On Writing a Book

It's your story to tell, but you don't know where to start. It's fiction with roots in lives you know, but where to begin. You need to keep moving back in time until the story has a natural trajectory.  Then you unravel the words, like a skein of yarn, pushing to understand the way each character moves forward. But plot doesn't move in a straight line-- it stutters, stops, proceeds with caution, then runs ahead. Taking command. Shouting for the writer to follow.

Agreeing to follow is a risk.