Is it me, or is just opening that blank Word document enough to give up? I've always had trouble writing those first few words; I've even had a breakdown just setting up the Word document. How do you start? What is your process? Do any of you have a favorite font to work with? Do you start with a title, or just, "Chapter One"? Does anyone have any mood-setting rituals that help you focus?
Please share!
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50,695 / 50,000
Okt 29, 2007 - 10 22
Ugh...opening that first menacing blank page. Cringe!
We all know the opening of a book is one of the most crucial parts. You need that hook to suck people in. So, sometimes right before I begin writing (and I mean within an hour before) I'll go to the library or book store and just pick up random books and read the opening paragraph. Not to steal ideas or anything, but it just sort of gets my brain going.
Personally, I don't usually bother with a title or a special font when I sit down to write. I just go. But, my Word doc MUST be at 115%. I can't explain it. If it's at 100% or 125%, my brain fizzles. I also cannot write double spaced (which is technically the correct format for a novel). Again, brain goes fizzle.
Oh, and if ANYONE tries to talk to me while I'm writing, I turn into a very MEAN lady!! (my poor husband! sorry honey!)
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"Everything in life is writable about if you have the outgoing guts to do it, and the imagination to improvise. The worst enemy to creativity is self-doubt." ~Sylvia Plath
like a nice dose of babble?
cursinginheels.blogspot.com
80,078 / 50,000
Okt 29, 2007 - 10 26
I had this same trouble when I tried to start in 2005 (my first adventure into NaNo-ing). I finally ended up writing the most ridiculous thing I could think of: It was a dark and stormy night. Anything I wrote after that would never be as bad as that first line. Obviously it didn't end up in the story, but then a lot of what I wrote on the first attempt never ended up in the story.
The nice thing is, the first draft can be as bad as it wants to be. You're playing on paper (or computer screen). No one will see your first draft unless you want them to. Nothing is set in stone. Revising is a beautiful thing.
Michelle
50,000 / 50,000
Okt 29, 2007 - 11 16
I wouldn't sweat the opening during your first draft. First drafts are notoriously made of poop. After spending two years writing and rewriting and editing the beginning of my novel to death, I finally scrapped it all and started anywhere. I'll go back and figure out the opening on the second draft.
To begin writing a novel, a step-by-step guide:
1. Before you sit down to write, while you're washing the dishes or taking a shower, get your brain focused on your story like you're playing a movie reel in your head. Imagine the scene you'd like to write first.
2. Butt in seat.
3. Stare at the blank paper.
4. Remember the scene you had imagined. Start with a bit of dialog or a character's thoughts or a description.
5. Type.
6. Before you save your work for the day, make a note about what scene you will write next.
7. Repeat steps one through seven every day and don't look back until you've hit your word count or The End.
“The first draft of anything is shit”. -- Ernest Hemingway
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www.katiemorton.com
http://www.katiemorton.com
7,160 / 50,000
Okt 29, 2007 - 14 49
After years of blank page nightmares, I now rarely start anything at the beginning!
With a story, or in this case a novel, I tend to fix on a scene that I know will happen. My Nano novel is going to be based around a pact - two friends agreeing to marry one another if they don't find anyone else by the time they are a certain age. I know the pact-making scene will feature in the novel. It may be at the beginning, as a kind of prologue, or it may not. I know though that it will happen, so that is the scene I will write first. Once I've got the words on the page, I never find it so intimidating.
Failing that, just writing something - anything - will do. I've used a stream of consciousness type approach before now. Something along the lines of "I'm going to start writing my Nano novel now. It's going to be about...." If I can keep that up for a few minutes, just typing what comes in to my head random character descriptions etc, something concrete will inevitably start to follow.
I agree with the not stressing advice though. You can always edit it later!
33,773 / 50,000
Okt 29, 2007 - 16 58
With a story, or in this case a novel, I tend to fix on a scene that I know will happen. My Nano novel is going to be based around a pact - two friends agreeing to marry one another if they don't find anyone else by the time they are a certain age. I know the pact-making scene will feature in the novel. It may be at the beginning, as a kind of prologue, or it may not. I know though that it will happen, so that is the scene I will write first. Once I've got the words on the page, I never find it so intimidating.
Failing that, just writing something - anything - will do. I've used a stream of consciousness type approach before now. Something along the lines of "I'm going to start writing my Nano novel now. It's going to be about...." If I can keep that up for a few minutes, just typing what comes in to my head random character descriptions etc, something concrete will inevitably start to follow.
I agree with the not stressing advice though. You can always edit it later!
I second this. I start on the scene I'm most excited to write, which is usually the most pivotal one.
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Okt 30, 2007 - 00 51
I'm the sort of person who absolutely MUST start at the beginning... for organizational workings and whatnot... SO I don't have big chunks missing from a story... I'm just a really fantatical neat freak/perfectionist type humanoid.
Starting a story is difficult because, like you said, the beginning needs to impact on a reader and suck them in. So, I always read the first line of the book I'm reading at that moment. What do they start with? Setting? Dialogue? Character's name? I like to know what kind of angle works.
Sometimes, just jumping straight into dialogue helps. It gets you pumped and involved then you can go back and write a short paragraph introducing the setting or whatever.
----------I iz teh Batman. I haz built-in pecs.
2007: Waddle 118K
109 / 50,000
Okt 30, 2007 - 02 01
My basic approach is to type a list of story elements, be they bits of dialogue, scene descriptions, character infro, plot points, etc. I format those items into a numbered list and rearrange them into plot order. Drag and drop make this step so easy it could be game.
This kind of kitchen sink outline is rather like a script and makes it easy for me to write out of sequence and to leave/return to writing after doing something else. My last outline step is to dump my numbered list into a table or spreadsheet so I can track other story elements, but that other stuff's probably excessive if you're not writing to submit.
The Snowflake Process was the first outlining system that helped me. Phase Outlining is what my outlines resemble today. I haven't followed either system 100% but am the type of writer that needs structure.