But how do you start?
I'm not published yet. I am done with my book, but I'm still editing chapter seven. One of the rules for a first-time author is to make sure your book is perfect, or almost perfect. So, that's why I'm still editing. Making sure that I can send my best work out when the time is right. But if there was one thing that hindered me when I first started, it was chapter one.
As writers, our stories are in our head. Moving around and taking on a life of their own. We know our characters intimately, we feel their pain and we know how they act when they're loved or betrayed. Sometimes, you don't know where to start. How can you find the best way to introduce your story?
For me, it was trial and error. I scrapped over a dozen chapter ones. The book was completed but I was without a chapter one. Eventually, after much brainstorming, I was able to come up with a chapter one based on the entire book. And I love it!
There's a T.S. Eliot quote I'm fond of: "What we call the beginning is often the end. And to make an end is to make a beginning. The end is where we start from."
My advice to you is not to stress the beginning. If I'd known that my chapter one would come to me at the end, I wouldn't have been so hard on myself.
So, write. Write, write, write. That beginning that's evading you will only hold you back. So, write until it writes itself.
