Start With the Middle, Not the Beginning

Most people try to write stories from start to finish. That's why it is often difficult to complete stories, or they get stuck on the opening and never make it to the good part. It is particularly difficult when your story is not neatly packaged, and you need to give background to it, the heart of the story, or what happened afterwards.

After writing hundreds of these under deadline with a word budget, I learned to start with the core moment. I still use the same structure: Desire, Obstacle, Outcome.

What did you want? What got in your way? What happened as a result?

But I started with the main focus.

Write that first.

300 words.

The heart of your story.

Once you have the middle, the beginning and end become obvious. You open with something that pulls readers in. You close by circling back. You will often find out that you don’t even need to add anything because the middle of the story gives you enough for a complete and shareable 1,000 words.

You can't write a strong opening until you know what you're opening to.

Try this today:

I'm just going to write the middle of that story I keep telling. That's it.

Pick the story you mentioned yesterday (or any story). Write just the middle: What you wanted, what got in your way, what happened.

Don't worry about how it starts or ends yet. Just get the core down.

Reply and tell me: what's the middle of your story?

P.S. This "middle-first" approach is how I help writers complete stories in 4 days during The Story Frame Sprint bootcamp.