Why you should always start with childhood

Everyone lights up talking about being a kid. The house they grew up in. The games they played. The trouble they got into. It's the safest, warmest place to begin.

Childhood is before the complicated stuff. Before careers and relationships and loss. It's a time most people remember fondly, or at least with distance. Starting here builds trust.

The details are vivid. People remember the wallpaper in their bedroom, the sound of the ice cream van, the teacher who scared them. These details make stories come alive.

It sets the stage. Once you've captured where someone came from, everything that follows has context. The reader understands why they made the choices they made.

Start with the house. "What was the house like?" "What could you see from the window?" "Where did you go to be alone?" The house is the anchor of every childhood story.