I ask of thee, PTF, to share with me your knowledge and wisdom.
More specifically, I'm asking anyone who has begum or written a novel how you get a good start. If you've tried it, you know what I'm talking about. Obdurate, you might know. I've seen a few different beginnings to your novel, and if you haven't ever gotten far passed a beginning, you know why I made this thread.

Don't just say "Well just write for a while and then go back to edit it" either. There's a lot more to it, like planning and whatnot.

Well, I don't know if following in my footsteps is a good idea, and I've never really thought about how I begin but hm...

Well first, do you want to "say something" (you know..) with it or just entertain? Both are fine, and I'm not even sure you can just do one of them, as even if you're just entertaining, you're probably saying something, even if it's really simple.

I'm pretentious, you see, so I want to say something, so what I do is I get the main theme/idea and then, honestly... I just let the idea come to me. I used to walk to work everyday and walking plus listening to music always gave me idea. Then I'd think about it and eventually the main plot points (beginning, ending) would just appear in my head... Stephen King says you shouldn't even know the ending but I disagree. You only need to know the beginning and end and the rest will fill itself in.

Of course, I do plan a lot... ideas pop into my head here and there, but I don't make a list of things to happen. You could though.

It's all up to you. What fits me might not fit you.

Be prepared to write a million beginnings though.

I have the ideas. I've already tried several different beginnings. The thing is: I strive for perfection straight off. If I'm not satisfied with chapter one, there often times won't be a chapter two until I remake chapter one over and over. I guess that's where I am now. My strategy right now is to plan it all out in writing. It's sort of a fantasy type thing, but not the "elves and dwarves and dragons" type. I have made up my own setting though, so I'm trying to develop that, which of course involves coming up with names for everything and background stories not just for people but for places, so that I can have a really defined setting in the story rather than making it up as I go along, which will probably result in a lot of confusion and contradictions.

Anyway, I have a few things to do now, so I'll be off!

Okay but just remember that if everything is completely planned, that you gotta allow room for your world to breathe. People will be able to tell what's forced and what comes to life on the page, even if the author can't see it.

Trust me, I go over my work constantly, and I don't think there's anything wrong with that. If your story has a weakest link, well it affects the book overall.

The wonderful thing about art is constantly scrapping things. Obviously you aren't on a high horse so this is easier for you, but some people are too afraid to criticize themselves. Any good writer chucks their stuff or has chucked their stuff a bunch in the past.

How well read are you in the genre you're working in? I don't think it's necessary to read a lot of stuff but it can't hurt knowing the genre cliches, basics, etc, either (you could always wiki the genre too). When you told me what book you want to write, I instantly thought of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, mainly because she builds a massive world. It has magic but it's done in a realistic way.
Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Oh and most importantly, when you're done, let me read it

I'll be sure to, especially since you'd be more critical than someone who will just look at it and say it's good.

Cliches of fantasy: elves, dragons, mythical creatures in general, magic

At least those are the ones I know of. Mine'll have stuff like demons or animals that don't actually exist, but I'm trying to keep it more to normal people who live under common circumstances for the time period. I'm also aware that overplanning takes all the creativity from it and sucks out my will to actually write, but I want stuff like basic summaries of chapters (with room for adding or subtracting), backgrounds of characters, and information about the setting before I start, to get myself going with it.

But yeah, I've made a lot of beginnings already. I really pissed off Lunchbox with them, too, because I always send him the chapter after I'm done rather than after I edit it and move on so that I know I won't be redoing it until I look over the final book.

[Sudden inspiration occurs]

Off to work on it, then.

I'll buy it when it's done.

Hell I'll even mention you in my book, even though more people will probably read yours than mine, anyways.

And about the cliches and stuff, fair enough, I just meant that since there's so many subgenres and the like, sometimes (but like I said, it isn't necessary) it's nice to be well read... look how ridiculous this is:
Fantasy subgenres - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Anyways, you seem to be well on your way. Can't really do too much besides just write and edit and all that fun stuff.

If you're having trouble starting, sometimes it's a good idea to skip the beginning and come back to it later to get ideas from the rest of the story. It's impossible to plan everything. Some things just come to you.

The only reason you "pissed me off" is because you had a few amazing starts and then you scrapped them and moved on to other projects

Yeah, I'll do that, won't I?

Damn, and here I was hoping you wouldn't see this thread, and here you are actually posting. Here's what I have done now: Some planning and research. I did research into stuff like farming and architecture so I could better understand what I'm writing about.

I could begin chapter 1 any day now...

i started a nove and happened to finish it my computer crashed and i lost it