Knowing where to start
Exploring narrative beginnings inside and outside the creative writing classroom
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/wap.22457Keywords:
beginnings, creative writing, narrative writing, writing practice, writing pedagogyAbstract
Finding the right way to start a new piece of narrative writing often induces anxiety in writers. This paper will discuss beginnings as a problem for both practitioners and instructors, analysing different practices of how writers select a meaningful point in time at which to start a narrative. It will examine beginning as a theoretical problem and explore the importance of intersectionality when considering how writers and instructors conceptualise beginnings. It will then consider beginning as a pedagogical problem, and how much writing prompts, free and automatic writing exercises, and online writing communities, offer differing responses to this issue. Finally, the paper will discuss different ways that narrative beginnings can be conceptualized and approached.
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