Advice for getting started

Alien Dynasty

Alien Dynasty

Golden Blood
Joined
Jun 9, 2012
Messages
12
I really don't know how to start. I have a bunch of ideas for a story and some great research resources, btu somehow, I try to start writing and I physically just can't. Any advice on how to break this?
 
You're probably worrying that you have to get it right first time. Don't. Almost everyone has to edit extensively. I've lost count of how many drafts my first novel went through on the road to publication.

If you're just not accustomed to writing fiction, why not begin by outlining/blocking your story? Instead of writing finished prose, just describe it as if it were a movie script, and throw in bits of dialogue when they occur to you. E.g.

We see a small spaceship under attack by an enormous triangular starcruiser. Laser beams flash through space, hitting the ship over and over. Inside, the corridors are full of smoke. A small barrel-shaped droid wheels into view...

Then, when you've got the story "told" and can envisage it more fully, you can go back and expand each bit of the outline into a proper narrative.

Also, do you read novels (or short stories)? As a beginning writer you really need to read a lot, to fill your head with the rhythms of prose narrative and absorb them at an instinctive level.
 
Advice for getting started? I won't say you shouldn't, but it's not easy. To produce anything at all is hard enough, but to produce something of quality, that's the clincher.


Actually, I don't know if all the advice in the world may necessarily help. Some would suggest reading books to help stimulate the imagination, others might suggest going into a near-catatonic meditative state, but all you have to worry about really is putting things down. It doesn't matter if it's the prettiest pose on paper or drivel that a sewer would reject, just get something down. As many on this site would say, the rough draft is just that-rough. Editing and polishing comes later.
 
I start a 'whatif' file: whatif a guy discovers a plot against the King, and can't speak up because he's the son of an executed traitor, and forbidden to speak on pain of death for him and his family? He tries to convince the local priest in the confessional, only to discover the priest is part of the plot, and tries to kill him. He defends himself and has to hide when he knocks the priest out (whatif he kills him?) or is seen by others. Luckily his childhood in the castle gives him knowledge of its passages and hidden places, and he's forced to lurk unseen, to try to prevent the assassination. Whatif a kitchen maid discovers him, but he convinces her of the plot? Now he has an ally, but they're pretty helpless and won't get past the king's guard. Whatif the hero manages to enter the king's chambers just as the assassination happens? And he's blamed? Has to flee, but not before finding out who's responsible, and manages to get the prince/princess away before they're killed too.

And so on: This is the ideas phase. From here, pick ANY starting point - it could be the discovery of the plot, it could be the execution of his father, it could be the hero swilling out the pigs in the castle and we find out he's the son of a traitor by the treatment of him and so on. It doesn't matter where you start, you are going to rewrite it so many times, you'll look back and laugh... Just put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and see what happens. Scrap half a dozen openings until one grabs you and drags you along... It doesn't matter if the writing is anything but perfect - everyone started where you are. Just persevere.
 
Boneman said:
And so on: This is the ideas phase. From here, pick ANY starting point - it could be the discovery of the plot, it could be the execution of his father, it could be the hero swilling out the pigs in the castle and we find out he's the son of a traitor by the treatment of him and so on. It doesn't matter where you start, you are going to rewrite it so many times, you'll look back and laugh... Just put pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and see what happens. Scrap half a dozen openings until one grabs you and drags you along... It doesn't matter if the writing is anything but perfect - everyone started where you are. Just persevere.
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And what if the pig the hero is swilling has a mustache made of coconut shavings?
 
I found that doing some world-building and outlining the basic story helped give direction early on. Best of luck :)
 
Anne Lyle said:
Funnily enough, SF writer Gareth Powell just tweeted a link to a blog post on this very topic:

http://www.garethlpowell.com/all-first-drafts-suck/
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The best part is this:

“I will give you the best piece of advice I was ever given: just write the f*cking thing. Getting the words down on paper is the hard part. And it doesn’t matter if your first draft sucks. All first drafts suck. The important part is that you write the story. Then, when you’ve finished it, you can go back and edit it, polish up the text to make it shine. Editing is easier than writing. So, if you have a story to tell, just write it down without worrying how it sounds. You will not hit perfection first time. But you will get a completed first draft that you can then work on, to bring it up to professional quality. A lot of people make the mistake of trying to edit as they go along – of trying to make each sentence perfect before moving on to the next – and that is deadly. Just write. Tidy up later. Go for it”
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because that's what I have only recently (in the last 6 months) realised, and it is so damn true. Write it, worry about perfection later!
 
just write the f*cking thing. Getting the words down on paper is the hard part. And it doesn’t matter if your first draft sucks. All first drafts suck. The important part is that you write the story.
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Just to re-emphasis it!!

allmywires said:
because that's what I have only recently (in the last 6 months) realised, and it is so damn true. Write it, worry about perfection later!
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I'd definitely second that, when I realised this a couple of years ago it was like a mighty weight had been lifted. It was so liberating! Before: nothing, After: loads of completed short stories, an ever growing novel length WiP and a definite big improvement in my writing.
 
I started at a point in my draft that I thought was good. I wrote the book. Then I gutted it and rearranged it. What was Chapter 8 became Chapter 1, and the previous Chapter 1 became Chapter 5. So just write it. If you start too early, you can delete it, or if you start too late, you can add more to the beginning. But until you have the skeleton you won't know what needs fixing. Start with something fun :)
 
Don't start at the beginning if that's what is giving you trouble. Get to a scene that you are really excited about, pour your heart and soul into it and then work backwards/forwards from there. You could even just write a whole bunch of scenes then have fun connecting them up, or shift them around to help develop your plot. The important thing is to just put pen to paper or words on the screen, even if you know that they are not right. By the time you finished, the first bit you wrote will need so much more re-tuning and adjusting anyway that it seldom matters.

Good luck!
 
I like the quote, "just write the freaking thing."

Now back into my dark hole in the library to "just write the freaking thing."
 
Venusian Broon said:
Just to re-emphasis it!!



I'd definitely second that, when I realised this a couple of years ago it was like a mighty weight had been lifted. It was so liberating! Before: nothing, After: loads of completed short stories, an ever growing novel length WiP and a definite big improvement in my writing.
Click to expand...

Thirded. But unfortunately like every other worthwhile lesson in life, you can hear other people go on and on about it for ages and it will be essentially meaningless until the day it finally clicks for you. On the bright side, if you keep writing, it will come sooner or later.
 
Just to be contrary, I don't think the just-write-it-and-edit-when-it's-all-finished is a universal rule which will benefit everyone, so much as a technique which helps some (perhaps many) people. I know it doesn't help me, though. Editing/revising as I go along allows me to build in small increments to create a stable foundation. For me, it's like building a house of cards -- rushing it will just result in only one or two bits standing and a whole lot of cards collapsed over the table, so I've got to start again from scratch.
 
I'm with TJ. I could not just 'get on and write it.' I edit as I go. If I left it until the end to edit I think it would be such a daunting task that I just wouldn't do it.

Just do what's best for you!
 
The other thing maybe is little and often. Set a not daunting daily target, a couple of hundred words, maybe, and write them. If you go over and you're happy, keep going. If you're not, stop there for the day. See it as a series of little scenes, not a huge undertaking that must be tackled at once. I've spent today on about 500 words that were drafted but needed deepened.... and that's it.
 
Just write something a day, that's what I do! It doesn't even have to be a hundred. Today for me: two words. And those two words? 'Chapter Twenty-eight.' *sigh*
 
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