Just a quick bit about why I'm doing this:

I received this question and I figured, since I'm not updating a lot (although I do have a story in the works that I'm pretty excited about) I should upload my responses to questions like this in a book. I know my advice won't be the best, but I thought it could still help people.

The first question is from @-Amethystia-:

"well im trying to write a book called gems (the book is really complicated) and i dont know how to start it out. do you have any strategies for starting a book?"

In my opinion, writing the beginning is one of the hardest parts, and I feel like a lot of people would agree. Finding the balance between making the reader interested and giving them enough information can be really tough, which is why I don't write the beginning at the beginning; I go back and write it after I've finished a few chapters (or sometimes the whole book, but if you're planning on updating it to Wattpad, you're probably not going to finish it all first).

Once you've finished a couple chapter and are going back to work on the beginning, I feel like you have a couple of options.

One, write a prologue. If you want to make the beginning really interesting, this is a great way to do that. With a prologue, you can make the very beginning very interesting, and start adding the information in the first chapter. This makes it a bit easier to find the balance I mentioned earlier, because you aren't trying to do both things at once. A prologue is also a great way to foreshadow or write from a different perspective (either that of a different character, or from a different point of view (first, second, or third person)). A prologue could be a flashback, a part of the book from a different perspective (another reason to wait to write the beginning), or something the main character doesn't know. (If you do this, I would keep it vague and suspicious to prevent the reader from knowing the ending. Then again, letting the reader think they know the ending and having it be something entirely different is really cool if done properly.)

Two, write a short (a few lines or paragraphs) scene of action. This is probably what you think of when you think of the beginning. Adding a little action while still explaining the background information can be really difficult, however. If you go for dialogue at the beginning, make sure it's only one or two lines, not a whole conversation. That can be confusing for the reader if they don't know what the story is about yet.

Three, write a smaller event first. While the other two are more for the beginning sentence, this is for the first few chapters. Instead of starting with the main event of the story, start with a smaller event that relates to the main event. This is a great way to ease the reader into the story, while still making it interesting and providing information that will be relevant to the main plot.

You could even combine two or all three of these to make the beginning, as long as you don't overwhelm the reader. Don't write three beginnings, just combine them into one.

I hope these were helpful. If you'd like advice specific to your story, feel free to PM me with the plot and I can help you.