Where does your story really begin?

Eva Barrows • July 17, 2026

One of the biggest reasons readers stop reading early is when stories begin before the real movement starts. As you write and revise your story, you have to figure out where the story really begins.


If a story starts too soon, the opening feels disconnected from what happens in the inciting incident.

Sometimes stories get a false start through “throat clearing.” These are passages writers use in search of where to start the story.


Filling the first pages with backstory slows or even stops reader momentum. Instead, sprinkle backstory throughout the story on a need-to-know basis, not frontloaded at the start.


Let’s use the classic movie, The Wizard of Oz, as an example. How does this story start?


In sepia brown, the film opens on a Kansas farm. Dorothy, a teenage girl, is concerned about the mean neighbor’s treatment of her dog, Toto. We meet Dorothy’s family and farmhands. Then the wind picks up.


Which leads to the inciting incident—the tornado that picks up Dorothy and her house and deposits them in the Technicolor Land of Oz. This event puts Dorothy into an entirely new world she must navigate to find her way back home = the rest of the story.


We can learn a lot from what this start doesn’t do:

  • Start when Dorothy was born (too early) 
  • Show her at school (not relevant)
  • Use backstory or long conversations before story movement starts


In just a few minutes, the beginning does a lot really well:

  • Set up family dynamics
  • Show the love Dorothy has for her dog and the people she lives with
  • Dorothy’s yearning for adventure


Your story might have a more subtle, less color-dependent start, but there’s an ideal place to set up the launch into your story’s journey.


Answer these questions:

  • What information does the reader need to understand before the inciting incident changes everything?
  • How can I best introduce the story’s theme and underlying message in the first few pages?
  • Is the main character taking action and making choices in the first pages?


If you’re revising your opening pages or are stuck on how to get started, my Hook Your Reader Assessment provides professional feedback on where reader curiosity, tension, or emotional investment may weaken early in the story. Book a session with me today!