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I've just recently finished building the setting and plot of a fantasy coming-of-age story. I'm happy with the way it turned out; the character arcs feel compelling and the setting supports the plot nicely. I've got everything planned out — all the different subplots have been tied up in nice, neat packages — but I have no idea where to start.
Being a coming-of-age story, there needs to be a lot of character development. Being a fantasy, it's going to take a while to expose the plot. The main arc isn't quite enough to fill an entire book, so there's some room left over to use for exposition, but I don't know how much of it I should use.
The timeline goes something like this:
Yr 10: Main character meets very important side character.
Yr 10.5: Main character and side character escape an attack on their home town.
Yr 10.5-16: Main character and side character scrape out a living in another town.
Yr 15: Main character and side character, tired of the town and its prejudice, decide to leave and live as nomads.
Yr 15-16.5: Main character and side character travel from town to town, living mostly off the land and from less-than-legal ways of acquiring goods.
Yr 16.5: Main character and side character hear whispers of the people who attacked their town and go off to investigate.
Main story arc begins.
The question: How early should I start? The earlier ones have the benefit of more in-depth setting and character development, but I'm worried they won't have enough action to hold the reader until the main plot. Likewise, the later ones feel like they throw the reader into the story far too quickly.
At this point, I really have no idea how early in the story I should start. There's downsides to starting early, but there's also downsides to starting late, and without a good idea of how long the main arc will be I really have no idea how to decide.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
Edit: As some of the comments pointed out, I forgot to mention the length of the story. While I haven't ironed out that detail yet — it's partially based on the point at which I end up starting — it's certainly not a short story, but it's not a multi-book series, either. The best comparison I can make is slightly longer than The Hobbit, but it remains to be seen just how much longer it will be.
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When to start a story?
When the main character realizes s/he has a problem. Stories are about one or more problems confronting the main character, and how s/he goes about solving it/them.
You don't want to start the story with "background," because without the problem, the story is "trivial." Instead, use "flashback" scenes to depict the necessary background.
So if the problem starts in say, Year 5, start it the story there. And use "flashback" to cover years 1-4.
Somebody said once that the right question bears half of the answer within.
Whether you have your story already written or not, it is clearly structured and well thought through. Your characters seemed to be defined and developed, and I have little doubt that your plot is solid. I think that your question is not how early to start your narrative, but how to deliver your story in a most efficient way, keeping the reader engaged and motivated to continue reading.
There is an infinite number of possibilities, and they all depend upon your style and taste, the genre of your story, the length of it—as @KenMohnkern mentioned—and the audience you are targeting.
If you see your book as a hard action thriller, do not be afraid to start with a scene where your main character and his sidekick are being chased by the authorities because a random thug they teamed up with for this particular heist, sold them up to save his hide, but not before saying something about their hometown which makes them want to go there and see what is going on. You can then bring all the backstory piece by piece as a series of flashbacks between the action scenes.
If you are aiming at a classic epic fantasy, do not be afraid to expand upon the exposition—epic fantasy readers do enjoy throughly built worlds and beautifully presented settings—but just keep building tension scene by scene.
The choice it yours and only yours, and no one can really tell you what words to type and in what order.
For me, you answered you own question when you said
Main story arc begins
But it is just me :-)
Best of luck.
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