The Way to Begin

Ideas are easy, words on paper are hard, especially for beginners and new writers. The Way to Begin takes writers beyond ‘How do I start?’ by providing a step-by-step path to confronting the blank page and actually writing a story’s opening pages. These practical steps explain how to narrow and define story choices, create characters and know character motivations - even for nonfiction projects - and reveals a method for overcoming a new writer’s greatest challenge: how to get from idea to actual opening words on paper. Author Mike Harkins also includes insights from his four-decade creative career, sharing guidance on how to research, managing expectations, and how not to be overwhelmed by the magnitude of completing a first manuscript. Every story’s elements are the same, whether novel, memoir, narrative nonfiction, or screenplay. The Way to Begin’s method, practical steps, and advice to new writers combine to get a story out of a writer’s head, develop it, and put words on paper or screen. It belongs on every writer’s how-to-write bookshelf.