I'm rather new at writing short stories and what I'm wondering is this; when do you introduce the main conflict? Does it have to be put in right off the bat or can you have the protagonist doing something else first; so long as it's exciting and somewhat related to the main plot. For example, if your writing a story about an assassain, can he be finishing off some other mission before he moves on to the one the primary one? As for technology or magic; can it be introduced later on in the story or should it appear in the first thirteen lines? What about having the protagonist deal with some other completely unrelated though interesting problem, like burying a dead body in a ditch before getting picked up by aliens that tell him he's their messiah? Thanks for any answers ahead of time; this ones really been bugging me for a while.
Posted by AeroB1033 (Member # 1956) on :
The first paragraph is the ideal place to establish the main story. (I don't want to say conflict because it's not always a conflict. It might be a tension or a question instead.) Sometimes you can push it back a little farther, but it needs to be the first major tension in the story.
As for your examples: No. I would avoid starting with an assassin on another mission or a guy burying a body unless those things are important to the main story. If they're completely unrelated, and by the end of the story they haven't been shown to be relavent to the main plot, the reader will feel cheated.
We had another thread recently on whether the technology or magic should be introduced right away. It's here:
Here's my advice, take it with a grain of salt. I suggest introducing the primary conflict as soon as possible. Now, this can be interpreted in a variety of ways, but think about your ending. The conflict that gets resolved in the climax is the main frame of the book. Make sure that gets introduced fairly early on. And if possible, make the events that are seemingly not connected to this conflict have some kind of significance or connection to it, even if it isn't obvious right away.
For example, in my novel, the protagonist's main conflict is his desire for his father's love and approval, warring with his desire to be his own person and do his own thing. (Yes, it's YA.) While the first chapter of the novel deals with a trial for someone that is seemingly unrelated to this conflict (though later it becomes very relevant), I have a very brief moment on the first page, and in fact my first line, that introduces the basic conflict.