Start in the Middle

Common sense tells you to start a story at the beginning. However, in writing prose, the most effective place to start, whether fiction or nonfiction, is in the middle of things. A story told in linear fashion from beginning to end can be very boring for readers. The reason is because the surprise and intrigue is stripped by linear story lines. Readers want to guess what's coming next, but they also want to guess what happened before. They want to have to wonder and figure things out for themselves. If you start at the beginning, you eliminate this experience for readers. Starting in the middle of the action, whether it's a short story, novel or memoir, is hooking the reader into the story with the immediacy of what's taking place. Beginning with background information to set the story up doesn't provide that hook. Readers want to be fed the action bit by bit so they can piece the story together like a jigsaw puzzle. That's a huge part of the excitement of reading. Starting in the middle of the action gets readers involved instantly. Once you have them hooked and interested in the story, you can circle back periodically to the past to fill them in with important background information. This circling back is called flashback and is a critical tool in effective storytelling. Always leaving just enough information unrevealed so that readers are kept intrigued is crucial. If you start in the middle, rather than the beginning of your story, you can hook readers early and keep them wanting more all the way to the end.