Every week Les writes for about 30 minutes. That’s it. 30 minutes every Saturday in our writing group. She writes beginnings. She pulls a prompt and from there runs with it. She never finishes the story, leaving us in an agonizing hanging sort of way as we wonder what happens. But each week she pulls a new prompt and starts a new beginning. She says she is going to write a book of her beginnings. I rather like that idea. A book of starts. You could travel off with them yourself, or heck, as our writing group suggested, have them for a creative writing class in high school where the kids have to finish the stories.
I actually understand that feeling. Writing a beginning. Most of my ideas for novels came from a beginning from a dream mixed with a song lyric or song and some random thought. Nothing fancy, but suddenly a whole world has exploded out into this world of characters that are connected to other novel’s characters. I know, books start with beginnings. It’s a duh moment. But what I mean is, I never plan to have a novel. I never sit down and go, “I’m going to write a novel.” I just have an idea so I start writing a ‘blurb’ of sorts, and then I’m planning houses and names and places they visit and who is in like with who (I say like because while love is the ultimate goal, it starts off as a like).
John Ireland in 1917, by Jane Emmet de Glehn
Today I woke up to the sounds of a piano boldly crashing as my alarm radio zinged on to NPR’s First Concert Saturday…. John Ireland’s Legend symphony was 3 minutes in and it hit me like a Rachmaninoff dirge. But I kind of liked it. In a “it woke me up jazzed and ready for my writing group” sort of inspiration. So I wrote a beginnings because of it.
“She woke to the sounds of John Ireland’s ‘Legend’ symphony. Dramatic piano’s plundering the deep and depth of a gray and solemn day. Raw like Rachmaninoff. Depressing. Moody. The radio crackled with static as the pounding woke her up, her mind light-hearted and ready to start the day despite the dirge.”
That’s it. Nothing much, but a beginning non-the-less. I like the idea of a book of beginnings. Most of my writing group, other than the unholy writings of Sera who had too many novels plotted out, writes beginnings. Maybe it’s just our way of getting a start.
Kate
Kate's Bookshelf 
i generally wake up to my little dog doing his”it’s time to pee” dance on the bed next to me as the big dog plants a wet nose and an even wetter lick on my cheek. But every morning it’s a little different like the phone ringing. Whatever happens, every day that I wake up, it’s to a new beginning. Sometimes it leads to a significant event. Sometimes I turn the page.
Beginnings are exciting. Getting over that first hump, the first problem is the big test I find. Do that and you get some momentum 🙂
Beginnings are so exciting and heart racing. Sometimes the racing is what keeps me going. That adrenaline burst. Sometimes it is just pushing yourself to start. I have trouble with that.
I love this post! I also love how a symphony inspired you to write a beginning. Beautiful!
Well thank you so much! My family sometimes mocks my love of classical, especially the piece that inspired this post. I played it and a quick turn it off was said after only a few moments. I have started setting my alarm to NPR’s station and it wakes me to classical every time. Thank you thank you.