I’m someone who believes it’s essential to work on your craft, even though I’ve written and published quite a few books and short stories. My latest exercise happened while I was reading the short stories in the book A Moment on the Edge: 100 Years of Crime Stories by Women by Elizabeth George. There’s been a prevalent myth going around in writers’ circles for a very long time that says a novel must begin with action if you want to immediately grab a reader’s attention.

I have to admit, I bought into the myth for a long time, and if I were to go back to some of my books, I know I’d find the first scene starting with a good dose of action. (Okay, I lied. Because of that last sentence, I went back in my writing to actually find a novel that begins with pure action. I couldn’t find one, so I guess on some level, my subconscious had already figured this out)

Anyway, I began the exercise during an advanced-depth workshop led by Dean Wesley Smith. In it, he suggested a great way to study beginnings in novels is to write down the first 400 words of that novel. During the exercise, we were to see how far into the story the author actually got before writing some action.

Writing out the first 400 words of the short stories I’m reading, instead of simply reading them, opened up the author’s style to me in a way I’ve never experienced before. I can’t explain it exactly, other than to say that I drilled down into the words, the nuances, the punctuation, and the setting more than I usually do. I saw things I’d missed the first time around.

It’s an invaluable exercise, and I recommend it, especially to newer writers. If you want to learn to write, you need to try new exercises that might seem mundane and boring, and when a writer as established as Dean Wesley Smith recommends one, do it.

BTW, that action myth I was talking about? So far, out of fifteen short stories I’ve read in this anthology, none had action in the first 400 words. They all pull the reader into the story through setting first, and then, and only then, incorporate the action. Again, if you’ve only just begun your writing journey or are a seasoned writer, try this one. It’s a lot of fun and an eye-opening experience.