The One-Sentence Foundation

Once you've figured out your heart and voice as a writer, you can move on to the work itself.  This is the part that looks so easy and often turns out to be so hard...maddeningly, discouragingly, heart-breakingly hard if you're not careful.  It doesn't take too long to figure out that there's more to it than just sitting down and writing.  You have to have a plan.  You wouldn't start building a house without a blueprint or hop in the car and drive somewhere unfamiliar without directions.  Jesus warns us in Luke 14:28-30 against building a tower without counting the cost.  While that passage refers to discipleship, the concept can apply here as well: If you try to start writing without a plan in mind, chances are you're going to have an unfinished tower of your own.  I know because I've been there, done that.

Fortunately, I've learned a good way to help plan my writing, and now I want to pass it on to you.  The first step is a one-sentence foundation.  Start out with one sentence that captures the main idea of your story, like a little blurb.  You probably should try for something longer than 5 words but shorter than 20, give or take.  Like a good blurb, it should not give away the ending.  It should be tantalizing, making you want to know more--and it's as much about tantalizing yourself as it is anyone else.  You have to make it something that you want to go back and build upon.  Here are a few examples:
A pro wrestler issues a challenge, only to have it accepted by an unexpected foe ("The Alabama Hammer").A street preacher learns that the end of the world is coming much sooner than he expects ("Doomsday Falls on a Tuesday This Year").A depressed young man develops a bizarre obsession with a flea market trinket ("Enamored").The next step, of course, will be to build off of that one-sentence foundation, which we will discuss next time.  Until then, Philippians 4:13.--SMS