How do you start your story?

You, the writer – you know how to start a story, right? But do you know how NOT to start a story? On her post on the Institute of Children’s Literature blog, Jan Fields asks the following questions:  “ … where are you starting? Are you engaging the reader or confusing him? Are you getting the story moving or starting at a long dead stop?” In her article, “Don’t Start This Way – Unless it Works,” Fields offers tips on how to “engage the reader and not bore him” with your opening. So do you start with dialogue, a scene, a character? Read her post to figure out what NOT to do. 

Library

Here’s a treat. An interview with author Jon Scieszka and illustrator Lane Smith on the Design Mom blog. They collaborated on numerous books including the Caldecott Honor book, The Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales and The True Story of the Three Little Pigs. 

“The best children's book writers are not people who have kids, but people who write from the child within themselves." Andrea Brown