Writing.Com General Discussion

One thing about the bewginning of a story is that there needs to be at least something there that is going to keep the reader interested. If you have your MC walking around in the morning right after waking up and bruashing his/her teeth or any number of other mundane things, chances are the reader is going to get bored. That would be why a lot of folks say that a story should begin with action. Action, however, can take many different forms. There is also a big difference in starting a story with mundane things, and starting it with BORING things.

One of the biggest no nos is to start off your story with an info dump about the world or the character. That applies to ANY part of a book/story, but most of all the beginning.

As far as flashbacks...if you are going to use them, make damn sure that they serve the purpose of moving the story forward and use them sparingly.