Dialogue always
looks good on the first page, doesn’t it? Two characters plunging
into the story. Plenty of white space. Exclamation marks!
But you don’t have
to start at the beginning of the conversation. The small talk, the
explanations. Start in the middle, where the drama begins.
‘You’re leaving
me?’
‘I’m sorry, I -’
‘Who is she?’
‘You don’t know
her.’
‘It’s not that
new secretary, is it?’
He shook his head.
‘You’ve never met her. She’s … someone from the past.’
Ah! The first clue!
Or, in a crime
novel, start with the murder. Your reader doesn’t know who the
victim is, or even the murderer. All that will come later.
How about a waking
up scene? Your character opens their eyes. They’re in bed/in a
locked cellar/buried under masonry/on an operating table/ sprawled
alongside a wrecked plane, the pilot and his mate hanging out of the
cockpit.
Drama! Mystery!
Suspense! Explanations can come later, maybe not until the final
chapter.
