When you sit down to write a story, sometimes the hardest part can be just getting started. After all, the beginning of a tale represents a completely blank slate—one that will set the tone for your book and hook the reader from the very first page.

So how should you approach your beginning? Read on for some different ways that authors have chosen to set out on their storytelling journey, and take note of the ideas that resonate with you and the narrative you want to tell. The possibilities are truly endless.

Foreshadowing
This is a great way to open your novel, especially if it is of the horror or thriller persuasion. Often done in a prologue before the main action that kicks off chapter one, foreshadowing simply consists of a seemingly random scene that readers must keep in mind and will slowly make sense of as the plot continues to unravel. It is an excellent way to drop little hints to your readers to help them solve the puzzle at the center of your novel.

You also might want to consider this approach if you plan on featuring a twist at your book’s conclusion, since the best twists are ones that the readers could have figured out on their own—if they paid close enough attention. There is a very fine line, however, between giving too much away and being obtuse when attempting to foreshadow events. My advice is to read plenty of books that feature this style of opening to see what some do right and some do wrong in order to emulate that delicate tightrope of suspense.

Striking visuals

There will always be two types of readers: one camp that wants to know every little detail of the world in which they immerse themselves and another that wants things to move along thank you very much, and tends to skim over long chunks of descriptive prose. That being said, it’s hard to go wrong when beginning your novel with a description—provided that it is a.) significant to the story, b.) not overly long before you focus on a character and/or plotline, and c.) particularly unique.

Now whether that uniqueness comes from describing something especially beautiful, or weird, or technologically advanced is entirely up to you. Just make sure the description can stand on its own as a notably compelling piece of prose, or else those looking for more action will drift away before you even really get started.

An ordinary day
Why not start with what a normal day in the life of your protagonist looks like? By establishing the regular routine of your character’s life early on, the presumed break in such a routine will be all the more striking when the main plot kicks in.

From there, you can either have your protagonist try to fix the situation to get back to their normal schedule or realize that there is no longer the same sense of satisfaction in said schedule and thus set them off on a brand new course. (TJ Klune does a particularly excellent job of this in The House in the Cerulean Sea, if I do say so myself.) Either way, you can reveal a lot about a character’s desires, needs, and general personality by giving readers a glimpse into an average day.

Midconversation
Sometimes you have to start in the middle and just let your readers figure it out. Beginning your novel with two characters in the middle of a conversation that the audience (obviously) knows nothing about can be frustrating for some, so be sure you quickly catch them up to speed in the following pages.

When executed well, this can be a fun and efficient way to introduce a whole bunch of information to readers (characters, relationships, jobs, etc.) without long stretches of prose. Just make sure to keep it natural—nothing pulls you out of a story faster than the kind of clunky dialogue that overexplains elements of the characters’ lives by stating facts to other characters who would already know such things.

A death
A person’s death is often a compelling way to start a story, since there is an inherent mystery in death—whether or not the circumstances surrounding it are suspicious. Sure, a violent murder in the woods begs certain questions: Who is the victim? Who is the killer?

But don’t underestimate the hook of quieter deaths, as well. An old man dying alone at the hospital also raises plenty of questions that readers will want answered in the novel: Who is the old man? Why does he not have any family or friends with him during his last moments? Just be sure that the death itself has a major impact on either the characters themselves or the future events of the novel. Throwing in a death just for shock value can majorly damage readers’ trust.

Andrea Moran lives outside of Nashville with her husband and two kids. She’s a professional copywriter and editor who loves all things books. Find her on LinkedIn.