Writing: How To Start

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I have periodically said I am going to do a series on writing. I think I’ll do it from start to finish: from writing your first pages to publication. Or at least this is what I intend to do. Either way, today’s post is about how to start! Or more specifically, how I started, because everyone writes differently.

I want to be clear that I do not have an MFA or a formal writing education. I took the bare minimum of English classes in college and quite frankly barely remember anything. If you possess these, you are way more qualified than me so don’t read on! This post is really for if you are starting out, with no experience or idea…you’re sitting at your desk answering a bunch of work emails or working on a presentation or counting down the minutes between baby’s nap…and thinking you want to start a book. So okay, here we go!

#1: Butt in chair hours. Otherwise known as….you’ve got to write to have something. Write whatever you want! But make yourself write. For a certain amount of time per day. It can be hours. Or simply minutes in between other tasks. It can be random musings you know will never make it anywhere. In the beginning, I really think it doesn’t matter. You’ve just got to get in the habit of writing, in the routine, and eventually something will come of it. I promise.

For my first two books, I was also a strict word count per day kind of writer. For my third (which may not end up being my third, I’m in the flailing period right now) I’ve given myself more of a pass. Online schooling is just sapping so much of my mental energy no matter how much I try. And on that note…

2. You will flail. I think you would be surprised (or maybe not) by the number of overachievers who I receive messages from, frustrated that their novel isn’t coming together. I think when you’re used to a certain kind of success, you can get easily discouraged when it doesn’t come to you.

I also think that novels are like TV or movies…it’s really easy to have an opinion on them (which you should!) and name all the things you don’t like…it’s easy to see what you might have changed to make something a masterpiece. And when you think this you might get the sense that if you were to only do it, it’d be so easy. After all, you’re just bursting with ideas and know what’s wrong with everything else, right? But it’s really almost never like that. The struggle is an integral part of the writing process and you have to go through it. Repeat this three times. I’m still repeating it to myself, now.

3. Start with Microsoft Word, Google Docs, or a good ol’ notebook. Yes, there are all kinds of fancy writing software out there, which you can explore later. Honestly, even if you are going to write electronically, maybe you can buy a notebook anyway, to jot down little interesting things that pop into your mind. Not because you need it because sometimes notebook shopping is the funnest part (wink wink). But first, start simple and with software you already know. Open a new document and title it “Manuscript or “Messing Around.” If you don’t have any stories yet, just write anything, a new ending to a movie, a new ending or beginning to a book you liked. Or little things that happened to you during the day. Things people said. Revenge fiction about someone irritating in your life.

4. Don’t think ahead too much. As in: don’t contemplate what the movie deal is going to look like, whether Margot Robbie will be too old by then to play a young you, whether your friends and family will hate your book, if your boss is going to be mad. I don’t list these things to be flippant: we are ALL egomaniacs to some degree and they are normal things to wonder (fantasize) about! Yet if these things are in the back of your head while you write I truly believe that you won’t be able to get anything down, OR if you do, it won’t be as good as if you did it with a clean mind. Don’t worry about anyone judging you or anonymous internet people hating your work (nobody cares about you as much as you think). Just start with some words, and write your heart out.

If you have any questions/comments, please leave below!