A lot of people struggle with starting a story. All the potentials, the blank page, it can be incredibly daunting. There’s a lot of reasons for that and I think one of them is the fact the start shows you just how much there is to go. With no steps yet taken, the end is the furthest it can be, and you might not even be able to work out just how long until you get there, to a finalised piece of work. All that journey between the start and the end can be so intimidating, it puts people off. But I’m here to say that it doesn’t have to be that intimidating and that there are so many ways to break down that fear of starting so that you can begin your story. Because, if you don’t ever begin, you’ll never get to the end and if there’s a story you want to tell, then it deserves the attempt. It won’t necessarily be easy because creating sometimes needs the difficulty to make it worth it, but the start doesn’t have to be the hardest part.
So, what are the ways to make it easier?
Well, you don’t have to start at the beginning. It’s likely fair to say that, because you’re starting the creative process, you think you have to start at the beginning, with the first scene or the first chapter because that makes sense, right? That’s where it all begins so shouldn’t you begin there too?
The answer is no, not at all. Maybe you have a story you want to write but you don’t know how it’s going to begin, so why should you start there? What if you know the ending or the middle? If you don’t know the start just yet, then don’t start there. To some, that might seem nonsensical because every story needs a start. Whilst that’s true, you don’t have to begin there if the start is something you’re struggling with. If the very beginning of the story is what’s stopping you from putting words onto the page, then start somewhere else. Start at the second chapter, the middle, there’s no reason you can’t start at the end either. Wherever you need to start to get some of the story written, do that, it doesn’t matter where in the story it sits because you can go back and forth all you want after it’s written.
Even better, you can start with your favourite scenes. Perhaps you know where your story begins, where the climax will sit, and you know how it’ll end too, but you haven’t started it yet. Maybe that’s because you don’t have all the pieces but just specific scenes in your head, and perhaps you have an idea for where they will sit in the story as a whole but you don’t know how you’ll get to these moments just yet. Well, I say write those scenes. It doesn’t matter that things may be out of order, that there will be a touch of chaos in your story (what is writing if not mixed with a little chaos here and there?), what matters is that you have started getting this story onto the page. As above, once you have the pieces, you can put them together later. If you don’t have any pieces, what can you arrange into a story? Things might change as you edit, but that’s part of the process. If you don’t start creating, there’s no process to work with.
This is also a good tip because it means you really focus on exactly what you want to write and, in future drafts, this can make your story more concise. Sometimes a story needs a little filler, but if you’re able to chop it down into a nice, sleek story, that’s often the best way to tell it. In writing your favourite scenes, you’re often already writing the bits that matter most within your story and piecing them together afterwards can eliminate some bulk that might be more prominent if you hadn’t started with just those scenes. So not only is this a good tip to get your story started, it’s also a good tip to make sure you’re writing the strongest version of that story too.
If you don’t yet have any favourite scenes but you know the story you want to tell, just block it out first. Maybe you know the beats of the story or where certain things need to fall but you need it a little more fleshed out before you can truly begin. If that is the case, write it like that. The first time through, it doesn’t have to be fully fleshed out, you can simply go through the story in very rough sentences explaining what will happen without going into all that much detail. If that’s what you need to get something, just anything onto a page, that counts as a beginning. It doesn’t have to be the most beautiful thing in the world to start with, it just has to be there and if short descriptors of what’s going to happen is how you start, then that’s all the start you need.
Whether you’re a plotter or a pantser, there’s always ways to get yourself into beginning a story. For those unaware of these terms, plotters are those who plot to the tiniest detail before being able to write anything, and pantsers are those who have a rough idea of a story and just get going, letting it take them where it needs to go and making decisions as they write. I’m combination of the two, as I’m sure many are. But it doesn’t matter which you are, as long as it gets you writing. There’s no way that’s better than the other, they both have their advantages and disadvantages, and what matters most is that, whichever you may be, you’re getting your story written. If you are a plotter, you’ll get to your story later than a pantser but you have to make sure you don’t spend so much time plotting that you never get anything written. If you’re a pantser, maybe you have an easier time getting things written but getting things finished is another matter entirely. What you want as a writer is to be able to start a story but to also make sure it gets the ending it deserves too, which is why you shouldn’t let whichever kind of writer you are stop you from getting your story started and also finished.
When it comes down to it, why do you want to write this story? What was the inspiration? Was it a character? Was it a setting? Was it an ending, a beginning, an image? Whatever that inspiration is, build on it, give it a structure, a point. Is it a message you want to convey, is there a theme you want to explore? You have to find your inspiration point and build on it until it becomes a fully-fleshed idea. A lot of my ideas come from a line of dialogue, an exchange between characters. Once I have that seed of an idea, I let it grow, I think about where this exchange is taking place, who these characters are, what their relationship is with each other, where they are in terms of both setting and arc. These seeds don’t just grow on their own, they require care and attention, and in doing so, the story builds.
You might have different seeds, different points of inception, and you just need to take those seeds and nurture them so that you can get a story written. You can start writing when it’s just at a seed, making plans for what it might lead to, or you can sit with it for a while, planning and plotting until you’re ready to start putting it all down. Either way, you cannot refine a blank page, so ignore that fear of beginning and focus instead on why you want to tell this story. You need an idea, whether that’s scribbles in a notebook or a massive document, give it a structure and get it onto a page. Where the story comes from doesn’t matter, what matters is that you give it the attention it needs so that you can, one day, tell the story; stories deserve to be told and being frightened of nurturing it until it becomes fully-fleshed does the story and yourself a total disservice.
It doesn’t matter how long it takes. Some stories can be brought to life in a few weeks, others need years. However long it does take, you need to start. The fear of what it looks like doesn’t need to stop you because you can always make it stronger in the edit. But if you don’t have anything to edit, then you’re never going to make it stronger and you’re never going to get better yourself either; you need to write poorly to write well in the future and that goes for first drafts too; first drafts need to be poor so you can make them stronger later. I know there’s a fear in what it might look like to begin with, but beginnings are never perfect and if you fear the beginning, you won’t get something strong in the end.
Fear is what stops a lot of people. The fear of the beginning, the fear of it not living up to expectations (either your own or other people’s), the fear of not knowing where to start, the fear of not feeling like what you’re writing has a point, a meaning, a reason, the fear of not having the skill set or creativity, the fear of judgement. If you let that fear dominate you, you won’t ever get started. And how can you finish if you don’t have a start? Don’t fear the blank page, it’s there to allow you total, creative freedom. The start is daunting, I understand that, but if you let it daunt you forever, you won’t ever start, and wouldn’t it be a tragedy to never show the world the story you want to tell?
Robyn x
R. A. Howard 