Delectable Beginnings

I have returned! Stop booing! You knew this was going to happen. Deal with it.

Since I missed posting any photos for my "Sunday’s Shutterbug Show," I have decided to combine the post with "Tuesday’s Travesty of Tips." (Yeah, you like the titles . . . do not act as if you don’t.) So, folks, hold on to your keyboards! You are getting two (that’s right, TWO) stories for the price of one post, which is free anyway. Photos combined with a writing moral. It can’t get any better than this - well, yeah. It would be better if I knew what I was talking about in the first place. But it could be worse. I could be a politician talking out my a**!

Grab your napkins. This is going to be juicy.

Young Peaches.

Unripe Pears.

Blueberries just turning blue.

The start of grapes - no, the photo is not upside down. The grapes grow upright as they age. The weight of the fully ripe clusters will pull the stems down.

Did you hear it through the grapevine that I was posting photos of fruit? It was just peachy-keen to go outside and take the pictures from different areas around the property. And don’t feel blue that none of the berries are ripe yet. The time will come when I can pick the fruit and enjoy it without worrying about ruining any diet and enlarging my pear-shaped body.

Okay. That’s done. Let us move on.

Beginnings. Everything has a beginning, whether it is fruit or a story. And it is this beginning that draws the hungry mind to contemplate how delicious it will be to sink teeth into such a tasty morsel and declare it good eats.

Are you still following me? Great! Let’s keep going.

During the early stages, a person might show some interest in pursuing such delights. But they are also wary. Perhaps they are worried about not getting enough fiber. So there has to be something tempting them to stick around and pull back the cover. Something needs to be there to hold their interest as they watch the object ripen until the succulent climax comes and they gorge themselves on the fruits of your labor, the plot of your story.

Ah! Now you see where I am going with this post. Analogy time: Stories are like fruit - you nurture tempting beginnings (or grow the fruit) to draw a person into wanting to read your words in anticipation toward a flavorful blast of sheer ecstasy at the climactic ending. Then they will lay dazed on the floor, both mind and belly sated, as they proclaim their satisfaction with a hearty belch.

I guess the advice is that you have to write an interesting beginning to draw a reader into your story. A good beginning needs to lure the person in so they will read to the end and satisfy their minds.

Did any of this make sense to you? Well, that makes one of us.

I’m hungry. Time to eat!