Mistake Number 5

Bickham is getting serious with this one. What he calls “warming up the engines” I have also called “throat clearing.” I believe it is a useful tool in doing a first draft of a story—spelling out the background or the setting or the other static, backward looking details that ground the story—but that probably is not where the finished story is going to begin. The author clears his or her throat for a couple of pages, then gets to the real action of the story, or the “threat” or the “moment of change” as Bickham helpfully suggests:

“It is at this moment of crucial change, whatever it may be, that your story starts. Identify the moment of change, and you know when your story must open. To begin in any other way is to invite disaster.”

#5 Dont Warm Up Your Engines