So I woke up one day (a few months ago now) with an idea. An idea for a novel. Y'know - the solution to my life, the way out of my sucky university life and a career I don't want. Well.. maybe not all that. But one can hope.

I've written the outline. Five times. Three times on the computer, twice in notebooks - and I've sat down more times than I can count to start the first chapter. But the white page... it's a major weakness. I can't start it, everything looks wrong... nothing flows. And the more I push to get past that point, the harder it gets until I have to leave the comp.

Pretty much, I'm stuck before the first word. I console myself with the number of time JKR wrote the first chapter of HP, but if I want to achieve anything this year - I want to get this written. Even if it never gets published, I want to say I have a novel.

So.. what do you guys do when you just can't think of the first line? Usually I have a shower, but it hasn't been working. Starting and pushing through hasn't worked. If I could just write something I'd be happy with for more than five minutes, I'd be able to show someone, get some help. But at this point in time - nothing!

.... help!

I am, by no means an expert and I do not write novels in my spare time.
Though I do have to write stuff for English class at times.

So it sounds weak? It may look bare right now but once you have crammed in description and dialog in, it will be a chapter and possible a novel in no time.
If you look at a lot of books, not much happens in the first chapter of the first novel. They are used to give a setting and introduce characters.

My advice is to start off a bit abstract.
For instance in one of my English Essays I started off with "Robert opened his groggy eyes. The sound continued...".
What I mean by this is, you don't have to give a straight description on where the character is, who it is, or what they are doing.

I can't help much but that's my advice. Don't be direct at first. Keep the audience guessing at first, then bring in description/dialog.

Don't start on your computer. Don't open up Microsoft Word to that white page, because if you're anything like me, all you'll do is stare.

My suggestion is to start in a notebook. Doodle a bit if you have to, write about some other things, do whatever you need- then write. Get your first sentence out of the way on that notebook before you move to the computer, because it feels a lot better to look at your word processor and know that you've already started.

actually, i've found that it all depends on how you want to write the story. when i'm writing in first person, i often give a brief introduction of the narrator and then go from there. when i'm writing in the third person, it's best to jump right into everything and reveal details as i go along.

with the first person, i think of the character, who are they? what do i want to be their first words to bring the reader in? so i go with something that would describe them but isn't actually their description [a quote that they might possibly live by or something of that sort. not describing them but something that they would be known to say]

third person is a bit different. i give short and quick statements until they build up to something much bigger. i took this from my journalism writing. BIG PICTURE FIRST then bring in the details.

now, with that being said, the first line is sometimes easier to some up with because of that.

if i can't think of something, i try to surround myself with something that influences my ideas. so, if i was writing a novel on vampires, i'd watch a vampire flick. i'd let myself imagine the novel and then just pick it up from there. if it's not something already done before, i listen to music that i would like to put on as a kind of sound track for the novel and start my imagining from there.

i have the same problem when i've got to come up with a new plot for my one board that i've had for nearly a year, now. it's so hard to figure out what to write to make this one intriguing and how to really grab whoever's looking at it from the very beginning to sell the board but i just try to do those things and it usually comes to me in such a burst of muse, i can get it all done in just minutes.

of course... a novel might take a bit longer.

I suggest ya visualize the first scene. Close your eyes. Then create the image of your main character(s)...or portray them with an actor you like. That's how I get my writing done. I create movies in my head...(I'd so make an awsome director!) I can see the shooting angles, how the camera would move, I can hear the music...so on. Basically I roll a piece of a movie in my head then I write it. I will visualize it so many times over and over again till I have the whole thing planned out as a 'clip'. Then I roll it in my mind again and again thinking how I would write it all. How would I speak it out as words.

The exact thing happened to me. I decided to take up Rping. (sneaky)


Try starting with the middle and most entertaining points. Then go back and write the beginning to get yourself there. It always helps me give my writing some purpose which in turn makes it easier to write.

I wish my essays could feasibly start with something like that. All we ever did was break down a novel into essay form.

Don't even think about it. Everytime you go back to look at the words you've written, slap yourself or something. You have to write without looking back until you're done. Unless you forget something.

If you write impulsively it will turn out better then if you think about it. When you think too much the words come out unnatural. Whenever I try to think of dialogue my characters always end up speaking like pompous Shakespearian princesses. Never think too much about dialogue, otherwise you'll never get it right. Once you're done, then you edit. I wrote a nice short story but kept editing it because it wasn't quite right and it turned out a hundred times worse then it was before.

But, like someone above said, try paper first. Used paper is even better, the ones that have stuff printed on the back. If you're ever unhappy you haven't done enough just turn it over and read about the mechanics of simple machines or whatever is on the other side.

I look up creative ways to open up a story... You know, whether I want it to be a flashback or just make it simple and start with dialogue. I also read the beginnings of my favorite novels to see what hooked me on the story.

I would also suggest just getting the ideas down in prose form. It doesn't matter if it's not flowing. Professional writers have said in interviews that they write everyday (obviously they can't write just when the inspiration hits), and even if they're stuck, they just plunk away... You can always go back and fix it up later, embellish and all that. Just write something, and just the action in itself will get your mind working. If you get the idea down, you might find that soon you'll get into the groove and everything will come out smoother.

Also, if I just can't start the beginning, I'll start at a particular scene that I have envisioned in my head... Just to get myself in the mood of the story.

Good luck!

I'd have a look at the first page of a few novels of a similar style to what I was planning on writing. See how they started it off. Some start it off with a scene from the middle of the story, and then in chapter two go back (in this case Chapter 1 is normally fairly short), and others simply start at the beginning.

Ignore the beginning! Write another scene. You don't have to do the beginning until last if you don't want. Or write the beginning anyway and just keep writing until you die. Once you've died, do something else (RP?), come back a few days later and look at it as objectively as you can ('okay, the wording sucks ass. but the scene is good. oh, i like that sentence!') until you have something you like. If you have nothing? Write again! Wa ha ha ha. Or try deviating from what you were planning on doing and write a different way. When I started writing mine after a long break I couldn't get into it. Everything seemed really forced and crappy and it wasn't working. I remembered when I first started writing the novel (when it was just a short story) that I'd written in first person and it flowed beautifully. So I changed and voila, it flowed.