How you begin & How you develop the Beginning--a strategy

•How to begin

Character in a situation…and the situation must have potential for CONFLICT

•A boy and a girl from warring families fall in love. (this may have been done once or twice)

•A boy’s father dies and he suspects it’s murder—worse that his uncle is involved and maybe his mother.

•A policeman owns ten cats and comes home one night and they’re all gone.

•A sea captain becomes obsessed with finding and killing a large sea mammal.

THEN TO DEVELOP THE BEGINNING•YOUR MC WANTS SOMETHING BUT SOMETHING GETS IN THE WAY SO THERE IS A STRUGGLE.

•NEEDS SOMETHING—DEEPER STRUGGLE

•OR ANOTHER WAY TO THINK OF THIS--

•MC HAS GOAL/AN OBSTACLE GETS IN THE WAY.

HOWEVER YOU SEE IT—the character’s conflict WITH self, another character, society, natural world, supernatural world, technology drives the story, develops characters, creates progression