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Let’s face it: when you send your writing off in the hopes it will be

published, every word is important. You wouldn’t give yourself permission to get

sloppy after page 37, assuming the editor can handle choppy prose or “inventive”

spelling if she made it that far. But what you may not realize is that the

beginning of your manuscript is by far the most important part because it

will encourage an editor to read on or to toss the whole thing aside.

After all, you may have crafted an admirable middle or a breathtaking ending,

but no one will get there if your beginning is mediocre.
Despite the fact

that more books are being published than ever before, the publishing world is

more competitive than ever before. Agents and editors are inundated with

staggering heaps of unsolicited manuscripts, and it is physically impossible for

them to plow through — in their entirety — every one. The beginning is the

only chance you have to make the right impression.
Face it, unless you have

to, how often do you push through a book when you’re under-whelmed by the

beginning?
Which brings us to some rules for great beginnings. There are

exceptions to every rule, of course, but often those exceptions are only

successful in the hands of experienced writers or those with multi-book deals.

For the writers who make up the majority, it pays to heed what the current

market demands.
Make your beginning shine:
~Start with

action.
“Action” doesn’t necessarily mean a fist fight or an explosion or

a sky-dive gone awry. Action means starting your book or story at a compelling

place, with a scene, with something at stake for your characters. Look closely

and you may find that you have pages of material that shouldn’t be in the

beginning. They fill in some important blanks for readers, but that back story

can safely be moved to somewhere after your opening.
Don’t start your story

with history — start it with a riveting now that grabs the reader by the

collar and doesn’t let him/her turn away.
~Never put dialogue or straight

description in your opening lines.

Fear we all say is natural and most people apparently think that it is OK to
be fearful of someone or something but have you ever took a step back and taken
a look at the actual effects of the fear you feel related to your own life?
Firstly fear can
stifle you decision making, making you procrastinate for so long that eventually
the opportunity has disappeared by the time you work up the courage to take
action on it.
Secondly a feeling of fear often leads to self questioning
about the fear itself and as much as you try to resist the fear you actually
create more of it. This simple premise is based on the phrase 'What you resist
persists'. In this situation the more you focus on the fear the more you are
actually going to enhance that fear in your life by being overwhelmed by fear
and actually thinking positively about the
situation.
Thirdly, thoughts are powerful things! Thoughts attract to you
almost magnetically exactly what you are thinking about so if you are feeling
fearful and thinking of a disease or undesirable circumstance then that is
exactly what you will be creating in your life.
So how to reverse the power
of fear and put you in charge I hear you ask? Just remember the life process of:
conceive-create-experience. This is
the real key to breaking away from fear and achieving what you really desire in
your life. All of these three parts are equal and interlinked. If you can
conceive it you can create it if you can create it you can experience it. If you
can experience it you can certainly conceive more of the same.