Confession time: I put more books down than I actually read.

Personally, if I'm not intrigued by the first few paragraphs in a chapter then I exit. I need to be captivated by an author's beginning; engrossed by their technique in which they string words together. I'm not sure how everyone else on Wattpad decides to pick which stories to read, but to guarantee an audience, I firmly believe that you as an author, should craft a SUPERFUCKINGDOPE beginning.

But how?

There are several ways in which you can start your story, and even cliche methods exist. But the important part, is to write something so awesome, that even a cliche start can garner readers from the get-go.

✖ CHARACTER INTRODUCTION.

One way to open up your story, is to introduce your protagonist. There's a cliche approach which you should avoid at all times, and then there's a simple yet effective technique. DO NOT, under any circumstances, introduce your character by telling the audience who they are. I will dive more into Protagonist Introductions in the next chapter but for now I'll tell you this: sell your main character.

What I mean by "selling your main character" is not by starting the scene with him/her being trafficked (though that'd be a fucking crazy beginning), but by introducing them in a way that captivates your audience. I've previously mentioned that the protagonist is the driver of a car, taking it on a journey.

Pimp them out.

Show the audience why this character is worth rooting for; worth being part of their journey. Proceed with caution though. DO NOT list out why your main character is fucking dope. You have to SHOW the audience through action and dialogue why he/she/they are an excellent human.

↳ NO-NO: Beauty rest didn't work on me because I needed a miracle. Even though my blonde hair seemed to be in perfect tousled waves when I woke up, I still felt ugly. Maybe it was because I'm fat even though all I do is wear crop tops and short-shorts. But I knew that the kids at school still made fun of me.

"Wake up," my little sister said, telling me to wake up and get ready for school. She was so annoying.

"Get out!!!!" I screamed. I was annoyed.

As you can see (hopefully) the issue with the above character intro. The dialogue is dry and lacks personality between the two characters. I don't know anything about the main character except that she has inconclusive insecurities. A lot of fanfictions written by amateur writers lack structure and haven't fully thought things through. And when I say amateur I don't mean new, as there are tons of new Wattpad writers who have incredible talent.

Why is it that when a main character lacks confidence and thinks they're ugly, are seen wearing the most tight-fitting outfit and looks flawless in only eyeliner and concealer? At that point, authors might as well switch their protagonist from a nobody, to a confident bad bitch.

In the above, there's also a lot of telling as oppose to showing. The main character tells us that her sister is annoying, instead of showing that she is via compelling dialogue or action. Don't tell us the tea, show the receipts.

↳ FIXED: Sometimes I hit the snooze button one too many times.

Let's face it: beauty rest did not work on me. What my deep under eye circles, tangled, matted hair, and drool needed, is ten hours inside a blanket cocoon where my body could regenerate. However on that Thursday morning in May, when the metal knob of the door crashed against the light grey wall of my bedroom, and I jolted out of the swaddle with a racing heart, I unfortunately was not an enchanting butterfly. Instead, I resembled a blended up caterpillar — it was not cute.

"I will put your balls in an oven!" I roared with fury, jumping onto my feet with clenched knuckles at the ready.

"Put the fists down Ate, your face will protect you. It'll send any bad guys running the other way for fear of catching, 'the ugly.'"

(translation: older sister)

My little sister who had an innate knack for insulting me, stood at the doorway with a satisfied smirk plastered across her face. Kat's long hair was pulled into her signature pristine ponytail, exuding chic opulence, and her small pink lips were lathered in expensive gloss.

"You're an ass wipe, Kat," I shot a snare at the dainty girl before me. With an exhale, I dropped down to my bed. "What the hell are you doing in here?"

The above fixed intro was taken from my fanfiction, "You're Dope, Girl."

✖ ACTION OR MID-PLOT.

Another way you can start your story, is by starting it with action. Plenty of fanfictions begin with the main character starting their day by waking up and going to school or work. While this is a perfectly fine method (assuming you can alter a cliche beginning and transform it into something dope), why not start mid-plot?

Instead of having your protagonist go through the motion of waking up, getting ready, and going to school, start with the end of the day. Let's see your character in their car on the campus lot trying to start the vehicle. What if their car won't start after several attempts and they must garner the courage to ask one of their peers to help jump the car, only adding to the long list of things that went wrong on their first day at a new school?

The options are endless.

By starting your fanfiction with action, you avoid the flow of a seemingly mundane day. Countless times I've started fanfics where the author documents their entire day in one chapter and uses only 1500 words to do so. The character gets ready, goes to school, then gets bullied by the queen bee or future love interest. After, they get home to change clothes before going out to the movies with their best friend.

It's almost frustrating because after being captivated by the plot described by a synopsis or blurb, I get let down by the poor execution of it all. Chances are, you've got a cool plot — don't lose its justice by poor delivery.

✖ A VITAL PLOT POINT.

Start the story with a point in the plot where the character experiences something life-altering. It could be a murder, a fatal car accident, a rape, a brawl at a bar, a funeral, a wedding, ect. Don't mention how the character got into that situation, simply write what happens. Then the following chapter could begin with a backtrack of how, what, and why.

↳ EX: Let's say that your main character is at the bank. He seems nervous, fidgety. His eyes are sunken in and it looks like he hasn't slept in days. When he reaches the teller, he asks to withdraw most of his savings, about $14,000 USD worth of cash. As the teller is wrapping up the transaction, 3 armed masked robbers enter the bank and hold everyone inside hostage. The chapter ends with one of the robbers pointing a gun in his direction.

Then the following chapter begins a few days, weeks, or months prior to the hostage situation where we see the main character live his life day to day. Maybe this character met a beautiful girl, falls in love with her, but then later learns she has a potentially fatal disease. We see the main character face this head on, and on the day the protagonist is at the bank, it's already been several days of keeping her company at the hospital -- which is why he looks tired with sunken eyes. With her so close to death, the protagonist decides to take out his entire savings to pay for a surgery in order to save her life, even though his savings were meant for culinary school in France.

By using this method, you essentially start on action, during a very important plot point in the story. You can give subtle hints to this character, but won't know full details unless we keep reading. This is a good way to captivate your audience. 

✖ THE EVENT THAT SNOWBALLS.

I wasn't exactly sure what to call this method, but I will do my best to explain. If any of you all are familiar with the SNOWBALL EFFECT, it is a Psychology term in which one event snowballs into a huge, life-altering circumstance. It is named so, for the analogy of a snowball rolling down a snowy hilltop, and gathering more snow as it descends, thus the snowball gradually becoming massive.

In your story, start off with a life-altering event that sets the precedent for the plot of the book. This event can be catastrophic for the protagonist, such as their mom passing away or getting left at the alter. OR it could something small but becomes a huge fucking snowball as the story progresses.

↳ EX: In my story entitled "Slapshot," the life-altering event that takes place during the prologue, is the protagonist witnessing her twin brother getting gunned down down at a party. This one event sets the stage for the main plot of the book to begin and is only the snowball at the top of the hill that gets bigger and bigger.

✖ A SEEMINGLY ORDINARY DAY.

This method, if done with heaps of creativity and swag, can be a great way to start a story. This method is simply showing the readers a normal day in the life of the main protagonist — the last good day before shit hits the fan. This could be the protagonist going to work, then gets held hostage, causing them to get PTSD after surviving the incident. Or maybe the main character is seen at work, excited to start the weekend with family. Then upon picking up their kid from daycare, they find out that the child has been abducted.

The possibilities are endless.

One of my favorite "seemingly ordinary day" beginning is actually from Harry Potter. In the first book, readers are introduced to Mr. and Mrs. Dursley of number 4 Privet Drive. Everything seems normal in their mundane life, when suddenly it wasn't. The sudden appearance of Harry changes everything, and their once boring routine is uprooted.

The important part in using this method, is to not be complacent. As an author, you should still write with passion and conviction. Your protagonist should be displayed to the audience with greatness, and every moment before the big moment should still move the story forward. This isn't the time tell the readers in an author's note, "sorry this is a boring chapter. I just needed to fill the space before the big stuff happens."

Despite seeing the character's ordinary day, it should still be captivating to an audience. Seasoned writers, or even novice writers who take the time to research and study literature, can write about their protagonist working at a grocery store in a compelling way. It's up to you to take the time to do so.

✖ PROLOGUE vs. CHAPTER ONE.

The last thing I'll talk about in this chapter, is deciding whether or not to write a prologue or to simply begin at chapter one. This is up to you and what you want as an author.

A PROLOGUE is used to set the precedent; to give the reader some backstory before the main plot begins. A prologue should NEVER be used to info-dump! You can use a prologue if you need to establish some history, or need to show readers what happened months or years before the present setting of the story. A prologue should always correlate to the main plot of the book.

↳ EX: In my fanfiction "Slapshot," the prologue is set two months prior to the principal plot line, where the readers get to immerse themselves into the night of a murder. Then Chapter One begins with the aftermath of the murder.

If there isn't a huge backstory or history lesson that needs to be addressed, then you can forgo the prologue and simply dive right into the prologue. Again, this is up to you as an author and what you feel is important for your story.

You only have a few pages (or if you're lucky the first chapter) to fully captivate an audience. Some readers may be more generous and read the first two chapters of your book before deciding whether or not they want to continue. Other readers, myself included, are more selective and will therefore only read the first couple of paragraphs.

Don't rush yourself. Write, edit, re-write, and edit your story beginning. Don't rush to get your story out because you're excited, and end up publishing a shit product. Take your time. Let friends read the beginning and have them give you some constructive criticism. If you need a second or third opinion, shoot me a DM and I'll do my best to get back to you in a timely manner. I can always give constructive criticism and ways to improve.

Do your best. Take your time. You got this!