why is starting so hard

Suggestion: It's four days until NaNoWriMo. No better way to make yourself just write than by being challenged to keep up a tough pace. The best thing you can do is make a start and then keep going, even if it's not starting in the right place or the right way. You can fix it later, but you can't fix it until you have it done.

For me, it's the pressure of everything that HAS TO GO RIGHT in the first line. Then the first paragraph. Then the first page. Then the first three pages. Then... you get the idea. So many stories of agents/editors rejecting opening chapters (that were, in all fairness, not up to par) within those first pages. I psych myself out.

With current project, I had it in my head, sitting in different scenes with the characters for two months before I could start. I just couldn't start. So I feel you. And even now? That opening I finally wrote has been rewritten at least 100 times.

So I would just write something. Like Maggie Maxwell said, you can fix it later, and you will. Dozens of times. It's so much easier to fix something that you later tell isn't quite right then to stare at that awful blank page.

Everyone hates openings.

Keep in mind that there are always revisions. The first draft is not final, even if your first chapter or scene is not The Best Thing To Start A Book With, you can always change it when a better idea comes to mind. You can also start in the middle - or even at the end - and write backwards, or forwards. There is no rule saying you have to write in any particular order. If you have a scene in your mind, write that down. Then think what could have happened before, to lead up to that moment. Or afterwards, what would the characters do next. If, for example, your story idea was about "Boy goes to magic school", then you can have a scene where he actually goes there. He could board a train. But you could also have a scene where he receives the invitation for that school. Or, you could start even further back, with a scene that shows his everyday life before he even knew he had magical abilities. Of course there could be one scene where he finds out he can do magical stuff. Etc, etc...

The first draft is story. Just do it. Because you can't fix a blank page. Danielle Steel bangs the keys until the story is there and then cuts the best parts out. That said, I'm persnickety about going forth without dithering. I have to hit that groove the story wants to roll in. I rewrote the opening of my historical dozens of times before I got it going right. Keep at it, it will come.

Ha! Not the OP, but I'm digging these words of encouragement. You guys are the best.

I actually do recommend starting in media res if you're having trouble with the beginning. Yes it can lead to problems, but when your biggest problem is getting started it's a good way to get past that hump and then you can fix things later.

When in doubt, write what you can write and work outwards.

It's hard to start, because you're trying to take a galaxy, a great, grand, nebulous idea floating around in the electrical currents of your brain, and force it through the fingers of your meat suit, to take on a concrete form. We and our world are, indeed, made of star stuff, but beginning any creative endeavor is like trying to scoop up nebular dust and turn it into the foundation of a house: impractical, nigh-impossible, and a right royal pain in the arse. It is hard, but it is theoretically possible.

Okay, I think I've played out that metaphor to its limit.

Good luck and happy writing!

1 Write a crappy beginning
2 Finish a good story
3 Write a good beginning

4 Write a great second draft

(5 Post it here)

Like the others said, you can always revise and edit! The first draft will be rough, there's no doubt about it. It's basically just a slew of ideas and characters that don't know where to go yet. That's fine. Don't worry about starting and just start because you won't regret doing it. It's all about the flow and being consistent enough you won't even think about not starting. Try writing 200-500 words of the story every day. They don't have to perfect, they don't even have to be good. They just have to be there. Like one said, Nano is coming up so maybe the pressure of having to write to succeed will help you get motivated)or scared, whichever work) to write!

I find it excruciating to allow myself to engage and swoop within my creative energies, much of the time it's due to the accumulated weight of daily stress and emotional issues I contend with, even accomplishing simple tasks is monumental and takes up most of my reservoir. Therefore when I find the will to work on my various projects I have had ticking away over the years in the background whilst I addressed my meandering direction in Life, it is very soothing and epic and I'm gradually improving my dips. I aim to get back to a several days a week focus where I can properly build and connect, not just staccato forays. Often I find once I can break through all that grimy ice there's so much to pour out and explore. I find doing notes much simpler but you have to put in the graft and fill it all out and do the donkey work if you want your vision to yield a splendid harvest of flesh to the skeleton (or decaying and mangled skinsplatter for the zombie ). I have no issue with seeking motivation or inspiration since I write about experience and what I find riveting, it's getting there and realizing I am passionate and that's okay as it keeps you going, we all should be kinder and see that we have a lot to offer even if only amounts to personal parroting .

Starting can feel like looking at a mountain of bricks and knowing you have to move them all in order to build your house. It's a daunting task, but you start one brick at a time.

Just start writing somewhere, knowing that your first draft will be crap, even if your idea is brilliant. It's rewriting and editing that makes a story shine. If the essence of your story is good, it will be worth your while to find a good beginning for it after you have the whole story arc on paper.

stiiiiiv said:

If the essence of your story is good, it will be worth your while to find a good beginning for it after you have the whole story arc on paper.

Click to expand...

Which is another way of saying You don't have to start writing a story at its beginning. Beginnings are difficult, primarily because the beginning has to fit with the rest of the story, and if the rest of the story doesn't exist . . . well . . . that's a problem. It's just like that pile of bricks stililly mentioned. There's no single place you must start to pick up all those bricks. What you have to do is just start.

caw

My very first draft of anything is called the "oink" draft because I know it's pig slop. You write on paper, but maybe you can do roughly the same as I do on my laptop -- fool your own brain. Label the story Oink or Slop or whatever you want, and then get going. It's going to be terrifically bad. So what? It's your sandbox. Play in it! Get dirty, smear mud all over yourself. Let the flaws through, and there will be many, many of those. Enjoy it. In how many areas of life do you get to make so many mistakes and have fun doing it?

I'm going to take a slightly contrary, and perhaps controversial, position on this matter of "the first draft is always crap". Really, it doesn't need to be that way, nor is it a healthy attitude for a writer to take, IMO. Will it be polished, gleaming faux-perfection? Almost certainly not. But if you are putting your talent, your energy, your enthusiasm and your brain to synchronized work, and doing the best you can with the time you have available, chances are strong that much of any first draft will be pretty good stuff. When I taught English composition, I found that a lot of students felt their writing was lousy, or at least felt they had to be defensive about it. I did some exercises where I tried to get them to recognize what was right about their work, as well as what was wrong with it. It will help your editing/rewriting processes if you do the same. It ain't all crap.

caw

for me sometimes the false starts are like being in a dark basement and feeling around for a light switch, or a door handle. stumbling around in the cellar and even falling down the steps is an important part of the process. it's like you're learning about the foundation of your story, which will help allow you to find the light switch and door...the beginning of it.

Revision and editing is what make a story good.-- or great. Didn't Hemingway say that even HIS first drafts were garbage?

Keep at er'!

I agree with the user who said the first draft shouldn't be garbage, and that you shouldn't go in with that mindset.

That said, the first draft is a first draft. Sit down. Turn on some music (or whatever habit you have when you write), allow yourself 30 minutes to stare at a blank screen as you think in stress. And then force yourself to start writing. Keep writing. And then when you finish your book, edit. Don't edit until you finish.

I find editing goes like this.

First edit: fix grammar
Second edit: fix sentence structure
Third edit: fix passive voice/exposition/action/so on.

Notice I didn't mention "fix story" in there. That's where I agree that the first draft should be "good." Good enough where an editor could work with it. That said, an editor shouldn't "have" to work on your finished piece.