Starting a story can be daunting, when you think about all of the characters, their complex relationships, the plot twists, the dramatic action and whether or not you even have a reasonable ending.

Give yourself something simple to begin with,and capture interest by starting in the middle of things – don’t get bogged down by unimportant details or action.

A technique for jump-starting a story is to use a springboard sentence which starts in the middle, and contains:

• name of central character
• descriptive phrase about that character
• suggestion of where she/he is
• mention of what she/he is doing at the moment they are first seen

Writing prompt: open a story with a springboard sentence- and cut to the chase.