Commencement

I have had the pleasure of attending two graduations this past week–my son’s from college and my nephew’s from high school. Both young men have worked extremely hard for the past four years to get to this day. Celebrating it with them has truly been a wonderful. But commencement, these new beginnings has made me think of my own new beginnings–every time I sit down to start a new book.

Beginning a book has a good deal in common with moving on from high school or college.

First of all, there is the big question of what you’re going to do now. Where you’re going to go–what your book is going to be about. Just like starting a new school or a new job, when you start a new book you’ve got to have a goal in mind–where is that book going to end up? And how are you going to get there–some idea, be it a detailed outline or only a few major turning points is necessary in both life and writing.

Also when you have a new beginning in life as well as a book, you’re going to be meeting all sorts of new and wonderful people–your hero and heroine are there waiting to meet you and you will have the pleasure of getting to know these new friends. There, of course, will be some not so pleasant people, there always are.

To move forward in this new adventure both in life and in writing, you need to be captivated. You need to actually be looking forward to what is to come–you’ve got to grab your reader’s attention straight off the bat and pull them in, making them care about what’s about to happen. Likewise, if my nephew wasn’t so excited about going to college, my son excited to start his new job, they might not bother embarking on this new adventure in their lives. Happily both are eager to get started, so should you be when you begging a new book and your reader be when reading this book after you’ve published it.

Once you know what you’re going to do, where you are going and are eager to get started, then it’s just a matter of sitting down and getting to work–that is, of course, the hardest part, but it’s also the wonderful part because it leads to happy endings–like Commencement.