Where to Start?

It seems like when we sit down to write, the common misconception is that writers have this mental block that prevents them from starting. Maybe it’s the TV show about a Romance author who sits in front of a blank page in her typewriter, or the movie about a mystery author who has a title on the screen and a blinking cursor.
Is this accurate? In today’s modern age of “googling” things I don’t think writers are really hurting for ideas to get started. There are literally thousands of ideas just a click away for any genre. Do you want to write a thriller? Type in the search engine for “ideas for thriller fiction” and take your pick. Writers do not need ideas to get started, that’s the easy part.
Writing is more than just a place to have an idea. A good story of fiction needs depth and characters that are believable and a compelling story that makes the reader want to find out more. Can we start with action and grab the reader from the first chapter? Sure you can, but in chapter two you had better explain carefully why the reader should keep going to chapter three. One chapter or action does not make a story – not in a novel. The reason we read novels is to be transported to another time and place and to become involved in a life and time that is not our own.
So whether you do it at the first chapter, or wait until after some action, you will have to develop a character that intrigues the writer. They don’t have to like the character, in fact maybe they will hate the character – that works too! What makes you love or hate a person in real life? Developing a good character takes skill, it takes time, and it’s one of the hardest parts about writing. To start with you have the character in your mind, you can see them clearly. I say this like it’s a fact because it has to be. If you are not sure what the character looks like and acts like then how will you tell your readers?
What is their feeling about issues that will come up in the story. For example, is the main character in your romance novel a kind man who gets kicked around? Is he weak and pitiable? Or is he strong and decisive, he knows what he wants and he goes for it. We can decide these things early and then rather than describe him using words like this maybe we have to devote a chapter in the beginning of the book to his background story (or her background story of course, I love a good female lead). Don’t tell the reader he is kind and brave and quiet, that’s the kind of spoon-feeding that belongs in a children’s book. Maybe your lead character goes to work and she sits quietly at her desk for the past nine years working diligently, never late with an assignment. Her boss appreciates her and relies on her but never gives her the recognition she deserves. Still she shows up on time and works and works and works. What kind of qualities do we imply she has? Honest, diligent, reliable – makes her sound like a good person, right?
Develop characters, don’t simply tell us about them. Just like in real life, a person’s history and culture makes them who they are. Your character needs to have depth. You need to have a history for this person if the reader is going to come along for the ride.
Yes, it’s fiction – it’s not real. But the readers need to be invested in this fiction. It should seem real to them. Then it becomes great fiction and your readers will keep coming back for more.