The Way to Begin: Get your story out of your head
()
About this ebook
Ideas are easy, words on paper are hard, especially for beginners and new writers. The Way to Begin takes writers beyond 'How do I start?' by providing a step-by-step path to confronting the blank page and actually writing a story's opening pages. These practical steps explain how to narrow and define story choices, create characters
Related to The Way to Begin
Related ebooks
Fast Fiction: A Guide to Outlining and Writing a First-Draft Novel in Thirty Days Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Build Your Best Writing Life: Essential Strategies for Personal Writing Success Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Three Phase Writing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Write Structure Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Time Management for Writers: The Magic Of 10 Minutes Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings7 Essential Writing Tools: That Will Absolutely Make Your Writing Better (And Enliven Your Soul) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow To Write a Short Story: Your Step-By-Step Guide To Writing a Short Story Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Are You Actually Going To Improve As A Writer Or Just Fade Into Obscurity?: Actually Author Series Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFree-Range Writing: 75 Forays For The Wild Writer's Soul Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsStory Sparks: Finding Your Best Story Ideas and Turning Them into Compelling Fiction Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Writer's Survival Guide: An Instructive, Insightful Celebration of the Writing Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How To Write A Novel: Simple Steps to Write Compelling Novels That Keep The Pages Turning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSlushpile Memories: How NOT to Get Rejected (Million Dollar Writing Series) Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTell Me <How to Write> a Story Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Story Idea: Writer Resources, #1 Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5How to Write Page-Turning Fiction: (Advice to Authors), #3 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNail Your Novel: Draft, Fix & Finish With Confidence. A Companion Workbook Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Taming Your Inner Hater: Finding the Creative Inspiration to Keep You Writing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHow to Write Your own Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMaster Fiction Writing: Craft A Novel in 31 Days: Selling Writer Strategies, #4 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWriting Fiction: An Introduction to the Craft Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Plot Blueprint: A Practical Guide for New Authors: Creative Writing Tutorials, #8 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEditing Fiction ~ A Writer's Guide: Morgen Bailey's Creative Writing Workbooks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsArt & Craft of Writing Fiction: First Writer's Manual Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing Is Not Work: On Finding Your Voice With Creative Writing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Indie Author Bestiary II: Author Level Up, #20 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCrafting the Short Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWriting Starter Kit: Extended Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Fiction Writing: How to Write Your First Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Composition & Creative Writing For You
THE EMOTIONAL WOUND THESAURUS: A Writer's Guide to Psychological Trauma Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Emotion Thesaurus (Second Edition): A Writer's Guide to Character Expression Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5101 Best Sex Scenes Ever Written: An Erotic Romp Through Literature for Writers and Readers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Creative Journal: The Art of Finding Yourself: 35th Anniversary Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Letters to a Young Poet Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Better Grammar in 30 Minutes a Day Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Craft of Research, Fourth Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing to Learn: How to Write - and Think - Clearly About Any Subject at All Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Legal Writing in Plain English: A Text with Exercises Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Negative Trait Thesaurus: A Writer's Guide to Character Flaws Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Everything Writing Poetry Book: A Practical Guide To Style, Structure, Form, And Expression Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wonderbook: The Illustrated Guide to Creating Imaginative Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writing to Wake the Soul: Opening the Sacred Conversation Within Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Elements of Style: The Original Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wordslut: A Feminist Guide to Taking Back the English Language Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Verbal Judo, Second Edition: The Gentle Art of Persuasion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Writers and Their Notebooks Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Tao Of Writing: Imagine. Create. Flow. Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Only Writing Series You'll Ever Need - Grant Writing: A Complete Resource for Proposal Writers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of Dramatic Writing: Its Basis in the Creative Interpretation of Human Motives Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Way to Begin
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Way to Begin - Michael W Harkins
Introducing The Way to Begin
Getting from idea to words on paper
You have an idea for a story, sparked by something you saw or read, or by someone you know. It might have bubbled up out of your imagination and you can’t think of anything else. You’ve worked on it in your head for weeks, months, or years, and you’ve amassed boxes and megabytes of research.
You want to write that story. You really, really want to write that story… but…
You just don’t know how to begin, how to actually put pen to paper, fingertips to keyboard and write the opening pages of your story. You’re ready, you’re sure, or maybe you’re not ready but you are looking for that ‘something’ to help you move forward.
Ideas are not are not books of any kind. They are not short stories, memoirs, biographies, screenplays, stage plays, magazine articles, or blog posts (and they are not products, services, or careers, either). Ideas are a place called Start, an insight, occasionally a solution, or a dream experienced while awake. Ideas are seeds of opportunity, with the potential to grow into something beautiful, meaningful, revolutionary, incendiary, lyrical, moving, or comical. They are flashes, glimpses of something that entices, a light from deep within a cave, sirens that beckon the curious and the explorer. Ideas are easy, words on paper are hard, especially for new or still learning writers (don’t be discouraged — it’s a lifelong process). Often when someone is made aware that I’m a writer there is some variation of the quick share: I have an idea for a book…
or I have a great idea for a movie…
and then, I just don’t know how to start…
I empathize. I’ve been there. Seeking information from someone who has that information — asking me, because I’m a writer — is a legitimate step in finding out how to begin. While I believe there are only a few absolutes in this world, I also believe that everyone carries a ‘book’ within them but few will actually write it.
I can’t guarantee that you will write anything at all after learning The Way to Begin’s process. I can’t chain you to a chair and shackle your wrists to your keyboard. But I can give you what you need to develop and understand your story and its characters, and clear away any obstacles that have prevented you, until now, from typing those first few pages.
I’ve been a professional writer, designer, and creative guy for over three decades. I’ve been very lucky and had some great opportunities. Over the course of my career I’ve created and written every form of story, nonfiction to fiction, corporate training guide to magazine cover story. This isn’t an attempt to impress you, it’s to assure you that: I’ve learned how to write; if I can learn, so can you; and I can teach you how to start writing a story.
New writers benefit the most from the The Way to Begin (although it can also assist any writer working through plotting or character challenges). The process is a creative mix of logic, analysis, and imagination, but as in every endeavor it is only one important tool in what should be a lifetime of continually filling a writer’s toolbox. The Way to Begin should be one of many writing books on your physical and digital bookshelves, whether you’re just learning the basics of plot and character development, crafting dialog, and using active instead of passive writing, or are a bit more advanced.
Helping new writers achieve their important, rewarding ‘start’ is the major reason The Way to Begin exists at all. I began to develop it decades ago, teaching video production and scriptwriting in San Francisco. Class after class, when given the opportunity to choose a subject for their first documentary-type assignment, many students chose the same subjects.
I began to use the commonality of what I knew was coming. Classes were downtown, which exposed students daily to several observable, societal challenges, especially homelessness. It followed, then, that every semester multiple students chose to do their assignment on homelessness. I used that choice to develop a new approach that guided students in breaking down and understanding the complex web — and as an issue, homelessness is a massive web — confronting anyone who wanted to write and produce a video report on ‘something’ regarding homelessness. Working with students to help them understand how to recognize the complexity