Writing Advice from the Bookshelf–Madeleine L’Engle on Starting a Story

One of the things I learned in college was that I usually was wise to start my story where I thought it ought to start and then cut a minimum of the first paragraph. I had to write my way into where the story began. And that is still often true. You can’t avoid writing your way to where the story begins. That’s often a necessary prelude to getting to the beginning. You have to learn to realize when you have gotten to the place where the story begins, where suddenly you find yourself in a tactile world, a concrete world.

Chase, Carole F., ed. Madeleine L’Engle Herself: Reflections on a Writing Life. Colorado Springs, CO: Shaw Books, 2001. 244. Print.