Where To Start: How To Write the Exact Right Beginning of Your Story

Pain shoots up from the bottom of her foot, enough so she limps and is forced to wear heavy boots with firm arch supports. Hearing the pain started about a month into writing a memoir and that she hasn't moved very far into her story even after more than seven months of writing scenes long-hand, I suspect that her foot pain and writing pain were linked.

Often problems with the feet indicate difficulty moving forward. I ask her what the problem is with moving forward with her story.

"I don't know where to begin," she mutters.

The struggle in determining the exact right beginning point to start your story is not isolated to memoir writers. Yes, when faced with scenes from your entire life, deciding what to put in and what to leave out can confuse a writer about where best to begin her memoir. The same can be said for novelists and screenwriters as well as memoir writers

With some intense theme explorations, both listing themes that fire up the most energy in her to write about and developing a thematic significance statement for what meaning overall she wishes to convey lead her to the perfect place to begin.

Is that the place the memoir will ultimately begin in the final, final draft? Not necessarily. At this point the most important action this writer can take is to start there and write an entire draft all the way to the end one time. Then she can go back and determine if, in fact, that is the place to begin or take the test I share in my upcoming Writers Store webinar: Where To Start: How To Write the Exact Right Beginning of Your Story and finally pinpoint the exact right place. (Oh, and I can almost guarantee that by the time she writes into the exotic world of the middle, her foot pain miraculously vanishes…)

Today I write!
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For more about how to develop THEMES and a THEMATIC SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT for your novel, memoir, screenplay: Read my Plot Whisperer and Blockbuster Plots books for writers.
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Need more help with your story? 

• Looking for tips to prop up your middle with excitement? 
• Wish you understood how to show don't tell what your character is feeling? 
• Are even you sometimes bored with your own story?
• Long to form your concept into words? 

We can help you with all of that and so much more! View your story in an entirely new light. Recharge your energy and enthusiasm for your writing.

PlotWwiMo: REVISE YOUR NOVEL IN A MONTH
PlotWriMo: Revise Your Novel in a Month includes 8 videos  (5.5 hours)  + 30 exercises

2014 Your Year to Write a Story with a Plot

Fall 2013, I cracked open a six-pack of local, organic brown eggs to find four double-yolks. If I cook, which is rare, I cook breakfast, which means I've broken open plenty of eggs in my life. Not one has ever had a double yolk. This day, four had double yolks.

Since then, wonderful new pairings have come into my life. Each one brings plot benefits to you in a variety of settings:

1) Jill Corcoran and I created the 1st ever online, live Plot Whisperer Workbook Workshops.
The first workshop in the series: Pre-Plot 4-week workshop SOLD OUT!
We have three spaces available for:

• February Plot the Beginning to the Middle 
• March  Plot the Middle to the End
• April Deepen Your Plot 

Sign-up for all 3 Plot Whisperer Workshops and save $100.00! Plot from Beginning to End

Yesterday, Jill, following her passion, added a 4-week Picture Book Workshop, filling quickly.

Each plot workshop is designed for writers who benefit from: learning about story concept and plot, assigned homework, accountability, constructive feedback on your plot and concept, learning from other writers in a live, video chat format.


2) Jordan Rosenfeld and I met through friends over lunch in late summer. We both commented afterwards of experiencing one of those wonderful kinship sensations, like we spoke the same language. I read her novel Forged in Grace and fell in love with her writing. I wanted to write a plot book on scenes. Jordan wanted to write a scene book on plot. Writer's Digest just offered us contracts for Deep Scenes!

I dreamed of another plot retreat since my terrific host up and moved to the other side of the country. Jordan and I met up at Mt. Madonna in the Santa Cruz mountains and Deep Plotting Writing Retreat resulted.

Two more double-yolk pairing are meeting, matching up, connecting and joining together...

Write with a plot or story plan.
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To familiarize yourself with the basic plot terms I use:
1) Plot your story step-by-step with the help of The Plot Whisperer Workbook: Step-by-step Exercises to Help You Create Compelling Stories

2) Read The Plot Whisperer: Secrets of Story Structure Any Writer Can Master named BEST BOOKS FOR WRITERS by Poets and Writers.

3) Refer to The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing for writing prompts for scene #1 to the very The End, one prompt at a time.

4) Watch the Plot Series: How Do I Plot a Novel, Memoir, Screenplay? on YouTube. Scroll down on the left of this post for a directory of all the steps to the series. 27-step tutorial on Youtube.

For more tips about how to use plot in your novel, memoir or screenplay, visit:

Blockbuster Plots for Writers
Plot Whisperer on Facebook (we hope you "like" it)

Plot Whisperer on Twitter

Plot Whisperer on Pinterest 

***** Knowing what to write where in a story with a plot reinforces daily writing practice and allows for more productivity in your writing. Whether writing a first draft or revising, if you falter wondering what comes next in a story with a plot, follow the prompts in The Plot Whisperer Book of Writing Prompts: Easy Exercises to Get You Writing.

Today, I write.

Starting a Story Too Early

Remember, just because you write a scene does not mean the scene belongs in your story. 

We often write twice as many scenes as will ultimately end up in the finished novel, memoir, short story, screenplay. 

Still, every single word and line and scene you write is invaluable to you as a writer because in writing, you:

• Expand your writing skills
  
• Deepen your writer's voice
  

And most of all, the more scenes you write, the more you learn about: 

• The characters in your story

No writing you do is a waste of time. Quite the opposite. However, what separates a good writer from a truly great writer is the ability to assess what stays in and, more, what needs to be cut. 

The Scene Tracker is one way to help writers decide whether a scene is working hard enough to warrant staying in the piece and it gives clues as to how to expand weak scenes and make all your scenes truly great. 

Whatever method you use to help you determine what stays in your manuscript and what needs to be cut, do not worry about this in the first couple of drafts. 

The #1 defining skill needed to ultimately finish a story is the ability to write the story all the way through to the end. Yeah, I hear you -- duh. But, you might be surprised to learn how many "want-to-be" writers never accomplish that. They never finish even a first -- what I call "vomit-on-the-page" -- draft, much less the finished, polished draft. That is why I call them "want-to-be" writers. Before you can truly call yourself a writer, you have to finish what you start. I cringe writing that because I can hear the objections. In this blog, I speak to writers who hold the dream of one day being published. 

First, finish one draft all the way through. Even write a couple of drafts. After that and before writing more, begin evaluating:

• What works in your story?
  
• What does not work?
  
• Why?
  
• What to do about that which does not contribute to the whole = cut or expand?
  

Writing for Ourselves. Writing for Others.

Now on her third book, the writer moves away from herself. 

Memoir writers aren't the only ones who write about themselves. Many of us write to work things out in our minds, our hearts, to learn our own individual truths, to make sense of our worlds. 

Memoir writers shape their stories around their own lives and stick to the truth and call their work a memoir. 

Fiction writers take their lives and embellish for meaning or humor or excitement's sake to create a novel or screenplay or short story.

Some of us tire of ourselves and find more compelling fodder. 

Others continue to delve into the well of our lives. 

How many of your stories are about you?