Writing a Children's Book
Lesson 5: Beginning your Book.
More About Beginnings.
There are two things we think about as “beginnings”.
From discussing first lines and scenes, we move on the “beginnings” in the second sense.
The Second Sense of Beginning
This beginning is the point at which the author takes up the protagonist’s story. It isn’t always easy to pinpoint a beginning. Even in real life you might say something like this;
“When we got caught up in the pilot strike… oh, yes. We did know it was likely, but we had to fly that week. If my grandmother hadn’t heard about my cousin… you see, he’d been arrested. No, he didn’t do it, he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
In this short passage, the narrator offers a muddled situation involving an interrupted journey, but the audience never learns exactly what the situation was. Whatever it is, it happens during a pilot strike. The narrator says “we” had to fly that week. S/he mentions that Grandmother heard about a cousin, who had been arrested. He was innocent, but was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
So, where is the true beginning of this tangled tale, and how would it begin if it were part of a novel?
A. The strike being called?
B. The narrator catching the flight?
C. Grandma hearing about the cousin?
D. The cousin’s arrest?
E. The cousin going to wherever he was?
These events go backwards in time, and so offer different possibilities. Each one fulfils the criteria of (promise of) action, character, and place. The correct beginning depends on the major plot of the story.
If the story concerns the narrator’s problems during the strike, then whatever happens after the strike is called is the main story, and the affair of the grandma, cousin and arrest is what we call “back story”. That is, it provides a reason for the narrator to be where s/he is, doing what s/he’s doing, but doesn’t directly impinge on the plot otherwise.
How much back story needs to be used depends on the length and complexity of the book.
If you chose to begin the story at A., with the strike, then the back story could be presented in flashback, in expository narrative, or in dialogue.
A (the strike), would be the first passage in the novel, followed by E, D, C, and B, or by just C and B.
If you were using dialogue, then Grandma and the narrator would discuss the other events while they wait out the pilot strike.
If you used expository narrative, then the narrator would use a transition sentence to say something like this;
“While we were sitting there, chewing our nails, I opened the letter that had brought us here. I’d read it so often I knew it by heart, but the contents still seemed unbelievable. My Cousin Lachie under arrest? Impossible! Lachie wasn’t….”
The explanation would proceed to give the information, and then another transition sentence would bring the narrative back on track, to the designated present of the strike.
“I sighed, and folded up the letter. Rereading it wouldn’t help. Nothing would help. I glowered at the terminal, willing it to flash a reassuring message. ‘The pilot strike has been resolved’. That message would do nicely.”
If the chief story is about Cousin Lachie and what happens to him, then the book should begin with E or D, and then jump from one setting to another leaving Cousin Lachie in prison while Grandma learns of his predicament and the narrator makes arrangements to catch the flight.
Beginning the story at an even earlier point is still possible. For example, what is the connection (aside from blood relationship), between Grandma, Cousin Lachie and the narrator? Did Grandma raise them both?
Are Lachie and the narrator both teenagers, looking after Grandma?
It is a mistake to start a story too early in the protagonist’s life. Readers in their teens won’t usually want to read about the protagonist at the age of six unless there’s a dramatic occurrence that will affect the character later. Nor do most older readers want to read about a happy protagonist going about his/her usual business.
This doesn’t mean you have to start every book with a disaster, but it is good to take up the story at a turning point in the protagonist’s life. Let’s look at the beginnings of books discussed in this course.
In “I’m Big Enough”, Joey Hopalong is about to make his first solo journey.
In “The Orange Outlaw”, the three children are at Uncle Warren’s place in the city and a painting is about to be stolen.
In “Alien Dawn”, Jed and Karen are just about to see a UFO come down.
In “Trinity Street”, Tell’s long friendship with Camena has just come under threat, and will soon be disrupted forever.
Change makes a good beginning for any novel. Change, and the promise of action.
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