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In honor of NaNoWriMo, this month Fable and the Verbivore are talking about beginnings, middles, and endings.

Today, we're talking about ways to open and set up a story. The importance of drawing your reader in, engaging their interest, weaving the world of your story around them, and creating a connection to your characters and the situation they find themselves in.

We touch on many examples of story openings from books we've enjoyed, focusing on how they address four key elements:

• Create questions in the reader's mind

• Establish character

• Introduce setting

• Illuminate theme

But we also discuss types of openings and some of the things to consider when choosing how to enter your own story. For instance, should it begin with a jump into action, dialogue, description, narration, or touch of your character's voice? The opening line may come easily to you or it may take multiple rewrites to figure out what works best. But by not putting too much pressure to get it right up front, you allow it to unfold naturally as it needs to.

Towards the end of the episode, we briefly touch on embedding story setups and planting elements early on that will later payoff - referencing the old theater rule that Stephen King mentions in his book On Writing. "If there's a gun on the mantel in Act 1, it must go off in Act 3. The reverse is also true." We’ll revisit this again when we discuss endings.

We hope you enjoy this episode! Keep reading, writing, and putting your voice out there!

Into the woods,

Fable & The Verbivore

Notes:

In case you’re unfamiliar with NaNoWriMo, here is some information: https://nanowrimo.org/what-is-nanowrimo

Both Fable and the Verbivore mention that there’s a variety of ways to view and approach entering into a story. Here are some articles that we found helpful in preparation for this conversation:

• “How to Write a Good First Line” by Diane Callahan - Quotidian Writer

• Write Up Pro “4 Types of Story Openings to Grab Your Reader”

• Writers Digest “10 Ways to Start Your Story Better”

• Reedsy Blog “How to Start a Story: 11 Tips From Our Editors”

• LA Screenwriter “3 Principles of Story Setups and Payoffs”

• Masterclass “Tips and Examples of In Medias Res in Writing”

• Writers Online UK - “10 Good Ways To Start a Story”

• Daily Writing Tips “20 Great Opening Lines to Inspire the Start of Your Story”

The Verbivore referenced a quote from Stephen King’s “On Writing”. That full quote is: “If there's a gun on the mantel in Act 1, it must go off in Act 3. The reverse is also true." It’s an allusion to a dramatic principle called Chekhov's gun which speaks to story setups and payoffs. Here is some additional information:

• MasterClass “Writing 101: What Is Chekhov's Gun? Learn How to Use Chekhov's Gun In Your Writing”

Books Mentioned:

• Red Queen by Victoria Aveyard

• The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas

• This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab

• A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

• Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

• The Wrath and the Dawn by Renée Ahdieh

• The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins

• The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

• Fledgling by Octavia E. Butler

• The Maze Runner by James Dashner

• Little Women by Louise May Alcott

• The Magnolia Sword: A Ballad of Mulan by Sherry Thomas

• Uprooted by Naomi Novik

• The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

• The Secret History by Donna Tartt

• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King

Music from: https://filmmusic.io
’Friendly day’ by Kevin MacLeod (https://incompetech.com)
Licence: CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)