Good stories don’t begin at the beginning.

Well, okay, the Bible starts at the beginning. But nothing else does. Modern stories begin in the middle somewhere, as close to the critical action as possible. As a reader, you know that the characters had lives before Page 1. We imagine they were born, went to school, learned to disarm a bomb and pilot a jetpack, or committed adultery with Hester Prynne. That’s called the back-story, and the writer can reveal it along the way in the narrative.

A strong opening starts fast, yet gives the reader enough information to begin to follow along.

The opening line to New Jersey author Jeffrey Cohen’s upcoming mystery, Some Like it Hot-Buttered, is a writing clinic in 11 words:

“The guy in Row S, seat 18 was dead, all right.”

Can’t open a story much faster than that.

“It’s all downhill from there,” jokes Cohen, 50, a freelance writer, screenwriter and the author of the three-book Aaron Tucker mystery series. His new novel, the first of his Double Feature mystery series, will be released Oct. 2 by Berkley. (Much more on his web site: www.jeffcohenbooks.com.)

To craft an effective first line, Cohen asks himself: “What information does the reader need right away?”

Let’s think about what we learn about the book in those 11 words.

• “You don’t have to worry about there not being a murder in this murder mystery for 20 or 30 chapters; it’s going to happen right away,” says Cohen.

• The opening also establishes the setting. We figure we’re in a movie theater.

• And since the dead guy is in a particular row and a particular seat, “Who would know the seat other than the guy who owns the movie theater?” It’s a first-person novel, so we know who our investigator will be — a theater owner.

“I was cramming in as much information as I could,” Cohen says.

The opening also hints at the tone of the book, with its deadpan humor. Cohen writes what are called humorous mysteries, though he doesn’t like the term. But check out his previous titles: For Whom the Minivan Rolls; A Farewell to Legs; As Dog Is My Witness.

On character

OK, we aced the first line. What the story needs now is a main character.

“For me the character can’t be someone predictable,” says Cohen. “If the character is going to be the same all the time, I’m going to get bored. As a writer the worst thing that can happen is to get bored. For me, they absolutely must have a sense of humor. If I’m writing in the first person and I want it to be funny, the character has to see things as funny or the story is not going to work. They also need a strong point of view. It doesn’t matter what that point of view is, but it has to be noticeable.”

Cohen shared two rules for characters, given to him by a professor friend who teaches screenwriting:

1. The character must always be interesting.

2. No one wants to see your character have a nice day.

“So you’re always looking for some complication for them.”

It sounds easy — until you’re staring at a blank screen waiting for a great character to appear in your head. So where do interesting characters come from?

“I used to be real snarky when people asked me, ‘Where do you get your ideas?’ I’d say, ‘From the Lillian Vernon catalog. If you buy three ideas, the shipping is free!’ I couldn’t really answer that question honestly. I don’t know where ideas come from.

“One of the dreams I’ve always had would be to buy myself a little movie theater and only show comedies. Now I can’t do that because it would be an economic disaster, but my character can, because I set him up with a bunch of money.”

(That’s the back-story again — the stuff that happens before Page 1.)

“So how can I play with that situation? That’s really where the series started. Once you have a protagonist who owns a movie theater, and you know you’re writing a murder mystery, you have to say to yourself, ‘OK, how does a guy who owns a movie theater get involved with investigating a murder?’

“Well, the murder has to happen in the theater. And if it happens in the theater, the obvious thing to do is poison someone’s popcorn. Because that’s just too much fun.”

On discipline

Cohen has a unique writing method. I admit I never heard of the go like a bat-out-of-hell for a while then suddenly stop for months for no apparent reason method of manuscript production. Reminds me of my old ’85 Mazda; I think it had a fuel line problem.

“I start off like a house afire. And one day I quit, and then I don’t write anything for months,” Cohen explains. “Why? It’s not that I don’t know what’s coming next. For some reason, I just hit a wall at some point and just stop. That’s pretty much what happened with this” new book.

Eventually, he persuades himself to get back to his manuscript.

“I’m not characterizing this as writer’s block. I don’t believe in writer’s block. It just seems to be part of my process that at some point I just stop. It’s not that I can’t do it, I just don’t.”

He never outlines his plots, because he’s no good at outlining. “I let stories cook in my head, until I think they’re ready. The first book I wrote was flopping around in my head as a screenplay for years before I realized that maybe it’s a book.”

As we are forever reminded, there’s no one right way to write.

Mark Arsenault is the author of three mystery books, including Gravewriter, which is set in Providence.