinct.

At a recent conference, I analyzed THE HUNGER GAMES, by Suzanne Collins, to 

see what made it work. I found that the strength of conflict between the values of the 

main characters drove the novel.

Here's a quick summary of the story:

A 16-year-old girl, Katniss Everdeen, volunteers to take her sister's place in an arena 

where 24 teens will battle each other to the death. One of the other competitors, Peeta 

Mellark, has been secretly in love with Katniss since they were five years old.

THE HUNGER GAMES is a deep and powerful story. The reason is very simple. Each 

of the two main characters has three values that are in conflict.

Let's look at Katniss's central values:

* "Nothing is more important than survival."

* "Nothing is more important than my sister."

* "Nothing is more important than avoiding love, because the more people you love, 

the more you have to lose."

Each of these values is in conflict with the other two. Katniss decides early in the story 

that she values her sister more than her own survival.

The ongoing conflict in the story comes as she feels a growing attraction to Peeta. Can

she dare to return his love, when she knows with certainty that they can't both survive 

the arena?

Likewise, Peeta has three central values:

* "Nothing is more important than survival."

* "Nothing is more important than protecting Katniss."

* "Nothing is more important than being true to who you are."

For Peeta, these values are in massive conflict.

Like Katniss, he decides early in the story that his survival is the least important of his 

three main values. He goes into the arena planning to sacrifice himself to keep Katniss alive.

The problem for Peeta is that he's a genuinely good, decent, and caring person. In the 

arena, it won't be enough for him to fight merely to protect Katniss. Defense alone won't 

save her. If Katniss is to live, the other 22 must die.

To save the girl he loves, Peeta is going to have to kill. He must steel himself to be ruthless. 

To be somebody he is not. To violate his identity and therefore to trample one of his primary 

values. Can he do that?

There's a reason THE HUNGER GAMES works so well with readers. The novel is packed 

full of value-conflicts. Hard choices. Moral dilemmas.

If you've read THE HUNGER GAMES, think about some of the other principal characters:

Katniss and Peeta have a coach, a drunkard named Haymitch. What are Haymitch's values 

and how are they in conflict?

Katniss is lucky to get an amazing stylist who deeply cares about her, Cinna. What are 

Cinna's conflicting values?

There's a massive brute named Cato in the Games who is obviously the guy to beat. 

Does Cato have values? Can you guess what they must be? How do they create conflict 

for him -- and for Katniss and Peeta?

Values are critical to great fiction because values determine what your characters do. 

Values make your characters' actions believable. Conflicting values make your characters' 

actions unpredictable.

So how about that novel you're working on? Is it ripping your heart out because 

each one of the central characters has to make an impossible choice between two values?

If so, what are those values?

If not, then it might be time to change your game plan. Look into your characters.

Push them against the wall and make them fill in the sentence, "Nothing is more 

important than _________."

Take what they tell you and run with it.

For the novelist, nothing is more important than values in conflict.

Nothing.

Award-winning novelist Randy Ingermanson, "the
Snowflake Guy," publishes the Advanced Fiction Writing
E-zine, with more than 28,000 readers, every month. If
you want to learn the craft and marketing of fiction,
AND make your writing more valuable to editors, AND
have FUN doing it, visit http://www.AdvancedFictionWriting.com.

Download your free Special Report on Tiger Marketing
and get a free 5-Day Course in How To Publish a Novel.

Did you just have a light-bulb moment? I sure did. My NaNoWriMo novel 

will be far stronger having applied Randy's ideas. How about you?