When Blogs the Writer!
As a kid, I read whatever comics I could get my hands on. Many had titles like "When Strikes the Monster!" or "When Falls the Hero!" I thought these titles were extremely sophisticated. This isn't a post about titles, though.
Instead, it's about timing. One piece of advice many authors get is to start the story as close to the start of the action as possible. Often, though, before you can have the monster show up or the lightning strike or (for that matter) the winning lottery ticket found, you need to set up the protagonist's situation so that readers care about their good or bad luck. So try foreshadowing. It might be in the book's title, or the chapter's. The protagonist is giddy with joy (before their fall) or numbed with despair (before their win.)
Something's coming at your protagonist, something potentially more devastating than a bison stampede: your plot. If the book's about a flood, you don't need to start with the dam's breaking. You can begin with a raindrop on roses. But it helps if the title is "Flood."
Instead, it's about timing. One piece of advice many authors get is to start the story as close to the start of the action as possible. Often, though, before you can have the monster show up or the lightning strike or (for that matter) the winning lottery ticket found, you need to set up the protagonist's situation so that readers care about their good or bad luck. So try foreshadowing. It might be in the book's title, or the chapter's. The protagonist is giddy with joy (before their fall) or numbed with despair (before their win.)
Something's coming at your protagonist, something potentially more devastating than a bison stampede: your plot. If the book's about a flood, you don't need to start with the dam's breaking. You can begin with a raindrop on roses. But it helps if the title is "Flood."
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