Crafting that perfect bit of writing, or short story, or novel all starts in the same place. A place I will call before the beginning. It is that nugget or gem of an idea that will form and as it percolates it will grow. Grow into something so amazing you have to write about it. But how? Where do you start? when that blank page is staring you in the eye and your idea fly’s out the nearest window.
It seems to many writers that blank page is something of a scary thought. So empty and clear, how do you add words, what if you mess up? Personally I like to doodle on the page, maybe even write a few words just to scribble them out. It takes away that daunting feeling of emptiness or that need for perfection.
Some may say it is not that blank page that is so hard, but the idea. How do you find the perfect thing that others will want to read? I really wonder how you stop the flow of ideas myself, or better yet, how do you form them?
And yet still other writers would say the idea is easy, it is the finding the words that craft it into what you want it to be. Making it come alive on the page and in the mind of the reader that is the hard part. Molding our writing into something others really want to read, and even more, don’t want to put down is where the real work comes in. Like an artist sculpting away, the writer has to find the words and then sometimes just toss them away to find the real beauty that we know is under there. Hiding deep and waiting to be brought to the front for all to see.
There is yet one more fear, one I think is the reason for the question of how to find ideas. It is the fear of what others with think of the writing, of the idea behind the work. It is a scary thing, writing. So many things to try to stop you, but a writer knows, those words are there and they have to come out. So if that is the case, how? What are the parts of writing that bit, that short story, that novel? There is a beginning, a middle and end. We all know this basic principle, but I will share some in the next few weeks the things I have learned about them, some things I try to do, and overall the challenges that can be overcome in the doing.
Next week we will look into Lost Before Starting.
Random Acts of Writing 