A bullet zipped past my head and splattered fragments of the concrete wall mere inches from my face. I rolled to the right and scrambled for cover behind a parked Toyota, not knowing the location of the shooter.

What questions run through your mind as you read these lines?

- Who is the shooter?

- Why are they shooting?

- Who is this person they’re shooting at?

- Will the cover be sufficient?

- Where is this taking place?

- Can the one narrating the story defend himself/herself?

At the same time that these questions are raised, the reader is making observations. A bullet indicates that the novel is set in the 19th, 20th, or 21st century, but the concrete wall and the Toyota car provide clues to it being set in the last 50 to 60 years.

If you’re struggling with how to start your novel, you might consider a running start in order to hook your reader and set the tone of your novel.

Establishing Your Novel’s Hook and Tone

Every novel needs a hook to draw in the reader and keep them engaged with the characters and plot you’re developing. The hook, like a guitar riff in a ZZ Top song, helps establish the tone of your novel. A running start, which immediately introduces conflict, is an excellent way to kick off an action or adventure novel.

The powerful wave struck Steve in the chest, rolling him backward, and then sucking him underneath it. He fought against its force, thrashing to the surface just long enough to gulp a bit of air mixed with salt water before another blow sent him tumbling once more.

Again, the reader immediately has questions and concerns that must be answered, while clues to the setting of the novel, though fewer, are already evident. In this example, the conflict is man versus nature and its hook sets the tone for a drama or adventure story.

Something moved in the shadows to her left. Pooling blood from Ellen’s shattered skull left little doubt about her condition. Monica shifted her position, still hovering over her friend’s body as she tightened her grip on the dagger, waiting.

These lines introduce two characters and a relationship between them, setting a tone of suspense, but giving little information about the setting, except that a dagger is not a typical contemporary weapon. This running start can still be set at any time or place. It can be an excellent hook for a thriller or mystery.

Different Ways to Develop Your Opening

You’ve hooked the reader. You’ve set the tone. You have them asking questions. 

Now what?

There are several different directions you can take in order to continue to engage your reader. Let’s examine three.

1. Keep the Reader in the Dark

This technique continues the opening action in a way that has the reader continuing to ask questions rather than providing answers. While you provide them with some more setting clues, character traits of the individuals involved, and perhaps some additional details of the conflict, you keep the action going.

The main objective of this technique is to continue establishing the tone of your novel, but not allow the reader the satisfaction of answered questions.

2. Answer Questions as the Action Continues

In contrast to the first approach, this technique keeps the action going, just like the first, but it begins to answer the reader’s questions while the action continues. This can be especially effective for establishing your character or characters, answering questions about the setting, further developing the conflict, or any other aspects of your novel that you want to develop early on.

Your objective is to continue establishing the tone and keep your reader engaged in the action, but give them a few more clues about the direction your novel will take.

3. Suspend the Action

Another way to use a running start to your advantage is to suspend the action and begin to answer some of the questions the reader might have. For instance, while Monica is hovering over Ellen’s body and waiting, you can begin to answer questions about the two characters and their relationship. 

This approach provides some satisfaction in addressing the reader’s questions but keeps them asking questions about how the conflict will be resolved. The objective of this technique is to play upon the reader’s tension and frustration as an element in setting the tone for your novel.

Obviously, you will have to return to the action you’ve suspended. So, when do you come back to the action?

You can return rather quickly, after an extended period, or until you wrap up your novel. Each has its advantages and disadvantages depending on the type of novel you’re writing and the purpose behind your opening scene.

The “short return” will get you right back into the action, wrapping it up within the chapter or by the end of the chapter. You’ll want to use this if you want to get back to the mystery or action of your novel right away.

A “long return" works well for telling a story inside the story. While the narrator in the first example is under the cover of the Toyota, there can be an extensive story behind why he or she is being shot at. You may not return to the action for several chapters or you can wait until the very end to come back to it, keeping the reader suspended in the opening action from start to finish.

Give Your Novel a Running Start

At a track meet, each race, whether a sprint or a 3200-meter run, begins with the firing of a starter’s pistol. After it is fired, the spectators are hooked into watching the runners drive out of their blocks, in a sprint to the finish, or stride out at a steady pace, setting the tone of a distance race.

Opening your novel with a running start is one of many techniques you can use to get past the blank page you’re staring at when you’re trying to start writing. Once you’ve fired the starter’s pistol, you can begin to tell your story at whatever pace you choose.