Where Does an Aspiring Writer Even Start?

If you're like me, you've got stories you want to tell. Cool ideas. Fantastic characters. Dreams of being the next (fill in the blank here). You've eyed the spot on the bookstore shelves where your novels, impressively thick with glossy covers, will sit, waiting for your bright-eyed fans to grab in excitement. You've practiced your autograph, just like so.

Maybe, like me, you've wanted to take part in NaNoWriMo for years but were never able to make the time. (November is crunch time for many students, plus it's right before the holidays, so it is reasonably one of worst times to commit to writing about 1,500 words a day.)

Maybe you've actually taken part in it, and like me, faltered after a few days of writing here and there. Some days it's easy to get to that required word count. Other days, the words just aren't there.

Where is the best place to start, though?

Here's what I think.

While writing The Fracture of a Dream, I started with the end. Specifically, I knew how the story would end, and I wrote the final scene, the final words. As I continued writing the rest of the novel, the story developed and the characters evolved. I had to edit the end once or twice, yes. However, its current incarnation remains faithfully close to the original.

By starting with the end, it allowed me to pitch the characters in the correct trajectories throughout the story, already knowing what would happen to them. It gave me a clear direction in which to proceed.

I'd absolutely advise something like this for anyone starting out.

Ren D.