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HOW TO BEGIN A BOOK

By Cassandra Skevis

Okay, you’ve got a great idea for a book and you can’t wait to put it down on paper.  So what’s the first step?  Do you just jump in with both feet and see what happens?  While it’s worth a try, I wouldn’t recommend it.  Once you start writing it’s easy to get caught up in the details and get lost in minutiae.  Unless you’re Tom Robbins (who actually does write like that) the best way to start your book is to invest some heavy duty thinking in creating what movie people call a “treatment.” 

A treatment is a ten to twenty page document outlining each and every scene that will take place in your story. When you’re writing the actual book, you may often be tempted to explore avenues that suddenly open up for your characters.  But if you’ve done your treatment, you will have already explored these possibilities in your head, and will have determined that they are not where you want to go.  With your treatment in hand, you are able to stay on course, and avoid wasting valuable time.  More writers get lost in the middle of a story than anywhere else.

By taking the time to think it all out and write it down beforehand, you will have devised a roadmap that keeps you on track and heading in the right direction and at the right speed.  Your treatment is an invaluable tool containing all the major plot points and taking you scene by scene from your fabulous beginning to your final denouement.  No writer should be without one.