Did you steam in Medias Res on the first page, or start somewhere in the middle? Perhaps you started at the end and worked backwards.
Did you steam in Medias Res on the first page, or start somewhere in the middle? Perhaps you started at the end and worked backwards.
I started from the very beginning, good thing too, since I had started to first chapter about four times, until I was happy with it.
I usually just randomly capture some scene or dialogue or situation in my head and introduce the characters into the story without a concrete or predefined story. I don't even know what I'm going write in the next paragraph. But by then, I start understanding my characters and their personalities, ambitions and dreams much better--- and soon, they take control of the story and what happens. I'm just a medium through which the events materialize on paper.
I started with a battle which eventually ended up in the middle of the book, so I had to write another for the beginning. After the false start, I wrote a plan so I knew where I was going and wrote through in sequence until I got to the end.
The second story began, with the aftermath of a shipwreck the day after the last chapter ended with said disaster. But I'd decided that before I began writing so it wasn't as confusing as it sounds. I got to the end but had missed out a large chunk of the middle and that needed sorting before I wrote an epilogue to tie up the loose ends left hanging - basically whether the MCs lived or died.
I regularly move chapters about if they don't seem to quite fit the actual timelines (which can be a pain in Historical Fiction) so I wouldn't worry about doing that.