BEGIN THE BEGIN | WHERE TO START YOUR STORY | SARA BIREN

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” - Lao Tzu

And the journey of a thousand words–or 50,000, or 85,000–begins with a blank page. How do you know where to begin your story?

One of the most useful lessons I learned during my graduate studies, one that has stayed with me after all these years, one that I’ve shared with every writer I’ve worked with as a teacher or mentor or critique partner, is this:

Start your story on the day that something changes for your main character.

That event will be the catalyst for everything else that happens in the story or novel. Here are some examples:

• Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen: Charles Bingley comes to Netherfield and the lives of the Bennet sisters are forever changed.

• Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins: Anna arrives at a school for Americans in Paris where she knows absolutely no one.

• Evvie Drake Stars Over by Linda Holmes: Evvie is packing up her car to leave her husband when she gets a call that he’s been in an accident, and he dies while she’s driving to the hospital.

• Cold Day in the Sun by yours truly: Holland learns that her school is in the running to host HockeyFest Minnesota and, as the only girl on the boys’ varsity hockey team, she’s the main attraction.

• That Thing You Do! (a Tom Hanks film): Guy Patterson is asked to fill in on drums for his friend’s band when Chad, the drummer, breaks his arm.

Think about the last book you read or movie you watched. How did it begin? What event–significant or otherwise–happens that sets the wheels in motion for growth and change to occur for the main character?

Now think about your current project. What happens in those all-important first pages that sets up the path for your main character? Don’t worry if it’s not there yet–sometimes, the catalyst isn’t clear until later in the draft or even a subsequent revision. Remember, you can always begin again.

REM: Begin the Begin