Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay Modified by Me Using PhotoShop
The beginning of a story can be the hardest part, especially crafting an effective start with some type of crisis point as @jayna mentioned in her past Writing Tip of the Week #2: Adding Conflict. It is essential to grab the reader’s attention early and hold it to the next point of movement/fascination/interest.
This is how plot arcs are created.
A story is fluid and it moves in waves, or it doesn't move at all and loses the readers interest pretty fast. Peaks and troughs of actions and/or emotions are essential. It is these things which bring about that fascination and fast paced visual reading of a good novel.
You all know that feeling, when you can't put a good book down, or stop reading until the end of a short story. The words seem to disappear into a flowing visual narrative, like a movie acting out behind your eyes.
The image below shows the most basic three act structure using tension as a technique to initiate and drive the story.
CC Source
This is the challenge for this week: I am going to give you an opening, partly inspired by an idea @stormlight24 had in a discord conversation, which leads up to a potential crisis/mystery point.
The opening is not genre specific, but it's possible I am erring toward a sci-fi, fantasy or mystery/crime dynamic. Please remember, we are not about stiffing creativity in any way here. If you have you own opening in mind, please feel free to disregard the one I have written, as long as their is a conflict/mystery point which leads on to some type of rising tension/conflict and a climatic ending to resolve the story.
The challenge is primarily about that image and understanding plot arc and how much it can improve your writing. Every writer can have certain aspects of writing in which they shine - I myself am guilty of this with focusing on imagery throughout descriptive narrative - but this is often an Achilles heel. The thing that makes the writer marvel at their own creation, while they miss out on some basic principles and steps that could make their story shine all the more!
Image by PIRO4D from Pixabay
The Opening - The Time Between Times
Jenny crept down the corridor. Each creaky floorboard was mapped out in her head and she stepped from corner to corner like playing a game of hopscotch back at school.
She never thought she'd miss school. Mrs Granger with her funny long nose and that wart on the lip. Her friend Sam had her in fits of giggles flapping his lips as she chalked on the board. A pang of guilt sliced through her belly whenever she thought about their private joke about warty Granger.
They were all memories now. She resisted stamping her foot and kicked the wall softly instead. It was so boring living with her great uncle after her father had died of Covid-19. Now cities were off limits for kids and the whole world was in stasis.
Covid-24 had taken hold and mass-crops had developed some type of antibacterial super strain. We were all shipped off to the country. Child laborers conscripted to cottage gardens and stately homes, organic farms and microbreweries. Anywhere which produced untreated, heirloom varieties of foods.
She giggled at the thought of the text she'd got from her friend Roger.
Working @ Goodachres brewery just outside Guildford. I drink as much as I make and spit in every second bottle. Goodachres' supply the underground parliament, C ya Soon Jen lol 😜
She stepped across the corridor to the next spot and a loud creak split the stale air. Shit, she'd forgotten the sequence. The grandfather clock loomed large ahead of her, only two meters distant.
The tippy-tap of typing stopped in the study a few doors down and she held her breath. A creaking and shifting noise from just beyond the door froze her in place. She leaned in to the wall and held her breathed, scared of her uncles reaction if he saw her near the clock again.
His obsession with antiques, and that clock was not normal.
Don't touch.
Don't go poking about... and especially that clock.
I don't even want to see you look at it.
She carried on, moving from safe spot to safe spot until she stood before it. A mahogany monster staring down at her ticking with that maddening repetitive metallic beat.
"Father," a loud call echoed down the corridor.
She spun around and saw Billy, her cousin at the top of the stairs grinning.
A loud stomping came from the study and the door was flung wide, just as that obnoxious brat piped up again.
"Father, Jenny is messing with the clock again."
Uncle Steven strode down the corridor, fists clenching at his sides "What have I told you about touching that clock."
Jenny hunkered down knowing what was to come. She steeled that place inside, swallowed the bile down to that diamond hard spot in her stomach which turned her blood to stone.
As she stared up at her uncle, his upraised fist shaking she could see the reflection of the clock face in the dusty portrait on the wall. One second to twelve.
Tick.
His fist began to descend.
The first bell of twelve midday chimed.
His fist halted.
The second bell didn't come. Dust motes drifted across the sunbeam in the corridor, illuminating and settling on the two wax work dummies.
The clock face lay still.
© Rowan Joyce, all rights reserved (with permission for anyone to use as the start of their story for this challenge).
As you can see I have written to the crisis point. In this case between Jenny, her uncle and the clock's seeming suspension of time.
Some people might argue I write more back story than is necessary, and that it would have been possible to get to crisis point with a quicker build. But this would have been at the sacrifice of character development, each author is different. In my opinion 500 words is a reasonable count in which to build setting, history and reach a character crisis/conflict point, I would have done more revision if it had stretched much above the 500 word count.
I shall be publishing my own @raj808 ending to this story and taking part in my own challenge to fulfill the most basic three part character arc.
I will also be actively reading all of the short stories from this challenge, looking for the best to submit to @ocd's
Daily Community Curation magazine, which usually includes a vote of at least $5 minimum to post.
This prompt challenge will last for around a week until next week's prompt.
As my health improves I hope to get back to the more structured Tuesday Fiction and Thursday Poetry prompt structure.
Thanks for reading.
Much love, @raj808
If you're looking for inspiration for fiction or poetry check out our past writing prompts linked below.
Fiction
The Ink Well Fiction Writing Challenge #1 - Realms of Fantasy
The Ink Well Fiction Writing Challenge #2 - Bad Habits
The Ink Well Fiction Writing Challenge #3 - What is Your Major Malfunction?
Fiction Writing prompt #4: Exploring Your Life in Fiction
Fiction or Poetry
The Ink Well Creative Writing Challenge - The Stuff of Which Dreams are Made
Poetry
Poetry Challenge of the Week - Writing Out of your Comfort Zone
Thursday's Poetry Challenge - Exploring Legend
Thursday's Poetry Challenge - As Free as a Bird
I would like to invite any lovers of poetry and short stories to visit the new hive community started by @raj808 with @stormlight24 called
Also, with the advent of https://hive.vote/ it is now possible to follow The Ink Well curation trail on Hive blockchain. It works just the same as steemauto; simply navigate to the curation trail section and search for theinkwell (all one word with no @ symbol) and our trail will pop up as an option.
Similarly delegations are possible on Hive using the fantastic https://peakd.com/ Hive Blockchain front end. If you wish to delegate to @theinkwell that supports creative writing on Hive by voting all of our contributors, you can do this from the wallet section of https://peakd.com/
Click banner to visit our community page
Find us on twitter by clicking the banner above.
Click banner to visit our community page