Just Ginger

In my previous post, I discussed finding the right place to begin a story. I discovered I had more to share about beginnings, so I’m writing another blog. Beginning, Part 2, if you will. As a writing contest judge, I often read stories that start at the wrong point in the story. Naturally, aspiring writers believe that by the time they have shined their story up to put into a contest, they have found the perfect beginning. Not always. Beginnings are often difficult to find, but they are crucial. Their job is to hook the reader and sometimes a writer forgets to do that. Yes, Alice got up that morning and fixed herself a cup of coffee, ate a bagel with cream cheese, showered, washed and dried her hair, brushed her teeth, got dressed in her favorite navy blue dress, ad nauseam. After an aspring writer works his or her way through Alice’s morning rituals, he or she often adds something along the lines: “As she left her apartment, little did she know her life was about t...

I think we can agree that getting the right beginning to a story sometimes rates up there with going to the dentist. It’s something we know we need to do, but we dread getting it done.  We worry that if we can’t find a great beginning for our story, it's doomed. So we flail around trying to come up with the right beginning and presto! bingo! Suddenly we realize we not only don’t have a great beginning, we don’t have a great middle, or a great ending. Let’s stop and take a deep breath. While a great beginning is important, the fun part of writing is that creating the perfect beginning to your story doesn’t have to come first. You just need to find it before you write The End. Sometimes it appears in your head like a gift from the gods and sometimes you have to dig and dig and dig to find it. This is why it’s important not to get hung up on finding the “perfect beginning” before you write anything else. When I was writing Lady Runway ( http://www.gingerhanson....