Can you please help me by offering advice on writing my story?

I'm writing a story that's written in journal format. (As if the story is happening through someone's Diary or Journal.) My question for you is:


Which should I do? Start off with a normal day in his life before the action? Or start off with the action immeadiately?Can you please help me by offering advice on writing my story?
make sure to write the date. and maybe sign it too.





maybe for the first chapter make it just a normal day. introduce the characters a bit. then for other chapters have awesome stuff in them ^-^





good luck!Can you please help me by offering advice on writing my story?
I would start out with a normal day and give a little background info and insight into your character before jumping into the action. You can explain what your character is feeling like fear or joy. This lets your readers feel like they know your character on a personal level and they will be more emotionally involved when the action starts.
some might say start off with a normal day so the reader understands and gets to know the character, but if you do readers will get bored unless his normal day is something very interesting or if his normal day ends with action.


So my advice would be to go straight into the actions so your reader enjoys straight from the start, so your reader won't know the character, that can be built up in time





Edit- i really don't think you should start with a normal day, i've tried to write those, and read them, your opening pages always need to be engaging, if your reader is bored they will not want to read on, there is no incentive to keep going, no promise of excitement any time soon, normal peoples lives are not what people read
jump right into the action and then maybe have the character remembering certain things about his life prior to the action in the journal, ex'; i remember when i actually thought we had a future. things are so different now between us. her words were so sincere back then, i truly believed she loved me';...just a thought, hope i helped.
Begin with a compelling statement before spending a brief period on the protagonist's normal life. Something that foreshadows the conflict to come.





August 14th, 2007





This was the day I realized many would probably die, my choice was to figure out how to save as many as I can, etc...
You should start with the action. As the story progresses, your narrator can have flashbacks about his/her past life. Just my opinion; your story could work either way, as long as it's well written.
Start out with a normal day. In fact, start out with several normal days. That way, the reader gets to know the character.
i reckon do what the first answer says but have clues or events that lead or link to the action of the story.