Just a thought.

It’s passing at first. You walk down the hallway, up the stairs without the light thinking about it. You walk into the bedroom, ignoring the thought as you ready for bed. You sit on the edge of the bed, sinking into the softness as the thought mills around in your tired brain.

Ignore it. You’ve got better things to play out.

You lay your head on the pillow. You close your eyes slowly. The gentle glow from the TV is soothing, and the thought refuses to go away. You thought you could make it go away.

I mean, it’s only a thought. A brief moment, a flash through your subconscious.

But that thought brought your subconscious back into focus.

It brings you back together.

It pulls you apart.

The first glance into something new always sticks with you the hardest. It’s always the most vivid thought that keeps playing over and over again until you finally do something with it.

New stories are like that. Once they have you in their clutches, the new story doesn’t let you go. It builds. Gains momentum. Roars like a freight train coming around the bend. The fun and excitement of exploring new ideas, new directions, and new characters are what keep writer’s going through tough times when it’s not coming so easily anymore. New experiences keep our minds fresh and our writing strong so that those beginnings don’t turn into soggy middles and bad endings with loose ends.

But with all beginnings, we stumble and we fall. Beginnings bruise us from the inside out as we push through doubt and fear that our new start isn’t as great as we originally thought. So the trick is to work past the doubts; because in the beginning doubt will be the only thing that keeps you from moving forward. And with something new, doubt is just not acceptable.

So forge on, great writer, don’t let that beginning beat you down.

What is your favorite part about the beginning, whether it be from a writer or reader’s aspect?