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How to Start Writing (4 Simple Steps)

The action of actually writing, putting your fingers over the keyboard and typing, or grabbing that pen

However, there is quite a bit of work to do before sitting in the chair

Orson Scott Card said, “Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day

If you start writing before you’re ready, you’re unlikely to finish

If your idea is still just an idea and you haven’t put much thought into it,

If you’re ready to start writing but never do…well, then you’re not a writer

To answer these questions and help you prepare to write the book that’s inside you…

Much of knowing when you’re ready to start writing comes with knowing how to prepare

Regardless of the genre you write, everyone is a different person

As you read through them, take note of which ones resonate and which ones don’t

Half the battle is finding what doesn’t work for you, so you can pinpoint exactly what

If the idea you have won’t leave you alone, it may be time to sit in

It doesn’t say everybody walks past a thousand great story ideas every day

Some ideas are best for a short story, blog post, or article

But if the idea continually comes to mind, you get more excited the more you think about

Simply type a question into a search engine and see what comes up

However, some of us are particularly interested or invested in a particular topic

Including scenes similar to these activities could be helpful for you as a writer

If you’re writing a middle-grade novel about four friends who vacation on the coast when you

You can include the taste of salt in the air, the way the wind tangles your hair

If you’ve never gone to the ocean, you can still write about it

Make sure that idea really will last the entire length of a manuscript

You know it’s time to start writing, you know what to write about, and now it’

Not every method will work for you, but it’s likely one will

This is where you dump all your thoughts on the particular idea onto a sheet of paper,

Every vacation is literally mapped out, and you vacuum your car once a week

But second, outlining simply means taking your natural personality and translating it onto the page

You want to know where you’re going and how you’re going to get there

You get all the pieces together and you can see the big picture

If you outline, you don’t need to worry about getting stuck or writing yourself into a

When you outline you do the hard work up front, and then simply need to plug in

In the fiction world there are often two terms people use: Either you are an outliner, a

Simply sitting down to write whatever comes to mind will likely take you down countless rabbit trails

For instance, if you want your protagonist to be a young adult getting her first job post

Create one more character, and put the two of them into an interesting situation

Let’s say your character just graduated with a degree in wildlife biology and got her first

Now he has a grown, pet lion that spends the nights in his basement

Now you just start writing, and keep writing, past the point of your outlined scenes

Keep in mind that no matter what method you take, if you combine them, or try something

Writing is a journey, and just like a journey, usually you know you’ll return home

Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Frodo Baggins starts his journey by leaving his home, the

You’re ready to start writing, you know what to write about, and now you have everything

Where does your character start the story? Where does your character end up? 

The catch-your-breath moments and the sink-back-in-your-chair, relieved moments

Now you get to pick up that pen or sit down at your empty screen and create