Aspiring Novelists

After I completed a chapter in my novel the other day,  I opened to my outline and reviewed what came next.  Once I worked out all the details, I sat in front of my computer and tried to write.  Unfortunately, despite having all the information in front of me,  I could not figure out how to begin the chapter.  I'd compose a sentence, backspace through it, try again, backspace, try again---Well, you get where I'm coming from, I could not start the paragraph to save my life.  As I puzzled over this block, it occurred to me that beginnings had been an ongoing problem.  I've devoted days to first paragraphs. They are the most important part of the chapter, draw the readers in and set the tone for what is to come.  Nothing is worse than having to sift through loads of unnecessary exposition just to get to the point.  This said, I want to ensure that my beginning are focu...

This is a post for Alex J. Cavanaugh's Insecure Writer's Support Group  Sorry my post is a day late, but this has been a daunting week.  I had to deal with some personal issues that arose with my teenager.  Without going into too much detail, when I confronted my son about his behavior, he tried to turn the situation on me.  Of course I stopped him cold, but not before he fed me a few snippets from  conversations we had over the years.  While doing this, I was taken aback by how often he misconstrued what I said.  Seriously, his interpretation was totally off the mark.  This experience caused me to wonder whether miscommunication occurred in literature. It certainly exists in e-mail and texts.  I can't count the times I misinterpreted the meaning of a message.  Since my stories have a moral to them,  I suddenly became concerned/insecure abou...