Need assistance to start a story

[DuctTapeKatar]

I have this idea, but I am having some trouble trying to think of how the first part of it should go.

So basically, a bunch of people, I think about 60-70 or so, are teleported (well, more like ripped) into a video-game world, typical animu-type scenario -- except these people are all the level-1 players of a particular game, meaning that most are newbies or higher-level players who were trying out new builds. They do not have any powers, any skills, or anything from their characters -- the only thing they have are the clothes on their back and whatever experience they have gained while back in their old world. They are not in any foreseeable danger at this time (though it won't last long).

How would these guys react to being taken from their beds and homes to suddenly wake up in the middle of the woods? My first draft idea was that they'd all group up to figure out what was going on, but that seems unlikely to me for some reason -- I think that a paranoia angle might be an interesting angle to go towards, but am not sure how I would exactly do that script wise.

Plus, I'm not sure how quickly they would realize that they are in the setting of an MMO and how quickly they would decide to head toward a town. I originally thought that they would all just basically all agree to move together in a ginormous group, but now that I am thinking about it, it would make much more sense if everybody split into relatively small groups, with a majority choosing to stay in the area.

Spoiler: First few chapters' details

Show

After the whole "oh-no-where-are-we" thing, I was thinking of having the story head off like this:

The protagonist would team up with (or just follow, because he's not sure what to do) a tubby nerd who knows a lot about the game mechanically and lore-wise, an army recruit that was whisked away from boot camp, a police officer who has a pistol, a hiker who knows which bugs to eat and how to start a fire, and the assistant writer for the game who is realizing how quickly things have gone to **** to the world he had helped create (I mean, there's a mountain split down the middle -- "Don't remember writing that!").

I also was planning them finding a ruin of a town littered with 50 caliber machine-gun shells, skeletons in plate-mail, and a sundial that provides evidence that the sun is setting in the wrong direction. After they discover this, I was thinking of having them be attacked by something, like slavers or forest monsters. Possibly skeletons, now that I think about it. This would split the party up in a sudden panic, and then I can move on to the next part of the story.

Does anyone have any advice?

[Phhase]

You're going to want to have the reader focus on a group of max 6-7 characters within that group. It's hard to relate to/write a large, formless mass of people without some ind of focal point.

[Hazlewood]

There's a good short story written on this topic that might help with inspiration, Stranded in Fantasy.

As Phhase said, having fewer characters provides a tighter focus, and in general is probably the easier route to take, but larger groups aren't totally infeasible. You will probably want to give some kind of unifying factor going into the story though. That could be like Lost (plane crash survivors), Drifting Classroom (school children), or Gate (military), etc. I think on balance, larger groups work better in a visual medium like film, tv series, or even webcomic though. Writing it will be a challenge, but it isn't impossible; perhaps something like the Black Company could be something to get inspiration from.

Another thing to consider is that in a group of 60-70, skills and knowledge will be more varied compared to a handful of people. It's more likely that they will be able to quickly rise up society if they play their cards right, especially if they can stay unified. So the size of the group will partially dictate the flow of the story.

If the group is not united somehow (e.g. they are separated at the start of the story, and/or they don't have a unifying factor to keep them together in a more abstract capacity, like soldiers trying to find the rest of their unit), then keeping them together in the long run seems implausible to me, and there would probably eventually be conflict within the fracturing group. Even if they do have a unifying factor, tension in the story might come from a fragmenting group as trust disintegrates and individuals or groups make power grabs of their own. A smaller group has more of an incentive to stick together than a larger group, especially in a strange land.

Depending on how 'hard fantasy' you want to make your story, keeping a group of 60-70 fed and healthy will also be more difficult in a medieval society; that's close to being a mobile village, with all the problems that entails. Think about how sympathetic the locals will be to a bunch of people who are basically refugees or vagrants turning up. That's likely to be their most immediate concern: basic survival, and dealing with potentially hostile locals.

Other questions like literacy are also worth thinking about; I'm assuming the local language will be 'Common' (English), but can the characters read and write the local alphabet? That effects how immediately transferable some of their skills will be. Or is there a local religion or customs/traditions that everyone is required to follow, and what are the consequences for not following them? Strange looks, or burn the heretics? Some of the difficulties the characters encounter from the start will be determined by the parameters of the setting.

Anyway, just some rambling thoughts. It's an interesting idea. This subgenre is a little saturated right now, but personally I still think it's a subgenre with potential.

[shawnhcorey]

What is the climax of your story? What's at stake? Who is the antagonist? Who is the protagonist? What was the protagonist not at the beginning of the story (that they need to overcome the antagonist)? What happened that caused the protagonist world to change because of the thing they were not?

That's where you begin a story.