I’ll start this with an total admission that I really don’t know how other writers do things.  As best I can tell, they all do their own thing with little to no consistency across the writer-spectrum.

I finally nailed where and when I want Family Business to start.   (I’ve had TONS of bits and pieces written – I just didn’t know which bit or piece should start it all.)  As I said earlier, it’s multi-generational, and each generation that has shown up in my brain has had it’s own story – but just doing it all chronologically just hasn’t set quite right with me.

What’s funny to me is that it will be starting with the first character than sprang into existence in my mind.  As I kept thinking about where she came from (lots of stories) and where she was going, and those who would come after her (more stories,) there were many other places it all could have “started” – and yet, Verna Mae Gibson will be where it all starts.  I guess my subconscious was smarter than my conscious was in making her the beginning, even if she is technically in the middle of all of it.

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