Let's NOT Start at the Very Beginning

Back in August when I took a Writer’s Digest agent one-on-one class, the agent reviewing my materials told me that I was starting my MS (FOR PARIS, FOR LOVE) in the wrong place. My writing was great, she said, but the beginning of my MS had to be where the beginning of the story was, which wasn’t necessarily at the beginning of the action. She called it the inciting incident. I understood what she meant—at least, I thought so at the time—and I took to revisions. I cut out the first 10K of my MS, starting the story in different setting, a different point in the MC’s journey. I felt comfortable with these revisions. I was sure the new beginning would hook an agent.

No such luck. If you want to know about my experiences querying, you can read my blog entries from last fall. In summary, I had some success, but not much. I got requests, but didn’t get an agent. I put FOR PARIS, FOR LOVE aside and picked up another MS instead (my completed WORLD’S EDGE, which I decided to contest and CP before querying). I couldn’t let FOR PARIS, FOR LOVE go, however. It bothered me that I couldn’t figure out why I hadn’t had much success. I thought maybe it was my query, which I still think is true—although I know how to fix that now. Still, it wasn’t just that. The agents that wanted partial and full requests of my MS had obviously liked the query enough. So what was the problem? My writing?

Turns out, my writing wasn’t the problem, either. (Well, I don’t think so.) Turns out, I’d heard what my class one-on-one agent had told me, but I didn’t understand it. I didn’t nail the inciting incident and therefore my story still wasn’t starting in the right place. I know the right place now, and it’s because of my CPs.

Yes, I put FOR PARIS, FOR LOVE aside. No, my CPs aren’t reading that MS. They’re reading my other one, WORLD’S EDGE, the one I have yet to query, the one I hope will be THE ONE. So how did they help me with FOR PARIS, FOR LOVE? Two of my CPs had the exact same problem, though at the time I didn’t realize that. I just knew reading their first chapters that something wasn’t right. It took me longer than it should have to realize what was happening—they weren’t starting in the right place. Their stories were telling me things that I needed to know, things that were essential for future events, but they weren’t grabbing my attention and making me want to read more, more, more. I didn’t realize this was their problem—I didn’t connect it back to what I’d thought I’d learned in August—until a couple of days ago.

Saturday I read through the first five chapters of the MS of one of my CPs. During the first four chapters, I was loving her writing and her MC’s voice…but something was nagging me, telling me that something was missing. When I reached the fifth chapter and found what I’d been looking for—the inciting incident—I was so excited that I wanted to jump up and dance. I wanted to run to her and tell her I’d found it, that I knew what to do to make her MS better. I sent her a long email in which I told her how much I loved her writing, but that she was starting her MS in the wrong place. I told her that she could ask the other CPs in our group, but that if I was right, she was going to have to make a lot of revisions. I told her it would be worth it. I told her that I’d help her, read her revisions, and that all of this was a GOOD THING.

Even before I hit send, I was worried what she’d think when she read my email. Worse case scenarios started running through my head—I am a writer, after all. I’ve never met her, but I could picture her in tears, ripping up a printed copy of her MS and throwing it out the proverbial window, never to be touched again. Like I said, worst case scenarios. After I hit send, I freaked out and avoided my phone. I didn’t want to know what she thought.
But I couldn’t avoid my phone or her email forever. A couple hours later, the suspense was driving me crazy, so I opened her email. It was long and I couldn’t tell right off if that was good or bad. Her first words were hesitant…but then came her reaction. She was grateful, thrilled, and wanted to know if I would read her revisions. Where, she wanted to know, had I been before she started querying? And me? I was so relieved—and not just because she was okay with my suggestion.

It was about two thirds of the way through her email that I realized I needed to heed my own advice. I’d changed the beginning of FOR PARIS, FOR LOVE, but it still wasn’t starting in the right place. I know where to start it now. Part of me wants to grab FOR PARIS, FOR LOVE and get on those revisions; however, most of me knows that I’m so busy with work, CP reading, and WORLD’S EDGE revisions, contests, etc. that I can’t go back to FOR PARIS, FOR LOVE right now. I have to focus on WORLD’ S EDGE, but I’ll keep FOR PARIS, FOR LOVE in mind, just in case WORLD’S EDGE things don’t go the way I want them to. I’m also taking what I’ve learned and looking closer at WORLD’S EDGE, hoping to do this one right.

What I’ve learned is that Maria in The Sound of Music is WRONG. The very beginning is NOT a very good place to start, not when you’re writing a novel that you want to get published. You have to start at the point in the story where everything that happens after is inevitable. You have to start at a point that will grab the reader and make them want to read every other page. You have to start your story where the story actually starts.