Getting started with writing can feel like pulling teeth for many writers. Some spend more time thinking about how to begin writing than they do actually spend writing.
We hope the following writing advice from well-known authors help make it easier for you to start writing.
1. Establish a regular writing schedule
“Decide when in the day (or night) it best suits you to write, and organize your life
accordingly.” - Andrew Motion
2. Your first draft doesn’t have to be perfect
“For me, it’s always been a process of trying to convince myself that what I’m doing in a first draft isn’t important. One way you get through the wall is by convincing yourself that it doesn’t matter. No one is ever going to see your first draft. Nobody cares about your first draft. And that’s the thing that you may be agonizing over, but honestly, whatever you’re doing can be fixed. For now, just get the words out. Get the story down however you can get it down, then fix it.” - Neil Gaiman
3. Have a clear idea of where your story is going
“I don’t want to write that first sentence until all the important connections in the novel are known to me. As if the story has already taken place, and it’s my responsibility to put it in the right order to tell it to you.” - John Irving
4. Take it one page at a time
“Abandon the idea that you are ever going to finish. Lose track of the 400 pages and write just one page for each day, it helps. Then when it gets finished, you are always surprised.” - John Steinbeck
5. Give yourself permission to do nothing
“When I want to do the difficult work of original writing, I often work outside my
apartment, in a library a few blocks away. This gets me away from the temptations of
the Internet, and it also forces me to accept the “nothing alternative.” I say to myself, “I’ll stay here for two hours,” and then I’m stuck. If I’m not writing, I’m just sitting
there. Sure, sometimes I jump up and go look for a book in the stacks, but that
doesn’t take long. I end up writing just to pass the time. At home, by contrast, there’s
no end to the useful tasks that I can find to occupy myself.” - Gretchen Rubin
“The graveyard is the richest place on earth, because it is here that you will find all the hopes and dreams that were never fulfilled, the books that were never written, the songs that were never sung, the inventions that were never shared, the cures that were never discovered, all because someone was too afraid to take that first step, keep with the problem, or determined to carry out their dream.”
- Les Brown
At IABX, our mission is to promote and empower independent authors. We strive to provide useful and valuable information to do just that.
Feel free to send us an email at info@iabx.org if you have any comments or suggestions. We would love to hear from you!
Missed the past weeks' Wednesday Writing Tips? Check them out here.