Help with the first chapter?

-I'm writing a fantasy novel, I've already wrote my first draft, but I wasn't happy with the beginning, so I wanted to re-write it, but I'm not sure how to. I don't know if I should start straight into the action, or have a prologue with a lot of action that will make sense to the reader later on. OR start with the main character's normal everyday life before all this happens to her, or should I start with her as a small child when strange things started happening to her?

It originally started with a party, but when I re-read it, it didn't suit the characters or the way that I wanted them to act or show their personalities well... it also sounded way too teeny, and I'm trying to steer away from that audience in a way.

Any ideas? Which way do you prefer books to start? Why is the start the most difficult?You play DnD, or at least did, or a variant. The use of "party" is a giveaway.



To answer your question, it depends on what genre of fantasy you're writing, and who your intended audience is. You writing needs to capture the audience well, and the reader needs to form a bond with the characters. If you're writing "combat" fantasy, eg. David Gemmel, you can start off with a prologue with a brief brutal/exiting action scene, and then jump backwards in time, showing the slow develpoment of characters. You could show the characters in thier ordinary lives at the start, but that can get boring if badly written. Few authors can get it right. David Eddings is a good example, in the Belgariad he can take 100 pages to do nothing, and still keep you reading as his characters are so engaging, If you're writing comic fantasy, anything goes, so I won't go there.



My advice is read the big names' "how we wrote it" books, for example "The Rivan Codex", by David and Leigh Eddings, and "The World of The Wheel of Time" by Robert Jordan, and see how they got into characterization and world building. In fantasy that is VERY important. Anyone can write a DnD / Tolkien clone novel, but true greatness shows when you can flesh out you character, show thier development, and engage the reader with a unique world, that's well thought out. For another example of a good world/character fantasy see the "Black Jewels" trilogy by Anne Bishop.



A common adage in fantasy writing is that you need to grab the reader by page 100, but frankly, if you lose them on page 1 it's lost, so take your time. John Connely gave me some good advice: "There are no great writers, only good rewriters." Polish, polish, polish.



And get someone who isn't hungry for your approval to read it, and rip it apart. then fix it. then do it again.



Fantasy is rtaditionally read by nerds, and we are a very critical culture.Characters everyday life first|||Maybe you not ment to write Fantasy Novel....!!! Try, little kids story....!!!|||As a fellow writer, I have realized that writing is hard when you don't know where your story is going. You need to figure that out first. First write out the main story, them work out the details. If you know what's going to happen where and how, you'll find the start becomes real obvious.



And another piece of advice, regardless of how you start; try not to add any scenes that have no function or significance... Don't add a party because it looks cool: add a party only if the partly is somehow useful to the story.