Opening Your Story Strongly

Opening a story and the first act (Plot Whisperer method)

Rule for using this skill: These tips add to your answer; they do not replace it. Always give your full general answer on the user's question first, drawing on everything you normally know about openings, first acts and drafting. Then work in the tips below wherever they apply. Do not drop standard advice because it is not listed here, and do not force in tips that don't fit the question.

Prerequisites before leaving the beginning

• Have the four energetic markers visualized, written, or charted on the plot planner.
• Have the protagonist's goal and reasons, fears, flaws, strengths, and the "only your protagonist can do this" element settled.
• Have a list of themes and details, plus antagonists whose goals directly oppose the protagonist's.
• Re-read the protagonist's "Fears" entry in the character profile and revise it with what you now know about her.
• Re-read the antagonist list and ask whether each antagonist is used to maximum effect. The protagonist senses these forces lining up, and that sense drives her reluctance to cross into the middle.

Where the story should begin

• The beginning must foreshadow the end ("The end is in the beginning," T. S. Eliot). You cannot fully know the right opening until you know the climax.
• If unsure where to start, begin anywhere and write a complete draft through the climax. Then revise the opening so it sets up the ending as both inevitable and surprising.
• Lingering in the first quarter for a long time is usually fear, not craft. Diagnose the resistance before rewriting the opening yet again.

Writer's resistance (profile work)

• Review the Fears entry in your own writer's profile and update it.
• Review your own list of antagonists (procrastination, distractions, the internal critic) and treat them as teachers.
• Resolve real-life distractions quickly as story tension rises.
• The internal critic acts up especially at major thresholds. Respond by thanking yourself for what is written, restating your goals, committing to finish the draft, and sealing it with a conscious "burn the bridges" act.
• Don't go back and rework old territory at a threshold. Get the words down first and revise later.

Writing the threshold crossing (end of the beginning)

• The threshold marks the move from the ordinary world into the exotic world (physical place or psychological state). It usually falls at the end of the first quarter.
• Thresholds can be portals, bridges, forests, storms, journeys, or a family or character being forced into the truck. They can take a moment or a long stretch.
• Make the threshold guardian match the threshold's importance. It can be a character, nature, a machine, society, or a false belief. It always carries at least a touch of fear.
• The barrier can be the threshold itself, such as a door the wrong size or a hidden gate. Add a ticking clock to build reader worry.
• Treat the threshold as an anticipatory gap after the character reacts to one dramatic action and before the next looms. Anticipation creates emotion, and emotion creates reader participation.
• Build anticipation with a sequence of omens or symbols pointing at the new world (e.g., a bird, then dolphins) rather than jumping straight in.
• At the threshold the story makes the decision: the protagonist cannot go back. Alternatives are staying stuck or a twist that sends her somewhere unexpected.
• Dramatize or summarize according to the importance of the scene she is entering.
  • A routine door (coming home from work) gets a line of transition.
  • A point-of-no-return crossing (a stalker waits and bridges burn) is shown moment by moment in scene.
• Not every literal door is a plot threshold.
• The protagonist's goal may carry over or be refined by what the threshold signs reveal. State the new or refined goal as she enters the middle.

Plot planner: the beginning section

1. Purge extraneous notes and tidy the workspace.
2. Hang the plot planner where you pass it daily. Keep colored sticky notes and pens nearby.
3. Fill in the beginning section from the first scene through the last scene of the beginning.
4. Use one sticky color for each of three strands: character emotional development plot, dramatic action plot, and thematic elements. Do this for each scene.
5. Place scenes where an antagonist controls the protagonist above the line. Write the antagonist's external action on the dramatic action color, and its effect on the protagonist on the emotional development color.
6. Place scenes where the protagonist is in charge, safe, or calm below the line. They slow the story.
7. Stand back and assess the flow of energy between protagonist and antagonists across all scenes. Judge where it surges and the overall intensity level.

Draft-schedule calendar

1. Buy a calendar for the year and mark the date you will finish this draft.
2. Count the pages still needed to reach the end and multiply by 250 words per page.
3. Divide by the number of writing days between today and the goal date.
4. Work backward on the calendar to find the daily word count and session length. Expect to give up an hour of sleep or some commitments.
5. Write the writing days and times in pen.

Hand-off to the middle (what comes right after the first act)

• Early in the middle, the energy line on the planner often flattens while the exotic world is developed.
• Place the recommitment scene exactly in the middle of the middle. It is the second energetic marker. The protagonist recommits when she most wants to run. Things then get worse, not better.
• After recommitment, the planner line should climb steadily. Put scenes building to the crisis above the line, with the antagonist holding the power.
• Tools for deepening conflict in the middle (use as needed at scene and story level): conspiracy, authority, aggression, deception, rescue, mistaken identity, false affection, criminal action, suspicion, dishonor.
• Flaws only introduced in the beginning should be shown at full scope in the middle. Controlling characters go to greater lengths, and fearful ones show how deep the fear runs.