Blast off!

The problem with writing a novel...

OK, there are a lot of problems. Why do we torture ourselves? Writers and Navy Seals are the only people that choose a career specifically because it's hard. Writers and Navy Seals. Yeah, let's go with that.

Back to the beginning. And that, incidentally, is the problem I want to address. Beginnings.

Novel writers have entire worlds spinning in their heads. These worlds threaten to spin off their axes and collide, but that's another problem. Every story needs a starting point, but deciding where that will be is a dilemma of galactic proportions. You could be like Dickens and start with the character's birth, but that leaves your story orbiting 300 miles above earth.

My first novel is in the publishing process, and book number two is almost finished. Reading through the variety of writers' blogs and digest articles that I collect, I was encouraged to go back and revisit the opening.

Some openings to avoid include the character evaluating herself in the mirror, waking up with the alarm buzzing, or worse, opening with the alarm buzzing and waking from a dream. Writer's Digest also puts opening with dialogue in this list, but, interestingly, lifeofastoryteller disagrees.

What's a girl to do?

Ask for help, that's what!

A short summary: William arrives in Colonial Pennsylvania from Scotland to help his cousin on the farm. Cousin George has misrepresented the situation, and in fact he has all but abandoned his family on the frontier to start a trading post, and William will be head of house for an invalid mother and five sisters, at a time when conflict between settlers and Indians is about to explode into war.

That said, which opening would you choose? The Character-focused beginning or the Dialogue?

Character William Douglas was not a man to complain, but as he trudged behind Henry Wilson’s pack mules, he wondered if coming to America was, in fact, a mistake.

OR

Dialogue “A man of means and a successful man are two different things,” Grandfather said, “and a good man is in a separate category entirely.” William Douglas nodded at Alastair Makenzie’s wisdom, but he didn’t claim to fully understand. “Isn’t a man of means also successful? And a successful man is, by definition, financially stable.” Alastair sucked his pipe and said nothing.

The first line can take you to the moon and beyond, or trap the story in the atmosphere. I welcome the feedback!