Starting point

Among the many bits of advice my father gave me when I was very young was how to begin drinking a bowl of hot soup. Big whoop, I can hear you say. How is that anything to do with writing? Well, the advice was all about logic. And it worked. (It was to start at the outside, where it was cooler, and work my way in. Natch.) Being a nitwit, I often forgot that and plunged straight in… and got burned.

Still, it did teach me that throughout life there are different ways