Once again, discussing the beginning of your story, along with clichés

Author: Yang Chen(314)

I already introduced what you should watch out for when doing your story's introduction in previous articles. Still, people keep asking me for further advice, so I might as well add some additional pointers in this article.

The questions I've been asked have all sorts of topics, such as "Does the first three chapters of my novel need to have a cheat?", "Does the beginning of a modern story need to have a conflict in the beginning?", "Is it alright for me to write a suspenseful beginning for a xuanhuan story?" and so on. Actually, when you think about it carefully, all these questions are the same question at its core. And so, the answer to all these questions is the exact same.

Actually, no matter what type or genre of story you have, the beginning has two major responsibilities. The first is to introduce your story, and the second is to attract readers.

There's really nothing much that needs to be said about the first responsibility. Now then, the second responsibility of your beginning is what all authors need to think about. Every single theory, method, and technique begins from this point.

So, this type of question can actually be answered the same way every time – Is the beginning interesting? Thrilling? Will it attract readers?

If the answer is yes, then it's a good beginning. If the answer is no, then it's a bad beginning.

For example, if you're asking whether or not to have a cheat power appear in the first three chapters of your novel, we should analyze if the main element attracting readers to your novel is the cheat in question or not. If you don't have it in the first three chapters, will the beginning still attract readers? The answer should be obvious. In that case, we can come to a conclusion that it's not absolutely necessary to have a cheat in your first three chapters, as long as there's other elements that can attract readers to your story, your beginning should be perfectly fine. And if the main attraction of your novel is the cheat power, then using it in the first three chapters to attract readers is an acceptable solution as well.

To use another example question, the one regarding whether it's alright to have a suspenseful beginning for a xuanhuan story, we can answer it this way: "Is suspense what your readers are here for? Is the suspense sufficiently appealing to help retain readers?" If the answers to these questions are yes, then your beginning is perfectly fine.

All such questions about the beginning of your story can be answered in this fashion. We can all actually resolve our own doubts by asking ourselves.

Actually, there's so many possible beginnings for webnovels. You can use an extremely repetitive cliché, or you can try coming up with a brand-new type of beginning that nobody has ever used before. Of course, no matter what type of beginning you try, there's one huge prerequisite – it needs to be interesting.

Obviously, in order to fulfill the requirement of being interesting, the more unique your beginning is, the better. Still, please remember that you absolutely can't neglect the prerequisite of being interesting. You can't just try to make an original a beginning as possible; you must first ensure that your beginning is interesting to readers.

If you as an author lack the ability to come up with something original that is also interesting, or if you actually lack the ability to judge whether your own beginning is interesting or not, then no matter if it's "Having a cheat power in the first three chapters," "Starting off with a conflict right at the beginning," or "Chapter 1 – Breaking the engagement, Chapter 2 – Leveling up, Chapter 3 – Face slapping", these clichés and experiences become incredibly important.

These are all frameworks created by authors that came before us. These frameworks aren't meant to restrain our writing, and there's no need to follow these frameworks to the letter. These frameworks are just like training wheels that young children use when learning how to ride a bicycle. They can help us to ride steadily when we still don't know how to bike, but who still needs training wheels after we become older?

For these frameworks, or perhaps I should call them clichés, we should assess them logically without needing to worship them as divine or seeing them as eternal unchanging maxims. Nor is there a need for us to look down on clichés or loathe using them.

We should simply treat clichés as tools to be used if we wish it. If these clichés and experiences are useful to us, then we can try using them. If not, then just simply leave them aside.

I believe that should be the best writing mentality of all.