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My niece asked me why all my stories start with a character waking up
She's twelve and we were talking about a book she's writing for school. She pointed out that every prompt idea I gave her began that way, and said 'Uncle Morgan, that's boring, they should already be in the middle of something.' It made me realize I've been stuck in a rut since my own high school creative writing class. I haven't actually tried a new starting point in years. What's a better way to drop a reader right into the action?
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the_jamie13d ago
My buddy Jake ran into this exact thing when he was trying to write a short story for his girlfriend's birthday. He kept starting with the character rolling out of bed and making coffee. She finally told him, nobody cares about the coffee lol. So he just started the story with the character already running down a hallway with a gun in his hand, and she said it was way better. He told me it felt weird at first because he thought readers needed that slow start. But turns out you can just drop them in the middle of a conversation or a fight and they'll figure it out pretty fast.
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