The beginning of the story is the most fragile part. The reader isn’t invested yet, so it doesn’t take much for them to lose interest and go back to YouTube, Netflix, video games, or staring at the rotating plate of instant mac and cheese in their microwave.
It’s incredibly important to make sure that the beginning of your story is as healthy as possible. If it’s not, then it’s time to call the Story Surgeon so they can operate!
During the last stream, viewer grim060606 submitted their story to be revised by the Story Surgeon. They had an interesting idea about a world where humans and werewolves coexisted, and the protagonist was a rich an successful woman werewolf.
After reading what grim had written so far, we rewrote the beginning of their story together.
There was a lot to break down for this story. Everything from having a relatable and empathizable protagonist, to making sure your world and plot work together not against each other, to taking the time to set the scene and tone. But I’m very happy with where we ended up!
You can see the process we went through here,
and see the revised opening we wrote together!
After that, chat voted that we write this prompt: “You are given a dangerous, top-secret mission by the FBI. They arm you with a single banana peel.
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you. We stream on Twitch every Sunday, Tuesday, and Thursday at 7:30pm-11:30pm (U.S. Eastern Standard Time).
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel, or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Scott Wilson is the author of the novel Metl: The ANGEL Weapon,
forthcoming March 2019.