Hi friends! I’m continuing my series, Ask the Author. Feel free to send your questions through the contact form and yours might end up on my blog. Don’t forget to check out my questions for you at the end.
Where do I start my story?
 
I always end up writing more than I keep. Usually what happens is I write in a lot of unnecessary background, about a chapter or two, so that I have a chance to get to know my characters and the storyline a little more intimately. However, when I go back to edit, I have to ask myself where does the story actually begin? Where is it that my main character faces the incident that is going to send them on their “quest” to achieve their goal? In a mystery, you usually start with the crime happening or having just happened off-screen. Oftentimes, you start the story as the amateur sleuths are about to discover the crime has occurred. In a romance, it is often around the first time the characters meet, or if they already know each other, during the something that proceeds them being forced to be together more often than they would have been otherwise. 
 
When you start with too much background information, that is called an info dump. As a writer, we are told by those older and wiser than us that readers need that background information sprinkled in throughout the story. Readers are invested when they have questions they want to be answered. The character screams when she sees a picture of a snake. The reader might wonder, why is the main character deathly afraid of snakes? Later on, they find out an incident where someone dropped a pet snake on her that bit her… maybe even the hero if they were friends or enemies early on when they were kids. It all depends on how you want to build your story out and how you want the character to change over the course of the story.
 
Bottom line is, don’t be afraid to delete words from your story. Sometimes you need to write it just for the sake of you as the author. Once you have that solid in your head, you can reevaluate your story for where the READER needs you to start your story. If it makes you feel better, you can cut and paste those lost words into a separate document labeled deleted scenes or scenes to use later. You may never look at those words again, but you will always have them. I promise you, a lot more writers than you think do this. Many of has have files and files of such documents.

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