In the last post, I said that a good beginning does three things for our story. The first was that it gives us a sense of how our main character tends to react to things. We get some information about them.

So now, here’s the second thing a good beginning does for our story.

Readers love clues and hints, not explanations.

The second thing is connected to the first one, about giving the reader enough information. But the second thing has to do with 2+2.

We know that readers and audiences love to make connections in stories. It’s fun getting to the answer before the characters do, at least sometimes.

So…

imagine I am showing you a picture of a plate of pizza, sitting on a table.

The next picture I show you is of a dog, sitting, looking up.

That’s it. That’s all I’m giving you.

But I bet your brain made a connection that involved imagining the dog begging for the pizza, or maybe stealing it, or something.

In a sense, your brain wanted to make that connection. It is just something that human brains do. Taking bits of information and stringing them together to make connections.

I never said that the dog wanted the pizza. I just gave you the first picture (a “2”), and then I gave you a second picture (another “2”). You put them together in an equation, and came up with the answer “4” all on your own.

Now, it’s true that I wanted you to get to 4. I put those things together on purpose, hoping you would do that math on your own.

And that is exactly what writers do to their readers. Because we know that is how brains work.

And knowing that brains do that, and especially knowing that the brains of readers do that, a writer can take advantage of it by giving them some 2+2.

So, a good story beginning will give us the first “2” about a character. The second “2” is the problem they face.

You will eventually give the answer by the end of the book. At some point, at the end of the story, the writer has to tell us how the main character really did solve the problem.

But before then, the reader will desperately be trying to anticipate that “4”.

“I know what the character is like, and I know what the problem is. I wonder if she’ll solve it by…”

Because that’s what brains do. And that’s one of the things that keeps readers turning pages—wanting to know what comes next.

So, the first thing a beginning gives us is some information about what a normal day looks like for this character, a ‘2’.

The second thing it gives the reader is the other ‘2’, which is the appearance of the problem they want to solve.

You will eventually give them the answer. And some readers will be so excited that they will sneak a peek at the last page, to see what the answer really is. But for everyone else, they will keep turning pages while they are trying to figure it out.

So, that’s it. The first thing a good beginning gives us is a sense of the character. The second thing is a sense of the problem that the character will face.

In the next post, I’ll tell you the third thing that a good beginning gives us.

Happy writing, young writer.