How did you start your book?
They say that the hardest part of starting a story is the beginning… and for me that is definitely true.
I used to struggle with the first scene because everything I would write felt somehow fake.
But I recently wrote an 80k fantasy romance novel and love my opening chapter.
What inspired me you may ask?
Crazy story: I was on a 5k run around a lake. It had metal barriers around it and the sky was stormy, the water reflecting me whilst looking like melted iron. I was speeding, listening to Panic at the Disco, and feeling great… then I saw a pigeon.
I went to run around the pigeon and instead it flew straight into me. I ended up tripping and falling flat on my face. Eating the concrete, my two front teeth broken in half, crying and calling my dad to come pick me up.
This led me to a couple of days of wallowing in self pity, eating ice cream and looking at my new fake teeth a lot. But it also made me slow down enough that I picked up my laptop and started writing my book.
So now the beginning of my book is of a character sat by that very same lake, looking out on the water and pitying herself (with an added beautiful man popping up out of the water).
So, the end of my teeth became the beginning of my book. Silver linings, huh?
How did you all start your books?
P.s. no pigeons were injured in the making of my book.