Welcome to Possum Paper Works’ Writing Tip Rodeo! This is the first post in what I hope will be a series of short weekly tips, tricks, and inspirations for writers like myself. Today I’m looking at the most basic part of writing: how to start.
Writing Tip #1: How to Start Writing:
1. Have an idea you love (or at least like)
Got an idea? That’s all you need. No, really.
It’s okay if it’s not the best thing you’ve ever come up with or you don’t have a full plan for where the idea is headed. If you like it enough to want to write it, chances are your idea has merit. Don’t start doubting yourself before you’ve even put words on paper (or word processor or stone tablet or whatever you use to write).
Just don’t let your idea go to waste.
2. Write that idea down with as much detail you can come up with
Put your words down until you have nothing else to say. Write until you think you might lose yourself to the gods of language and then write some more. Don’t stop until you have said everything there is to be said about your idea.
It sounds easier than it is. You’ll have moments of doubt, flashes of discouragement. You’ll want to throw your writing tools across the room and scream into the void. That’s okay. Take those moments inside of you. Use them to make you stronger, your writing truer. Listen when the words don’t feel right, and fix what you most need to as you go.
But don’t stop writing.
3. Pat yourself on the back, you wrote something!
Editing? Improving? That’ll come eventually. For now, call yourself a writer and enjoy the feeling. Seriously. Did you put words down somewhere? Did you share your idea? You’re a writer.
What you wrote won’t be perfect. It never is the first time, or even the second, third, or hundredth time (if it is, can you share your secret with the rest of us?). That’s fine. I promise. Everyone who writes goes through that. We all have to start somewhere.
Don’t let imperfection keep you from sharing your first idea. Don’t let doubt stop you from writing your next idea.
4. Rinse and repeat
Keep writing. As long as there are ideas in your head, keep letting them out into the universe. No one is going to tell your stories but you.
