The Way to Begin

By Michael W. Harkins

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.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0996567232
• ISBN13: 9780996567237
• Release Date: September 2018
• Publisher: Story and Pictures
• Length: 70 Pages
• Weight: 0.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.0" x 8.0"