Start Strong, Revise Less: Do You Use One of These Story Entry Points?
3 Common Story Starting Points and What to Do Next to Avoid Revision Nightmares
As a book coach, I work with writers at various points in their story-writing journey. Sometimes writers come with a partial or finished draft, and sometimes they come with only the initial spark of a story idea. I’m fascinated by that particular magic of a writer incubating an idea into a story. I’m always curious to see how each writer dives into their story…that initial kernel of interest that grabs their attention. I’ve found that writers generally have one of three main entry points into their story, which I think of as The Plot Focus, The Character Focus, and The Situation Focus. And each of these has their own particular strengths and challenges.
Does it matter where you start? Not at all…your story won’t be any better because you start with a particular entry point. (And I find it’s more often an organic process than an intentional choice anyway.) But, what does matter is the next steps you take after that starting point, which vary depending on where you begin.
Your entry point into a story is generally what you are most clear about. What comes after that is where you are more likely to falter, which can make for a more painful revision process later. However, if you identify your entry point, you can not only get clear on the next steps to take, but also on what to watch out for so you can avoid some of the most common challenges we see in the revision stage.
Entry Point #1: The Plot Focus
You are clear on the general arc of the story with at least some ideas about the key plot points. That doesn’t necessarily mean you are a plotter instead of a panster or plantser. You don’t have to have the story fully plotted out. But you do understand the general premise. You may have some thoughts on the main character, but generally at this point you are mostly focused on the plot.
This entry point usually looks something like this: “Jane is a divorced mom who finds out her ex-husband is going to sue for full custody of her kids. She doesn’t make as much money and has few resources to fight back. She befriends other mothers in similar situations and they start to work together to pool money and resources to support each other. But when one of the other husbands threatens violence against all of the women, Jane’s own custody battle becomes more precarious, and she has to decide if she will risk everything to stand by her beliefs and her friends.”
You can see how, although the writer has some idea about who the main character is, they haven’t delved much into character development. At this point their focus is almost entirely on plot. And there’s nothing wrong with that as long as they don’t overlook character development before they begin writing. If they do, we might see manuscript problems like these:
Lack of clarity on the main character’s arc of transformation, which, in women’s fiction in particular, leads to an unsatisfying ending
Missing the main character’s interiority on the page, which can lead to the reader not fully understanding what’s unfolding, or not connecting with the main character
Next Steps: When a writer comes to me with a plot-focused entry point, we next work on character development to better understand the protagonist and the choices they would make. We explore the primary questions about their backstory, world view, misguided belief(s), external want, internal need, as well as conflict and stakes. We might also explore more in-depth questions that dive into the character’s backstory and perspective so the writer gets more clarity on who the character is, and how they think and act.
Entry Point #2: The Character Focus
A main character has taken shape in your mind (or is starting to take shape) but you’re not exactly sure what the plot will be.
This entry point might look something like, “I want to write about a 35-year-old woman who is navigating a recent diagnosis of neurodivergence” or “I want to write about a 40-year-old woman who is reconciling the trauma of her mother’s alcoholism” or maybe “I want to write about a woman in her fifties who is balancing motherhood and caring for a parent with newly diagnosed dementia.”
You may have been thinking about the character’s backstory, and perhaps know what the character’s arc of transformation should look like, but you are not sure what actually happens in the story to push that character through a transformation. Again, this is not a problem; but rather a clue about what to work on next—plot development! If you overlook this, we might see manuscript problems like these:
Starting the story too early or too late
Weak narrative drive where things just seem to happen in the plot but events don’t feel very connected
Next Steps: The old adage, “Start where you are” definitely applies here. When a writer has a strong character, we use that character development to guide the plot that will best fit this particular character. Again, that’s not to mean we plot out every point. We focus on questions like: What is that main character most afraid of? How can you force them to stand in that fear? What is their worldview and misguided belief? What would cause a character like this to change? This can guide the writer toward crafting the plot events that will be most effectively push their protagonist along a transformative arc.
I particularly like what Stanford University creative writing professor and author Alice LaPlante says in her book, The Making of a Story: “What can I do to my character to unsettle or move or stress or stretch him or her in some way?”
Once we have some idea about that, it becomes easier to identify the key foundational story beats such as, what type of inciting incident would push this character out of their status quo life?
Entry Point #3: The Situation Focus
You want to explore a particular place or situation. You may be focused on the inciting incident or the promise of the premise or even a particular setting. This kind of entry point often begins with a writer asking, “I wonder what comes next if _____ happens” or “I’d love to write about this particular event or place.”
In my experience, this entry point is not as common, but I have encountered it. This writer has more foundational planning work to do to explore both plot and character. And surely you know by now that I’m going to say…this is not a problem. But if you don’t take the right next steps, you’re more likely to run into tricky revision problems like…well, to start, any or all of the examples listed under The Plot Focus or The Character Focus above.
Next Steps: In this instance, we generally begin with character and explore the question: Who is a character that would most need to change in this particular situation or setting? We again ask what that main character would be most afraid of, what might be their worldview and misguided belief, external want and internal need, and where should this character end up on the other side of their transformative arc.
Personally I think all writers benefit from foundational story planning work. But even if you clearly identify as a pantser and eschew story planning, you’ll gain clarity by using your story starting point to evaluate what you might be overlooking before you get too deep into the writing. And if you’ve already begun writing (because some writers write a bit to get a feel for the story and then revisit planning), it can still be helpful to pause and consider where you’ve started and how that shows up in your story.
Where do you enter a story? Do you find any of these entry points ring true for you? Do you use another story starting point? My observations are based on my experiences working with writers, and I would certainly love to hear about other approaches to story and how that’s worked for you!
Excellent points. Thank you for this guidance. I generally begin with something that shows the main character but then I worry about whether my opening is boring. I think I need to stick with character but find something that's revealing but more interesting to avoid boring. Does that make sense?
Girl. You see me.