Five ways to open your crime novel with a punch

You may have a great idea for a Crime novel but it can be difficult to get started. The ideas are flowing in your head and you have an idea of how you want the book to develop and possibly even how you want it to end. But when you open up your laptop and type the words "Chapter 1," you may get stuck. Surely this isn't writer's block because you know what you want to write. Instead, you are struggling because you want to start a new novel with a punch and you want your readers to love the introduction so much that they continue reading. Essentially, you want to create a page turner and you want your introduction to be remembered for a long time.

But how do you do this effectively? Many professional writers have yet to conquer this particular task of creating an unforgettable introduction while keeping the readers curious and interested in the content. It does take a couple of tries to get it right but below you will find five different introductions that can help you start your novel in a way that will have your readers turning the page to see what comes next.

Dive right in

Even though it is not always recommended to start your novel in a dramatic scene, you can start the novel by having your protagonist in an emotional or physical situation. Perhaps your protagonist has just lost a loved one and is starting on a new journey where he has to figure out how to possibly solve a crime or even how to move forward without becoming involved in criminal activity himself.

Present and past

While it may require some skill and some effective planning, you can start your book right in the middle of the entire timeline that you've planned out. That means you pick a timeline spot and you start writing from there. Throughout the novel, you make references to the past in the form of flashbacks or even past conversations that help build up to the moment when you started.

You then develop the novel from the spot to the end so that readers understand the motivation to go forward.

A new chapter

Whenever you start a novel, you don't start with the birth of the protagonist in every case. You usually start the book at a certain point in time where it makes sense for your story. You can start your book on a day where it also happens to be a new beginning for the protagonist.

This could be the first day of work or the first day in a new relationship. Either way, you're starting your story where a new chapter starts for the character, and then you can make references to the past if you feel it is needed to develop your character.

Introduce a small climax

In your character development, you may have an idea as to what you want your character to be like. Perhaps he's just an average Joe who is trying to make a living. You can start a novel by introducing a small climax – a small event that sends your character into a tailspin – that will define the way he solves problems or sees the world going forward. If you need to spend a prologue setting up the situation, then go for it.

Leaving your protagonist out

Sometimes, writers want to leave the protagonist out of the drama because the protagonist has nothing to do with the crime or the problem that is being introduced in the novel. The protagonist gets involved later down the road. You could start the novel by describing whatever it is that is taking place and then introduce your protagonist at a later point. This could be something as serious as murder or something as innocent as a random conversation between two people. Just make sure that you tie in this event in your novel down the road so it makes sense to the reader.

How do you start your novels?