Hello Malice blog readers!
The MALICE Authors will be chatting with the Q4 on Sunday, April 19th!
One of the Q4 members, Erin Latimer has kindly provided us with a guest post about her thoughts on starting a new story. Check out her post below and leave comments and possible questions to be answered tomorrow during the chat!
My favorite things in the world are stories. It doesn’t matter what medium the story is in. Spoken, written down, on a TV show or in the movies. I have a special obsession with the movies.
One of the very best things about stories is the beginning.
Starting something new is exciting. Sitting down and writing “Chapter One” is a sort of promise to yourself. You’re about to go on an adventure. You might have some of it planned out, you might have all of it written down on neat cue cards all in a row, but sooner or later down the line, something is going to surprise you. Some character is going to pop up and demand more attention, or your bad guy is going to throw you for a loop. There’s something new and unusual around the corner.
Sometimes the beginning can be intimidating. You have these grand ideas in your head, shiny pictures that seem so grandiose that you’re not sure if you’re up to the challenge of actually sitting down to write them. What if it doesn’t come out like you picture it? What if you don’t have enough talent to do these ideas justice?
The doubts can become all consuming, so crippling that you can’t actually sit down and start writing. Or you can become obsessed with the perfect beginning, deleting it and rewriting it again and again. But here’s the thing, it won’t ever match what’s in your head, not exactly. The ticket is to be brave, sit down and write it without stopping. Get the beginning from your head onto the paper. You can go back and edit it later.
Chapter one is magical, exciting and intimidating. It’s your first chance to impress your audience, to set the tone for the rest of the story. But it’s important not to let it loom so large in your mind that it becomes something impossible. If you get too hung up on the beginning you’ll never get to the end and finish a project.
So take chapter one for what it is. Just the start of something more exciting. The beginning of a journey, an unfolding saga. Let it sweep you away and carry you onwards, to the next chapter and the next.
Be sure to check out Erin Latimer in the links below!
Website: www.elatimer.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5819671.Erin_Latimer
Twitter: http://twitter.com/ELatimerWrites
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/erin.latimer2?fref=ts
Wattpad: www.wattpad.com/user/ELatimer