Getting Started Writing a Novel

Our completely unscientific poll suggests that getting started is one of the biggest obstacles for novel writers (of course, there’s a bias towards procrastinators who are reading blogs about writing and completing polls rather than getting on with it, but we’ll gloss over that for now).

Now, ‘getting started’ could mean one of two things (or possibly others we haven’t thought of). It could be about getting the idea in the first place, it could be about getting a first draft out once you know what you want to write about.

Our experience is that most writers are bubbling over with ideas that are just dying to get out, so coming up with an idea in the first place is not usually a problem. However, if it is, then there are a few methods you can use to come up with your kernel, which can be expended into a premise and eventually  a first draft.

Ways to find inspiration for your novel:

One is to ‘fill out the boxes’ in our premise, including the major story elements of: character, situation, objective, opponent and disaster. If you think this might be for you, read the full article here.

Another is to look for inspiration in the world around you. This could be anything from reading the newspapers (and not just doing the Sudoku), people watching, reading movie synopses or watching real life documentaries. You can read more about these methods here.

Ways to get the first draft out

We’re kind of big on planning and using techniques to make something really difficult (writing a novel) a bit less difficult. To this end, we think the best way to get to a first draft is to work up to it bit by bit, starting with a premise, expanding that into an outline, threading in some  detail and ending up with quite a clear structure. Once you’ve got this structure, the first draft just flies out as all you have to worry about is prose.

We've written software to walk you through every stage of a novel,  planning and further.

However, if you don’t like to plan everything through first, that’s fine too. In that case there are a few things you can do to get started, from starting a few chapters in (often the pressure of writing the first line can be paralysing), visualising the scene in your mind and then describing it or thinking about to simply refusing to allow yourself to get up until you’ve written the first five hundred words. If you're really having trouble with your first draft, perhaps you should consider going the planning route...

 

In either case, the most important advice in our opinion is to make sure you don't get hung up on
details in the first draft - just thrash it out, however awful you think it is at the time. It’s never going to be perfect first time, it’s going to be rough and ready and it’s going to need a great deal of polishing, so don’t get hung up on this adjective or that order. Just get it out!

This idea is based on a technique described in Dwight Swain's amazing, fantastic book: Techniques of the selling writer, which is chock full of practical advice on writing selling fiction. We also owe a debt of gratitude to The Snowflake Guy, for bringing it to our attention...

Dedications out the way - let's get to it. So, what do we mean by the Action >> Reaction Cycle?

Well, when you write, you will usually have a mix of things that are happening around your protagonist (for the purpose of this article, we'll assume the protagonist is the point of view character in any given seen), and things that your protagonist is thinking and doing.

If you don't know any better, you will switch between these things randomly, putting down whatever 'feels' right. Many talented writers will naturally put things in the Action >> Reaction Cycle that I'm about to decscribe, but some of us benefit from learning the nuts and bolt of it in a more formal fashion.

Note - It should go without saying that any technique or tool that writers use, including the Action >> Reaction Cycle, are exactly that - techniques and tools. They are not laws. As a creative, you must decide for yourself when you will stick doggedly to these concepts and when you will deviate, because you know better. Just make sure you do know better.

The Action >> Reaction Cycle

Action

In one paragraph, you should have an outward description of the action. This should be completely detached from the characters point of view or opinion on the matter. FACT only. No bias based on the protagonist. This is easier said than done.

Reaction

Reaction can be split into three parts: Gut, Instinctive, Rational. Let's look at those in more detail.

Gut - this should be a visceral, bodily emotional response to the Action that's been observed. Something like a cold chill down the spine, a tightening of the throat or a twisting in the gut. It doesn't involve any movement or controlled thought.

Instinctive - This is still controlled by the body rather than the mind, but it will be more deliberate. It might be leaping back, or reaching for a gun. How useful this action is will depend on the character and how well they deal with the Action and their gut response to it.

Rational - Finally, now we've got through all the gut, instinctive stuff (which probably only took seconds, or less), we can get to the controlled part of things, where the character gets to express themselves. They may have a thought: "Not again. Oh no. Not again.", or they may carry out a controlled, deliberate action: "She raised the gun, aimed, and fired." Or both.

When you write, you should cycle your paragraphs between Action and Reaction. The Reaction paragraph does not have to include every part (gut, instinctive, rational) every time, in fact, it would get a bit weird if it did. But it should include at least one, and they should stay in the correct order.

An Example

We'll start with an example where it's done wrong, with all the elements mixed up and in the wrong order:


Lorelei hugged her legs remained fixed in place, control stolen from her body. So this was it. She was going end up just like all the others, she thought as she watched the figure at the other end of the beach walking towards her, slowly closing the distance. She felt gripped with a mixture of fear and desolation.

You may think that reads okay, or you may not. But either way, let's compare it to what happens if we rewrite it to follow the Action >> Reaction Cycle:

There was a figure at the other end of the beach, walking towards her.

Fear gripped Lorelei, stealing control of her body, so all she could do was remain fixed in place, still hugging her legs, watching helplessly as the figure closed the distance between them.  So this was it. She was going to end up just like the others.


In this example the first paragraph is only a single line, but it is an, external, indisputable fact. There's a figure, he's at the other end of the beach, he's walking towards her.


Next we have the Reaction, first the gut (fear gripping her), then the instinct (all she could do was remain fixed in place, watching helplessly, etc), and finally her rational thoughts about the matter (deciding she's about to meet her doom).

Hopefully you'll agree that the second version is much stronger, and  plunges into the story so it feels more real, much more so than the first one.

So if you've got a scene that you feel is somehow lacking immediacy or there's just something not quite right that you can't put your finger on, try hacking it up and rewriting while religiously following the Action >> Reaction Cycle, and you should find some impressive results.

The Novel Factory - Novel writing software

If you've found this article useful, then you might be interested in reading our Novel Writing Roadmap. And if you like that - then you might be tempted to download a free trial of The Novel Factory, which is a software programme we've developed to help writers learn their craft, especially aimed at new writers completing their first novel, but also useful for established novelists in organising their notes, locations, characters and scenes.

If you agree, don't agree or have any other comments on this article, I'd love to hear them. And I'd particularly love to see before and after examples of this technique in action.

Even if you’re telling the whole story from one character’s viewpoint, it’s a great idea to walk through the story from each character’s viewpoint.

This can highlight continuity errors, and also add dimensions to your characters.

For each character, make a note of the scenes they appear in, then walk through that list - ignoring the scenes they’re not in. Make sure their appearances make sense from their point of view, and then imagine what the character is doing while they’re not present in a scene.

This helps you avoid ‘teacher syndrome’ where pupils assume teachers only exist during school hours with the idea of them having lives of their own being quite unimaginable. By filling in the gaps in your character’s existence, you give them their own life and realistic motivations.

This can add flavour to your story, for example, outside of a story a character may have just had a fight with their partner, so when your lead turns up they’re in no mood to chat. This adds more realism and interest than every character your lead encounters being in a neutral mood.

Note - If you’re nifty with excel, and have followed the previous step you can create a new column for each character, mark the corresponding box that lines up with each scene, create a table, then filter by character to do this in a power-user type of way. But if you didn’t follow any of that, don’t worry about it – you can generate the same results by hand.

Read more about this character viewpoint technique here.

Ready for Step 11? Blocking is the last step before you are ready to write your first draft. 

 

So how do we make our settings come to life?

How well you can gather detail about your settings depends a lot on your constraints - time and money.

Ideally, you'll immerse yourself in each setting - including in each relevant time of day and season. 

However, this may not be practical (particularly if you're writing a steam punk novel), in which case your imagination will have to pick up the slack.

If you can go to the locations you're going to use as settings, then go - take copious amounts of photographs (which can easily be saved and kept track of with The Novel Factory Novel Software) make reams of notes about everything you can see, smell, taste, feel, hear. Take samples of sand, pebbles, dried leaves - whatever you can. Try to look at the place through the eyes of your characters - what would they notice? What would they ignore?

However, if you can't go there - you'll need to research - and lucky you, you live in the era of the Internet. Get online and find pictures, even videos - of places and buildings that are as close as possible to what you envisioned. Study the pictures and you're guaranteed to find more delicious detail in real life (or some artist's imagination) than you could have come up with on your own.

A quick exercise to prove this if you're so inclined:

Take ten minutes now and write a description of a sweet shop, without doing any research online - no cheating! You know one of those old ones where all the sweets are in jars. Go on, go right ahead and do that.

Done? Now go and spent ten minutes searching for images of these old style sweet shops. Keep the pictures somewhere handy. Now, constantly referring to the pictures, spend another ten minutes on a second description of the sweetshop.

Compare.

And if you like - post your results in the comments.

 

Draw maps and plans

It's hard to overstate how important it is to have floor plans detailing each of the places your characters visit.

Seeing exactly which rooms are adjoining; where the doors and windows are, where they lead and what can be seen through them; what furniture is where - really anchors your characters, rather than giving the impression they're drifting around the space. Having this information will add realistic detail to your story as you will see what in the environment the character can interact with, where they bump into each other and things, how they enter and leave.

 

List the senses

It's time to get analytic about the abstract. Prosaic though it may seem, go through each of your settings and make a list for all of the senses.

• What can you (or better, your point of view character) see?
• What can you smell?
• What can you taste?
• What can you feel?
• What can you hear?

Just make a list. You probably won't use everything on the list. You may use hardly any of it. But when you're writing your scene, you'll have this box of colours, ready to dip into without having to break your flow.

Next - advanced plotting - consistency and clarity

It's time to take a closer look at settings.

It's important to remember that settings aren't simply a stage for your puppets to walk about on - each setting is an opportunity to:

• build mood and atmosphere
• develop character
• foreshadow plot points

 

Building mood and atmosphere with settings

The house could gleam brightly with a fresh coat of whitewash; have aging, peeling, lead-heavy paint; or give the impression of a gaping skull with sightless windows as eyes and a door forever closing its mute mouth. The sea could roll heavily, recline in reflective tranquillity or froth with lively white horses.

If you're trying to build a sombre mood, make sure the park isn't filled with cheery colours, just because that's what was there the last time you went to the park. Make sure every word of description supports whatever mood or atmosphere you are trying to build in that scene.

 

Developing character with settings

How do your characters respond to their surroundings? This can give the reader a lot of information about your character without you having to say it outright.

For example, one character stuck overnight in a forest will build a bivouac, take a few slugs of whiskey and settle down with their heavy boots up on a stump. Another character might collapse into a weeping huddle, hysterically swatting at the creepy crawlies.

Of course it can be much more subtle than that - as much as what they notice and don't notice, what they touch, how they move around the area.

 

Foreshadowing plot points with settings

Every element of the settings you describe should be relevant, and have a justification for its inclusion.

For example, if you're describing someone's bedroom, not only should every item accurately reflect their character (see above), but it should also be relevant to this particular story. If they're going to reach for that bag of marbles to knock out the intruder in chapter 9, it'll be that much more satisfying if you mentioned them in passing in chapter 2.

The photographs in your characters house and room are an excellent opportunity to expose their character and history - just try not to get too heavy handed about it.

Read more about developing settings here.

The next article will explain how we can make our settings come to life.

The Novel Formula - A Novel Writing Method: Step Two

The Skeleton - aka. The Universal Storyline

Now we've got a basic premise, which means we've got the beginnings of a story. It's time to give it a few more bones, and see how it starts to take shape.

Luckily, we don't have to grope around in the dark, guessing at what elements we should include and in what order, to create a gripping and satisfactory story with a good beginning, middle and end. That's because there's already an established series of stages that the vast majority of all decent stories go through - The Universal Storyline

It's based on the Hero's Journey and the Monomyth, but adjusted to be more universal to all genres, rather than focused more on 'adventure'.

It goes something like this:

Overview of The Universal Storyline

Act 1

• Introduction to the protagonist's world
• Call to action
• Crossing the threshold

Act 2

• Mentor teaches the lead
• First challenge
• Temptation
• Dark moment

Act 3

• Final conflict
• Return home

This set of stages can be interpreted in a million different ways to create every story from The Lord of the Rings to The Da Vinci Code to Harry Potter.

Next time you're watching a movie or reading a book, look out for the stages and try to identify the ways in which the author has portrayed them.



Detail of the Universal Storyline

In order to create your own stages, you'll need to know a little bit more about each one, so here are brief summaries of each:

Act 1

• Introduction to the hero's world

You set the scene, introduce your character and their normal life, just in time for them to...

• Call to action

... be torn from it! Actually it's better if they're not torn, but have to commit to the decision themselves. In any case, the challenge is put forward. You can start building sympathy for your character by ensuring their decision is something the reader can identify with and / or respect.

• Crossing the threshold

In order to ensure your protagonist has the pressure on and therefore your readers are hooked into wondering how they'll ever get out of this mess, they should cross some kind of threshold that makes it difficult to get back to normal life. It could be a physical journey across land, the removal of allies, self inflicted isolation or becoming wanted but on the run.

Act 2

• Mentor teaches the hero

Readers want to see a character develop into someone who can overcome the odds. Everybody needs help sometimes.

• First challenge

Time to put your protagonist under pressure. It may be that they have a first encounter with the villain, or for a slower build, it could be the villain's cronies.

• Temptation

I can resist everything except temptation, said someone pithy. Add depth to your lead by giving them a challenge they have to find the strength of character to overcome.

• Dark moment

As you near the climax of your book, circumstances start piling up. Push your lead to the limits to the point they are questioning everything they know, and very nearly slip to the dark side. The closer they get to failing, the more nailbiting it will be. But in the end they pull through, which brings them to...

Act 3

• Final battle

The final battle! This is the climax of your story and you must pull out all the stops to make it great. We'll work on this in great detail later, looking at what makes a satisfying ending, so for now you should just have a loose idea of whether your hero succeeds or fails.

• Return home

Once your climax is completed all there is to do is tie up loose ends, will your lead live happily ever after? Do they return home or stay in their new place? Who is with them at the end?


Now, if you're excited about being given the secret formula to writing an engaging and satisfying story, go ahead and write a single sentence for each of the steps.

If you need a bit more help with this stage, click here for examples of the hero's journey in popular fiction.

Once you're ready - click here to go to the third step in the first novel writing guide.

...

The Novel Formula - A Novel Writing Method: Step One

The Backbone Sentence - aka. The Premise

Note: You may wish to read the Novel Formula Introduction if you haven't already.

This sentence is a bit like the question on an essay exam paper - you should keep referring back to it to make sure you're not wandering off the point. It will help keep you anchored and moving forward at the same time, helping to avoid meandering, wasteful scenes and chapters (and time!).

It will also help you work out if you actually have a story idea to begin with - or only a kernel. And if it turns out you do only have a kernel, it will help you turn it into something you can work with.

So, let's get started...

Every story should contain all five of the major story elements, which are:

• Character
• Situation
• Objective
• Opponent
• Disaster

Let's take a quick look at each of these story elements:

(If you're totally sure you already know what all of these things are, you can skip forward to Creating Your Premise - but you'd better be sure...)

The Major Story Elements

Character

Many people believe that every story is an attempt to understand the human condition. That counts for stories with animals as their leads too. Whether that's strictly true or not, your story isn't going to get anywhere without characters. If you're George RR Martin you can have 30 leads, each with fully fleshed out histories, characteristics and idiosyncrasies, but for now let's just stick with a single lead character. That doesn't mean there won't be more later, but it's early days. Pick one, and note the following about them:

• Name
• Age
• Nationality (this can be fictional)
• Profession

Character examples: John the Plumber (36, American), King Edvard Bearheart (52, English), Candy Collins (19, French, wannabe actress), Patches the Guinea Pig (2, Brazilian, pet)

Situation

This includes setting and external forces. Is your story set in a futuristic factory or a giant-bee infested rainforest? Or perhaps everything happens in a restrictive manor-house in the British countryside. What kind of world does your lead live in? Note the following (don't get too hung up on what each thing means - interpret it however you wish):

• Date
• Place

Situation examples: New York in 2050, Medieval England, Hollywood (current day), A terrible pet shop (current day)

Objective

Your lead must have an objective. People in real life don't always have clear objectives, but many people in real life would make boring stories. Good fictional leads always have desires and goals. What's yours'? Is it to become rich and famous? To save a family member? Perhaps they need to win that critical contract or want to wed Johnny Depp? Figure out what your character's story objective is - here are a few prompts to help:

• Selfish
• Benevolent
• Money
• Love
• Principle

Objective examples: save earth and the people from alien attack, bring peace to warring lands, become a star, find a good home

Opponent

Conflict. Imprint the word conflict on your brain. If you want to write a page-turner that's going to fly off the shelves, then your story must be jam-packed with conflict. Conflict builds tension, excitement interest. A lack of conflict is a big fat bore. There may be multiple opponents; note down at least one. Here are some examples of types of opponents:

• Person / people
• Organisation
• Force of nature

Opponent examples: aliens, ambitious, greedy Lords, disapproving family, the pet store owner

Disaster

You want your readers to care, right? You want them to be gripped, eyes racing across the sentences to find out if the lead makes it? What you need is a potential disaster hanging over their heads. This must be something unspeakably awful (relatively speaking is fine) that will happen if they don't avert disaster. What is the worst possible thing that could happen to your lead?

• Loss of something
• Threat to family
• Threat to the human race

Disaster examples: being made a scapegoat by the government and thrown in jail, declared incompetent by younger brother and deposed, has a disfiguring accident, gets lost in the city street.

Creating your premise

Hopefully now you will have some idea of each of the major elements of your story. Now we're going to bind them together into a single sentence which summarises the premise of your story.

(Remember that word and use it when telling people about your story in order to feel clever)

You're bright, so you'll have noticed that our examples knit together nicely to create four story backbones. Observe:

When aliens attack New York in the year 2050, can John the plumber save the human race before the traitorous government manage to turn him into a scapegoat for the whole disaster?

Deep in medieval England, can King Edvard Bearheart bring peace to warring, greedy Lords, while his jealous younger brother is plotting to have him declared incompetent and overthrown?

The bright lights of Hollywood find Candy Collins seeking her way to stardom, but will she be defeated by her meddling disapproving family and a disastrous accident that threatens to leave her disfigured?

Trapped in a horrible petshop, Patches the Guinea Pig plots his escape, but the pet store owner isn't going to let him go easily - and how will he find a good home when he ends up lost on the city streets?

Note that each of these is a question, and that each roughly follows this pattern:

Situation > Character > Goal > Opponent > Disaster

Now write your backbone sentence using your major story elements and this format.

Ready for Step Two? Click here!

...

1. Too many adverbs

Overuse of adverbs will scream amateur louder than anything else. Many creative writing tutors say any use at all is overuse.

In case you don't know, adverbs are words that modify a verb to describe the way the action is done. If you don't know what modify means, you should probably consider switching to photography.  Adverbs  often end in 'ly'.

Examples:

He said, knowingly.
She dropped the knife, meaningfully.

The problem with adverbs is that they are often redundant, re-stating something that is obvious from the dialogue or verb. And if it's not obvious in the dialogue or verb - why isn't it?
Adverbs are also a key indicator for weak verbs. You can think of the ly as a crutch.

For example:

He walked weakly to the door

Might be replaced by:

He stumbled to the door

Adverbs are often a marker of lazy description, and showing, not telling
(see next mistake).

Further reading:

http://www.users.qwest.net/~yarnspnr/writing/adverbs/adverbs.htm

2. Telling not showing

If you haven't heard this yet, brace yourself. You'll be sick of it within months. It's very common for new writers to try to explain things to their readers, as a kind of omnipotent narrator, rather than allowing the reader to experience everything themselves through the protagonist's senses.
For example, if you tell me that:

Martin Cousins was furious and so he went into the shed to calm down.

I'll be yawning before you get to the next sentence. So what? And anyway, so you say.
However, if you say that:

Martin slammed the back door and stormed down to the shed. He punched the wooden door aside and kicked it shut behind him. He waited in the darkness,  forcing himself to take a few slow, deep breaths as the dust settled. 

Here the point is made vividly and at no point did you need to be told Martin was angry. You can feel it. We can observe the cold, hard facts with our own eyes.
Further reading:

http://www.writing-world.com/basics/dawn02.shtml

3. Overly formal dialogue

The main problem with natural dialogue in fiction is that it's nothing like natural dialogue in real life. If an author did put genuinely genuine sounding dialogue into their work, readers would be bored silly, because normal speech is full of half finished sentences, interruption, meandering and assumed knowledge.

So fictional dialogue needs to be much more succinct, with clear direction and eloquence, but to still give the impression of being natural.

One tip to make speech sound less formal is to use fillers (well, umm, I guess), pauses, interruptions and contractions (do not = don't, I will = I'll).

Further reading:

http://www.sfwriter.com/ow08.htm

4. As you know, Bob

This is the common phenomena of writers using a character to explain a plot point to another character who already knows it.

To take an unlikely example - let's say knowing the ingredients of the common Screwdriver cocktail is critical to the story. The amateur writer might decide to have two barmen, one of whom says something along the lines of:

'Well, as you know Nick, a screwdriver is a mix of vodka and orange juice.'

Clearly,  Nick already knows it. Why is his colleague telling him something so obvious? This just doesn't ring true, and your characters are suddenly mannequins dancing to your plot rather than real people the reader cares about. It's just a sneaky way of telling (see above).

Characters should never say anything that the person they're talking to obviously knows already. This isn't to say a character can never explain a plot point, just make sure they are telling it to someone who genuinely wants and needs to know.

Further reading:

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2010/09/seven-keys-to-writing-good-dialogue.html

5. Lack of Conflict

Put simply, if there's no conflict, there's no story, and by conflict, we don't mean violence. Take these two alternatives:

Boy meets girl, they fall in love and live happily ever after.
Boys meets girl, girl despises boy, girl gets a terminal illness, boy searches the world for a cure to save girl and win her love.

If you could ask a single question about either of these premises, what would it be?

Would it be 'In number one, what precise way did they live happily ever after?' or would it be 'In number two, does the boy find a cure of not?'

Knock me down with a feather if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing it's going to be the second, which means you're engaged and intrigued. That's because there's conflict.


Further reading:

http://menwithpens.ca/fiction-writing-conflicts-and-characters/
http://www.fictionfactor.com/articles/conflict.html

6. Ego-writing

Lots of people decide to write based on actual experiences because  they realise that real life is stranger and infinitely more fascinating and complex than anything a single human mind could dream up. This is all well and good.

What is not well and good, is thinking that your life is interesting enough to be committed to paper and inflicted upon innocent readers. Unless your life has involved bringing down a massive corporation, starting a revolution, overcoming a debilitating disability to spectacular effect or saving a boatload of people - it's unlikely to be interesting enough to be worthy of novelisation.

The same kind of principle applies to peppering your work with your opinion.

As the great William Strunk, Jr. says:
'To air one's views gratuitously, is to imply that the demand for them is brisk.'

7. Procrastination

This is a big one. In fact, if you're reading this, there's a good chance you're procrastinating now.
Procrastination is a huge enemy to success, as you can hardly get to the exciting stage of having your novel rejected if you haven't even written it yet.

Ultimately, the only answer to procrastination is will power and inner strength - however, there are plenty of tips and tricks to help overcome it.

Two favourite 'reasons' and answers:

'I'm not inspired' - If you want to be a writer, it's your job to be inspired. If you have to sit around staring at the wall, waiting for the muse to belly dance in front of your nose, you'll starve long before your first draft is even begun.

'I don't know how to get started' - Make and follow a plan (such as the Snowflake method) which has small, achievable goals.

Further reading (not without irony):

http://the90daynovel.com/writing-your-first-novel-end-procrastination-now
http://www.creative-writing-now.com/writers-block.html

8. Meandering Plot

Stories need to go somewhere. Unless you're CS Lewis, you're unlikely to be able to get away with having your character randomly wandering around an abstract world, encountering characters that apparently have no relation to each other.

Your protagonist needs to have a goal, and while that can change over time, there needs to be some consistency. Your reader wants to root for your characters and feel clever if they guess what's coming. If you randomly change direction and the first five chapters describe a man trying to clear his wife's name when she's accused of murder, but then by chapter seven he's trekking through the rainforest and the story ends with him bringing down a terrorist plot, your readers are going to feel cheated. And headachy.

If you're having trouble getting started or want a digital tutor to guide you through your first novel - check click here.

Slow beginnings and how to avoid them.

First draft:

Johnny woke up early. It was a school day so he quickly dressed. He was just a normal kid; he lived in Dayton Ohio, went to high school and had a grade average that was, well, average. On the way down to breakfast he bumped into his little sister, Anne. They said good morning, like they always did, and went into the kitchen.

Ok. Here the story hasn't started yet. Nothing is happening. Obviously, this is an extreeeeeeemly boring example - you'd be surprised how often this kind of thing gets written.

Right - so, action? Right? Let's start at the action.

Second Draft:

The punch landed on Mike's face like a hammer. He swung wildly into the wall and fell to his knees. The blows kept raining down on him from all sides while he struggled to regain his feet. Covering his face with his arms he managed to pull himself up and get a foot under like a sprinter on the blocks. They were kicking him now; bashing boots into his shoulder and body. He tensed, waiting for his chance. Then, with a rush, he was off and running.

Ok, stuff is happening. But do we care? Not really. There's no context here. There's action, but no conflict. It's just a guy getting his ass kicked. I've seen stories that go on like this for three or four pages and I still had no idea what was going on (which is quite remarkable, as I wrote them myself).

If you've got a particularly strong writing voice you may be able to carry a reader's attention through one of these kinds of beginnings. For most of us though, it pays to make sure we start with some conflict.

Third Draft:

Vincent couldn't afford to be late for a third time this week; Mr Davis would kill him. He drove as fast as he dared, balancing the risk with the dread of losing his job. Going back to living in mother's basement just didn't appeal. The light was just turning red as he flew across the intersection of 12th and Main. He didn't spot the Police Prowler in the nearside lane until it pulled out into the road behind him.

Conflict requires establishing four things:

• · A character we can identify with
• · Something that character wants
• · Something that stops her getting it
• · The consequence of failure

Read your first paragraph. Have you got conflict? If not, why not?

Avoid slow beginnings by using the Novel Factory to kickstart your novel! Find out more about its glorious features here.