Knowing where to start: Exploring narrative beginnings inside and outside the creative writing classroom

Sam Meekings*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

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.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)309-327
Number of pages19
JournalWriting and Pedagogy
Volume15
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Apr 25 2023

Keywords

  • BEGINNINGS
  • CREATIVE WRITING
  • NARRATIVE WRITING
  • WRITING PEDAGOGY
  • WRITING PRACTICE

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Education
  • Language and Linguistics
  • Linguistics and Language

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