Getting Started
How do you get started?
The hardest part of writing is putting a pen on paper, or so say many people. How do you get ideas? How do you tell an interesting story?
First: What kinds of books do you read? All writers are also readers, constantly looking at other author’s work for ideas and inspiration. Chances are, authors who write action novels also like to read action novels.
When you’re looking to start writing, think about what you enjoy reading. Action? Mystery? Science Fiction? Suspense? Fantasy? Biographies? Whether you know this or not, by reading you’re gathering experience, which will help you to write the genre you enjoy reading.
Activity: Brain-dump
—> Set a timer for five minutes, and during that time don’t let your pen leave your paper. Keep writing words, anything that comes to mind, from a daydream to a dream to lists to ‘I don’t know what to write, I don’t know what to write, I don’t know what to write…etc’. Do not cross anything out, just keep writing. You’d be surprised at how long five minutes is when you really get writing.
Second: Topics- you’ll probably stumble across something intriguing during your brain-dump that is useful to you; maybe someone you know said something interesting today that gave you an idea or struck you as odd.
Look around you, explore the world you live in. Many novels involve events that happen in daily life that you may have experienced. How have authors made these events interesting? Try this technique yourself.
Activity: 100 Words
—> Choose a topic or keyword (it can be as simple as the topic ‘blue’) and write exactly 100 words about the topic. Your piece can be an extremely short story, a poem or song, but it must be complete (have a beginning and end).
When thinking of what to write, think of the meanings of the word; the keyword blue can mean the color blue, or the mood, or the name of something (ex: Blue’s Clues, etc) You can explore this through your writing. Another thing to keep in mind are your characters- since you have only 100 words, its difficult to bring a lot of characters into your piece.
*Writing in this manner can help break up writer’s block because you’re exploring lots of different ideas and finishing many small pieces. Also, this helps with your revision skills, because you must file down what you’re saying to the absolute essence of your ideas in order to say everything you wish to say within the word limit.
Third: Setting your piece in a 3D world- otherwise known as scenery or setting, the place your piece takes place is incredibly important, as it sets the reader in a plausible time and place.
Through your writing, the reader of your work should be able to tell what the setting is like without you listing out details- ‘It was dark, in the middle of New York City, in the winter, Christmas lights were all over, etc etc’. In order for your reader to know where they and the characters are, you must know everything about the place and essentially be able to ’see’ the world you are creating in your piece. Adjectives are an author’s best friend here, where they should be used to paint a picture with words for the readers.
Activity: Adjective Sketch
—> Pick one adjective, and follow that to another adjective that comes to your mind. An example of this is choosing the word ‘blue’ again, after which I think of ‘icy’, which makes me think of the word ’sharp’, and the word ‘windy’, and so on.
After you have 10 adjectives, link them to your work by trying to describe the setting using the words you have. Don’t try to pick words that describe a setting you may already have in mind, the point is to look at a setting in a new way than you had previously.
An example using the words above: They sound like they would be describing someplace cold and remote, but instead they could be used to describe a crowded beach like this-
‘The ocean sparkled, a glittering blue that could only be achieved on a summer’s day. In her hand, the icy soda shed water onto her legs and towel. The sharp glare of the sun reflected off of her sunglasses as she scanned the crowded shore; a cool sea breeze lifted her hair off of the nape of her neck.’
These words all of a sudden appear differently to the reader, but an image of the seashore is vividly clear to the reader. Adjective sketches expand the writer’s mind and open you up to new ways of writing and showing the reader what you mean.
