To Write or Writhe? 5 Ideas to Help Start Your Writing

Picking up the pen, placing fingers on the keys or just thinking in the bathtub, the first few moments of writing anything can be painful. Everyone knows the opening line has to be catching, peculiar and fresh. So the pen drops and the fingers rest while another person dunks her head below bathwater. If a person can write a book, ten books or an encyclopedia set, why can’t he start a simple sentence? Here are five ideas to try and get started:

1. Forget Genesis

Too many people think they have to start with the first anything. It makes sense, without light you can’t see structures, and the whole story is just a stumbling mess. Or is it? The best advice I give to anyone struggling to get a first line is to just start writing anywhere in the story. I know plenty of people that start at the end. Assuming you will edit and rewrite later, there should be no harm in jumping around. Just because the reader starts at the beginning doesn't mean the writer has to as well. I like to write in a villanelle style first, and then piece everything together somewhere later in the writing process, and especially while editing.

2. Preamble

Maybe you aren’t ready to write at all. I’ve been there, in the mood to make something (or I have a paper due in 24 hours), but no inspiration seems to make it through the mind’s filter. Stop focusing so directly on the story. It sounds stupid, but it works. Start writing about a person, any person. It can even be a friend. Build up a single character her life and emotions, or favorite foods. There are plenty of character constructing models on the web to help. Don’t worry about the whole piece just yet. Instead focus on a point before the story starts. You can even make a web and begin to construct some simple ideas just about that one piece. It will lead to a thoroughly constructed story down the road, as well!

3. Borrow

Plenty of people have histories they try to leave behind, but if you can’t think of what to write, starting with your past is never wrong. You can edit and change, but don’t feel like it’s wrong to use your own experiences to write a story. Think of a time that really changed you, or an oddly memorable moment. I heard an author speak once on how he saw a small foreign speaking child in an airport. His tone was pleading for help, but no one knew what language he was speaking, so they didn’t know how to help. It is an odd thing to see, but he wrote an entire book on it. Take something you’ve seen or know and use it (don’t plagiarize, of course).

4. Draw

It seems simple and silly to say “get some crayons and construction paper,” but in a sense that is what this means. Draw (with pen/pencil/computer paper if you prefer), and make sure you let your imagination run free. It is strange, but a person allows more freedom and creativity into a drawing than into writing, and it is one of the things that can stall a writer in her tracks. So draw! Plenty of authors enjoy drawing their characters even after they have a piece written/in the process. I have, not for every piece, but definitely for some of my favorite and best received pieces. You don’t even have to be good at drawing. So pick up a pen and start doodling a character, a monster or even a house with a smoking chimney. Just let loose.

5. Leave

Staring at a computer screen tends to be more frustrating than helpful. The blankness, the blinking cursor and the empty sound of motionless keys can drive a writer to madness. Of course, at that point, it is nearly impossible to think about anything. Get up and go for a run. Do the dishes. Mop the house. Anything that requires physical labor, but not too much thinking will work. Start an activity that frees up your mind. For me, it's usually sewing, though washing dishes will always be a close second. Let yourself think while doing something else. It helps relieve some of the stress and ease the tension of over-focusing on one thing. It also gets things really clean.

Don't get too frustrated, because at least the two of us commonly get stuck in the beginning (and I can assure you many more). It isn't easy to create a world, or build within one, so don't get frustrated if it is hard sometimes. Just relax and write on!