Don’t know what to write? Write beginnings

I’m a great believer in the fact that your writing will tell you what your writing is supposed to be. (See today’s post in the writing blog.)

If you’ve been procrastinating, or you find it difficult to write, writing beginnings will cure that.

Here’s how the process works:

Without thinking too much about it, start writing first sentences. Just write whatever comes to mind. If you think “This is dumb, I don’t know where this is heading,” you’re right. Writing is a process of discovery, you can’t KNOW until you WRITE.

Write whatever comes into your mind. If you choose, you can write your first sentences in a list format – make sure that you date the list.

When you’ve written 10 or 20 sentences, choose one sentence.

Write ONE page (roughly 250 words) carrying on from that first sentence.

Now go and do something else for 10 minutes. Go and have a cup of coffee, or read your email. This break-time is important, it lets your conscious mind and subconscious mind work together to decide what the heck it is that you’re writing.

When you come back, read over the page you’ve written. Does it go anywhere? Does it look like the start of an article, a book, or an essay? If it has possibilities, keep writing.

The big danger here, is that you think that you don’t know enough, so you go and do some research. Don’t be tempted! Keep writing. You can research it later.

Writing beginnings is fun. You don’t have to confine yourself to writing first sentences, you can write first paragraphs if you wish. The point is, that you’ve begun to write, so you’ve conquered inertia, which is 90 per cent of the battle in writing.

Tip: this “write beginnings” process is a great confidence booster. See – you CAN write.

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