Hi I'm really not a writer but a poet. I have had this idea for a book for a while now. I have done all kinds of research on it. Written the plot and the outlines for the chapters. I'm having a real hard time with how to begin the book when there is so much that needs to be covered before I can get to the main characters. Another problem is the characters and how to a relate the characters to each other and the problems they face. I can really use the help.

I have no experience in novel writing so unfortunately I can't help you. However, there's plenty of writing advice floating around the internet these days and while you should take everything with a grain of salt as there are no universals and no fit-all tricks to writing, it still is very helpful to just browse around for tips.

Here are tags about beginnings on writing blogs I follow: One & Two. Feel free to check out their other tags as well.

Also here is a listing of a bunch of writing websites.

Hope you can find some information there that could be useful. Best of luck with your writing!

Edit:

Stumbled on this lovely quote [ source ] and thought it sort of suited your situation:

“As I began writing prose, I kept telling myself to just put everything in that first draft. The first draft of the second section of the book was probably twice as long as the final version. So indulgence was the first thing. The other thing was to be patient, to not be anxious to get to the next moment, but instead to sink into the present scene and ask what the narrator is experiencing in this moment. Inherent to narrative is a kind of horizontal, forward movement in time that urges you to the next event. I wanted to resist that and instead create these lyrical moments of exploration. I do think it’s a poet’s way of writing fiction.”

Thanks that helped

Well to start you could do an ordinary situation or a more extraordinary one. Depending on your plotline. Someone could die or someone is born. I've seen published books open like that. I've also seen a story open with a girl collecting eyeballs because I think her mother worked as a dollmaker making the oldschool porcelain dolls. I can't remember the title, but it was something like 'Body Shop' or similar. Semi-horror I think.

The opening of a story is essentially the hook you present to the reader that begins the thread of the rest of the plotline. So as you'll go through the chapters you hang on more threads and flesh out that first plot point.

I think LOTR started with Bilbo for example having his birthday party.

So the obvious continuation was sending out invites and organising the catering and presents as one in RL would do for a real birthday party.

Using ordinary situations with ordinary circumstances can be useful too.

As you write you can change it accordingly to suit your needs.

~ Pyre