I have never heard of an author who didn’t struggle over the first sentence of his novel.
Sitting down at the computer (or, if you’re old-fashioned like me, with a legal pad and pen) and typing out those first few words. Trying to transform a magically vision of the mind into words.
Why is starting so hard?
Well it has to do with that vision of the story—that picture authors get in their mind of the way their story should be. Every author wants their written work to exactly mirror that mental vision. They struggle, agonize over the first words, wishing them to be perfect.
Isn’t that how this painful process goes? I’ve done it too. There have been times when I have spent hours trying to write a single opening paragraph.
If you struggle over starting, here are three ways to get a jump start past that frustrating beginning.
Accept the Imperfection of Your Words
No matter how long you agonize over your opening words, they’re not going to be perfect. They’re not going to perfectly capture that mental vision. They’re honestly probably going to stink. Before you’re done with the story, chances are you’ll change your entire beginning.
Okay, so maybe that doesn’t sound like good news. But I promise, when you understand this, it makes starting so much easier. Why? Because once you’ve embraced the fact that your first attempt at the beginning of your story will probably be edited out later, you are free to make mistakes.
When you know that none of the words are permanent, you can just start. Every first draft of a story opening is lousy. That’s why we edit. So please—just write. Get past that first page and get the words on the page. You can go back later and edit (please, do).
Don’t Start at the Beginning
There is no magic rule that compels you to write a story in a specific order. Start the second chapter. Write the ending. Begin where you are comfortable and get some words on the page. Have a great idea about that tricky section later in the story? Go ahead and write it. You may find that simply by writing something else, you stimulate your creative muscles and words begin to come.
Be Brave
Most of the time, the force that holds writers back is fear. We have all heard the murmurings. “What if this stinks? Am I wasting my time?”. The desire to be perfect and the fear of failure are two of a writer’s worst enemies. They are detrimental to writing. They paralyze us and keep us from doing the work.
But the only way to escape the fear is to be bold. Start anyway. Know you won’t be perfect. Except the reality that you may fail.
Just write anyway.
The hardest part
… of any skill is actually doing it.
Don’t put this off. Start something today. Have a story idea that your soul longs to? Grab a cup of tea and scribble out a page or two. Have a pile of unfinished of stories? Pick one and work on it for fifteen minutes.
Don’t think, don’t check Facebook. Just write.
Tracing Wonder 