What you are about to hear will change how you write forever.
This is Start with this a podcast featuring Night Vale creators Joseph Fink and me, Jeffrey Cranor.
Each episode we discuss a topic and then give you two assignments.
Something to consume and something to create.
Start with this.
The tease art is hard.
Starting is hard.
If you want to start somewhere, you can start with this.
You can start with this.
I'll admit to enjoying the shit out of Dan Brown's mega hit novel, the Da Vinci Code.
I also hated it.
It's contrived and manipulative.
I couldn't stop turning the pages either.
The chapters are short, each one ends with a dun, dun, dun.
And I think, well, shit, I guess I better keep reading to figure out what the code is or whether or not our hero can get out of it alive.
There are two moments in this book I think of all the time.
First is when an antagonist pulls a gun on our hero.
And I'm like, uh, oh, how you gonna escape this one, Pete?
I don't remember the protagonist's name, so I'm gonna go with Pete.
So I start the next chapter.