I got two or three stories I think would be great...or at least peachy-keen...and I have no idea how to start them.

Then don't start them! Begin at the end or the middle or do a sort of an outline if you know basically what your plot will be or do character synopsis.

Blank Word doc just hanging in space, looking at me, pleading to be filled with words...

It can sense your fear. Try a pen and a piece of scratch paper. Nothing as significant as a full "sheet" of Word doc.

I like Wordpad and Notepad these days, too. It feels more intimate than firing up the full word processor.

Fear of blank white space is what keeps me writing drabbles. I usually compose those in my head on my commute home. Too few words or too many are easily fixed once I'm home - 100 words is cake.

I agree with lisa--just plunge in wherever. I haven't yet written a story where I haven't changed the beginning at least twice.

I've got a question about the synopsis for my alternate history. (I hate synopses. HATE them.) I'm thinking of entering it in the science fiction/fantasy category for the Pacific Northwest Writers Association contest this year, partly in hopes of winning cash money and prestige, but mostly to get totally fresh, anonymous eyes onto the piece. So I feel like I need to lead with what makes it *alternate* history and therefore appropriate for the fantasy category (the only other choice would be mainstream/literary, and that's SO not me), since I don't have dragons like Naomi Novik or magic like Susanna Clarke.

Anyway, so far I've thought of two ways to open the synopsis, and I don't think either really works:

1. The "what-if." I.e., "What if X happened, leading to Y? Big Damn Hero finds out when he returns home from Faraway Place in the middle of Event Y..."

2. The "in a world." In a world where X causes Y, Big Damn Hero must learn to lead a ragtag, unlikely band..."

I don't like the "what-if" because it feels too academic, as if I were writing a counterfactual speculation for Military History magazine instead of the first in a series in the vein of Sharpe or Aubrey/Maturin that just happens to be set in an alternate reality. As for "in a world," can you hear that without thinking of Movie Voiceover Guy? I can't.

So. Am I overthinking this? Is there another way to pithily get across the idea of "In this book, X happened, which if you were paying attention in history class, you know wasn't really the case, but I think it's a reasonably plausible scenario, at least for the purposes of writing a series of adventure novels, so get that in your head and come along for the ride"?

How about diving straight in? You know, "It's July of 1815, and ever since Bonaparte's stunning victory at Waterloo etc. etc."...?

Hm. I could do something like, "When Famous Name died in Premature Year, no one could have guessed that the death of such an obscure and insignificant young man would lead twenty-five years later to Event Y."

Yeah, I like that. I also think "What if" is okay and in the sci-fi tradition of describing alternate histories, but the "When So-and-so died" is grabbier.

Write whatever you have, MM! A scrap of dialog, a scene, an outline, whatever is in your head that is making you think the story could work. It doesn't have to burst full-grown from your forehead.

Pay no attention to the ideas I keep shoving over into the corner because I need to focus on doing laundry and unpacking. I want to read yours.

Is anyone interested in taking a look at my essay that's sort of about sex, but without very many Dirty Parts...it's for the feministing yes means yes anthology(Well, if they accept it) Deadline's in March, but I want a few weeks to polish it. Thanks!

Erika - if you want my take, my e-mail profile is good.

Cool...I'll finish writing the draft over the weekend and send it Monday. Thank you!