Think you need just a little more preparation to be the writer you want to be?
I work with young writers. They are fresh and new and often, already discouraged, usually because they are hyper-focused on everything they lack. Most have already begun and abandoned several characters or stories. They say:
“I need to take a few more classes.”
“I just need a little more time, and I'll be ready.”
“After I get Geometry figured out, then I will write.”
My response?
Nope. None of those things will make you ready.
So what do we do?
How to Start Writing
Finish one story. Share it with someone (in addition to your mom) and listen to the feedback. Then start another and finish it to the end. Keep going.
The one simple truth that will get you writing is this:
You can’t read craft books to become a writer.
You can’t sit through a magic number of courses to be a writer.
You won’t feel like a writer when you reach whatever milestone you think will make you ready.
You become a writer by writing. Now, today.
Amateurs become professionals by starting and finishing work.
What Are You Focusing On?
My students frown at me, thinking I don’t understand, but we all walk this path over and over in our writing lives. Am I focused on what I lack? Or moving forward with the resources I have, eager to learn and grow and practice what I can today? We have to keep finishing and sharing our work to grow.
“But Weems,” they whine, “I don’t have enough __(words, experience, ideas, time, focus, chocolate)__.”
So what? Write anyway. Do it scared. Do it tired. Do it when it’s hard.
No time? Toni Morrison wrote The Bluest Eye in the midst of a life transition as a working single mom by getting up at four a.m. and finishing her writing.
Too young? Truman Capote got his first three short story publication acceptance letters on the same day. He was just seventeen years old.
Too old? Laura Ingalls Wilder didn’t start writing until she was forty-four, and she wouldn’t publish Little House in the Big Woods for another twenty years.
How did they do it?
They began with what they had. They finished their work. We can do it the same way. Sure, we will benefit from craft books and courses, editors and critique groups, but only if we engage them while we are writing consistently.
Now Is Your Chance to Write
It’s mid-January, and most of us probably set goals to write more this year. Whether you are on a roll or missed a day (or fourteen), you are as ready now as you’ll ever (or never) be. What are you waiting for? What do you believe is holding you back? Name it and actively overcome it by writing today.
What's holding you back from writing today? Let us know in the comments.
PRACTICE
For today's practice, we're going to leverage those feelings that are keeping you from writing and use them to fuel your writing instead. This practice comes to you in three steps:
First, in a word or short phrase, state what you believe is keeping you from writing today. Is it fear? Procrastination? Perfectionism? Lack of time? Laziness? Distraction? Zombie-hunters? (Just seeing if you’re paying attention.)
Consider this: all of these are obstacles that create conflict for characters. Once you write down your own obstacle, take five minutes to create a character who wants something important.
Now, throw your obstacle in between the character and what he or she wants. Take ten minutes to write a scene where the character has to tackle the obstacle head on, even if he or she fails.
When you're done, share your practice below in the comments and encourage one another.
A tip for teachers:
Populating a blank page with words is a daunting task for students. Use this same practice task as a group writing. Create a character using a two-word description and a name (Ex: shy robocop Marla), a goal (Ex: to be a real girl), and an obstacle (Ex: distraction). I usually write it out as a sentence to keep us focused: Shy robocop Marla wants to be a real girl, but her crippling distractions at work keep her from her dream.
Then write the story together as a class. It’s likely going to be a mess, which is the best thing ever. Fight to finish, especially when everyone hates how it is going. Modeling the process of getting down a fast draft is invaluable, and students rarely get a chance to see it done out loud. Then they can repeat the process for themselves. (Plus, you’ll have a draft that you can use as a group example for revision. Win, win!)
I loved this post~thanks! The New Year has been filled with everyone telling everyone what they need to make their writing happen. My inner self has been saying, “quit reading about it and do it already!” I’m doing it now.
I catch myself saying the same thing sometimes when I get caught in the vortex of research or books on craft or *insert-procrastination-task-of-the-day*. Hope you’ll post your practice once you get it done. Cheering you on!
There are so many books to guide you to how to write. But only you can write your story. I am mentally supporting your efforts…. you, go girl 😉
*Took me longer than 15 minutes, of course, but this was a great prompt! It’s a struggle to get over my own perfectionism.*
Seeing Gregory was the highlight of Lisette’s day. She always saw him in profile as he sat on his grandmother’s porch swing—his messy dark bangs hanging over a large pair of glasses that kept slipping down his long nose that was always buried in a book.
But that’s as far as it went. Seeing. And she couldn’t look too long or he might notice the strange, freckle-faced girl next door staring at him and then she’d never be able to go outside the house ever again. It would be awkward to become a permanent hermit. She’d have to get her mom to go to the library for her, and the chances of traveling to Italy from inside her Minneapolis home were slim to none.
Over the last couple of years, Lisette had tried everything to get Gregory’s attention. She’d “accidentally” thrown a piece of paper over his side of the fence and been forced to retrieve it, she’d managed to be outside nearly every time he came home on the bus, and she’d even gone so far as to wave hello on more than one occasion. Last spring she had taken up gardening just so that she’d have an excuse to spend hours in the front yard. She’d done everything but actually speak to him; that was something reserved for daydreams.
She’d rehearsed in her mind (a couple of million times) exactly how she would approach him one day, how she’d casually get his attention and then move the conversation on to the fascinating book that he was reading, casually drop in the fact that she was an avid reader as well, and then they’d be best friends. And maybe kiss. One never knows.
But every time she thought she’d at last gotten up the gumption to raise her head above the picket fence and shout a friendly, “Good morning,” her stomach flopped wrong-side out, all the marrow was sucked out of her bones, and she inevitably collapsed into the boxwood hedge. Then she’d realize that the hedge wasn’t cut quite evenly and spend the next hour shearing off a little here and there in a desperate attempt to make it symmetrical.
Maybe it was because she was a homeschooler. Maybe it was because her parents were terrible at making friends. Maybe it was because she was monstrously conscious of everything wrong with her every time she caught a glimpse of Gregory’s perfect profile. Perhaps the real reason was that she was scared to death of messing up. The perfectionism that made her study three days too long for every math test also kept her garden tidy, but small and unambitious. It was also why she’d yet to see the left side of Gregory’s face for more than a few seconds at a time.
But on The Fatal Afternoon, Lisette was forced to meet her archenemy head-on.
She had just finished her geometry lesson when she got a compulsion to trim the rosebush in the front yard. The fact that the school bus stopped by her street at that exact hour was entirely coincidental. She grabbed her shears and headed out the door, humming softly to herself, but stopped with a jolt at the top of the porch steps. There, directly in front of her, facing her direction, with two eyes and a full pair of glasses and all four limbs in plain view, was Gregory. And he was in her yard.
“E-e-excuse me? Can I help you?” In all her imaginings, Lisette had never once had such a terrible opening line. But this wasn’t a daydream—she was actually standing in front of Gregory and there was no way she could make him disappear or start the scene over again. Short of turning around and running back into the house, she had no choice but to stick it out.
He gave a dazzling smile. “Yeah, actually I think you could.” He walked up the garden path, all the way to the bottom of the porch steps, and held out his hand. “I’m Gregory.”
“Yes, you are.” Goodness, could she have chosen any worse words? “I mean, I’m Lisette. Nice to meet you.” There. It had been painful, but she’d finally gotten her name out.
“Hi, Lisette. I couldn’t help but notice that you’re a great gardener, and you obviously know what you’re doing trimming hedges. My grandma wants me to trim her hedges, but I haven’t got a clue about how to start.” He looked sheepish as he held out a pair of scissors. “I’m not even sure what to cut it with!”
All of her careful plotting and planning had at last borne fruit—here was Gregory, in her yard, asking about hedges. But Lisette felt nothing more than a panicky instinct to run. Still, somehow, she managed to stand her ground. The chance to see Gregory’s left eye for a few more seconds was too good to pass up.
“OK…well…if you want, I could teach you how I do it. But first, you need a proper pair of shears!” She made a jabbing motion with her shears and narrowly missed impaling his perfect nose. He jerked backward and she cried, “Oh gosh, I’m so sorry!”
He laughed and took the shears from her hand. “Don’t worry about it. Can we start now? Grandma told me to start a week ago, but I’ve kind of been nervous about asking you. So now, the hedge situation is pretty desperate.”
“No problem. I’ve got nothing better to do.” Still mentally kicking herself for every awkward word that had passed her lips in the last two minutes, Lisette couldn’t squelch a tiny leap of excitement as they walked down the path and through the gate that led to the hallowed Neighbor’s Garden.
It was going to be a special afternoon.
Abigail, I love Lisette and I’m rooting for her– I laughed out loud at this line: “Then she’d realize that the hedge wasn’t cut quite evenly and spend the next hour shearing off a little here and there in a desperate attempt to make it symmetrical.” Love that you forced her to act to solve her problem, even in a shaky voice. Her perfectionism is certainly going to get in the way of her teaching an amateur (who she’s crushing on) how to do it right. I hope there’s some hedges left when they are done. HA! Thanks for sharing this here.
This is a wonderful introduction to Lisette. I really like the way you interweave her thoughts with what is going on around her. Learning that Gregory was as hesitant to speak with her as she was with him is a nice touch.
It’s beautiful, Abigail.
Quick question: I keep wondering what pool of thought I’d draw my story from – personal experience, interaction or pure imagination? How do you do it?
Hopefully Abigail will jump in with her ideas too here, but I draw from everything. I tend to begin with experience and observations and then ask “What if” to see where it leads. Some writers begin with a world that only exists in their heads. Try a lot of different ways to see which one feels most natural. Ideas come from everywhere. Good luck!
Thank you Sue. I know what you’re saying but I usually suffer from blocking cliched situations flying inside my head. That’s why I keep looking for some wild imagination to strike me. That is rare again. But I’m interested in the way you’re leading with the “What if”. I’ll try that next time.
Thank you Sue!
Thank you Sue. ‘What if’ is probably a good way to go because sometimes real life experiences are scarce. Will give it a try.
I, too, loved this post. It was synchronous in that I had just discovered the character for my next writing project while journaling this morning. What do you think? Will this work?
Create a Character
I’m an old school house, located in the rural countryside of Missouri. I was abandoned years ago when it was no longer deemed acceptable to have one school room for all of elementary school grades, children from age five or so (they weren’t so particular about when one’s birthday was then) to some students beginning their teen years in the eighth grade. For awhile, after they closed the school, I was a community building, but those gatherings gradually stopped too. Sometimes former students drive by and may walk around a bit, but they don’t dare come inside as my roof is collapsing and it wouldn’t be safe. What I really want is to be remembered. I also want to remember – all of the wonderful students and the very unique teachers who led them through their school days. I remember the “library,” a bookcase that sat at the front of the room with books donated by families of the students and others who wanted to make the books available.
Give the Character a Challenge
Actually, I was an old schoolhouse. A few years ago I finally collapsed and my “bones” were gathered up. The schoolyard is now empty except for the weeds that have taken over. How can I be remembered if all of the physical remnants of me are gone? I’m now just a spirit of what was, but there is hope. Sometimes I get the feeling that there are former students out there thinking about me – maybe one of them will “remember” for me and write down the words to allow me to live again. Not only for those who actually remember, but for all who are curious about a time when children walked to school, sometimes miles, in all kinds of weather. When some even came without shoes, except in the coldest weather, when they spent recess time in what would be considered today very unsafe activities, like riding their sleds down the steep hill just to the south of me, narrowly missing – and sometimes not missing – the trees. It was a marvelous time and a scary time. They played games like Old Black Sambo and didn’t understand the implications for those human beings with dark skins. They even did a play for the parents one year about Aunt Jemima – who was also black at that time, so their faces were smeared with grease paint. I didn’t understand then why they seemed to dislike people with black skins, there certainly weren’t many of them around and none were students within my walls. Maybe it made them feel better about themselves to think there were other human being who were of lesser value.
I love the nostalgic tone you weave throughout this. It makes me want to sit beside the bones and breathe in the old dust to let them live again, if only for a moment. As a narrator, I find this voice compelling; it is a wise soul with a long-view perspective. I wonder though if this voice has agency– the ability and will to act? Or if the narrator is actually going to tell us the story of someone else within its walls’ memory– someone who intensely wanted something and fought to get it past incredible obstacles. Either way, I hope you’ll keep exploring. Thanks for sharing this here.
I write all the time….in my mind. The moments I actually take pen to paper or fingers to keyboard most of the words seems to disappear. The ones that remain don’t sound as witty — as mysterious — as thought provoking. Today I actually took the time to read this prompt and WRITE. I failed to do any of the preparations that I had so many times thought I needed. The right time in the evening or morning… just sat down, grabbed my iPad read this prompt and wrote. No research; just wrote. No continuous editing; just wrote. I have to admit the act of writing is energizing. Just writing off the cuff is refreshing. So now I tell myself…. today I started and there is no reason to desert this starting. Keep the momentum going………. I will write my book and finish this year.
WooHoo, Dawn! Keep it up! Sometimes when I can’t shake the words loose from my fingers, I get up, start walking, and speak the words into my phone recorder. It always sounds terrible the first time I speak or type it, but just getting the ideas out gives me clay to shape. While the ideas are stuck in my head, I’m always afraid I’m losing them (and I am). So glad this got you writing today. Your success will encourage others too.
Thanks so much! I hope you don’t mind if I repost this?
I already am seeing where my protagonist & I intersect!
I did post this on https://www.facebook.com/A-Page-A-Day-Lets-all-write-just-one-page-a-day-103970129720405/?fref=ts. But when I tried to share on Pinterest, a message about disabling my pop-up blocker kept coming up. Anyone know how to do that?
Glad the post resonated with you, and of course, love that you shared it! I think using our own obstacles as fuel for our characters creates a more emotional experience, even if our characters work through it differently than we would.
On your Pinterest question: Are you sharing to Pinterest directly from this page? When you click on the Pinterest button, look at the url bar at the top where the web address is. There is likely a little box at the far right with a tiny “x” on it. Click that and it will ask you to allow pop ups usually. Hope that helps, but if it doesn’t, a quick google search with “disable popup blocker on _(insert PC or Mac)_)” will offer more specific help. Thanks for stopping by!
Love this exercise, especially the one for teachers! And the post is great. Thank you, Sue!
Deena
You’re welcome! Thanks for stopping by.
You’re the voice in my head! Love the piece. For me, I was writing crap years ago, I just didn’t know it (and I still do, far too often!). I HAD to write so I didn’t think about it that much. One goes back and looks at one’s early writing and you want to cringe! For me, and I think for most writers, the biggest fear is having to face, i.e., read, literally in black and white, your thoughts, (which exist in a wholly different form!) on paper or onscreen. The compulsion to judge yourself is irresistible.
Here’s my advice: Write without thinking. Just GET IT OUT of your head and onscreen. It WILL suck! It’s because this process is what’s necessary to train your thoughts to become linear, because writing (and reading!) is linear but thoughts ARE NOT!
As many writers have stated and it’s absolutely true: “It’s OK to be a crappy writer as long as you’re a brilliant editor…”
Couldn’t agree more, Steve. I finally got to a place where I realized if I didn’t get anything down, I’d have no early work to scorn– HA! The first Nanowrimo I completed in 2012 was such a liberating experience, because I made a decision NOT to hit the delete or backspace key. The first week I fought it at every keystroke, but then, amazingly, it got a bit easier to tell myself “I’ll edit later, just get it down.” Thanks for reading and for your comment!
You are more than welcome. Did you write that piece? If so, bravo! I have to say that one of favorite quotes from my literary hero, Ernest Hemingway, said: “It’s perfectly fine, if not preferable, to write while drunk, but ALWAYS edit sober…”
Not that I’m advising it but, it does follow the same pattern of getting what’s in your head, out…
Professionally, my work involves people trying to convey a message and they have no idea where to begin, so what I do is write something for them as a starting point because there’s NOTHING scarier than a blank sheet of paper.
Once they look at what I’ve started, they say “No, that’s not what I mean. Something more like this…”
That gives me the reference I need to complete the project. It’s a trick… but it works and they are happy to pay me for it!
I did, and thanks! Love your trick to begin to help your clients clarify their message.
Yup. Everything you say here is exactly what new writers need to hear. Just start–and then finish. Don’t worry about it being perfect, or even good at all. What’s important is that you reach the end of your first story.
Thanks, Jason. Even though I’ve been writing a while, I still overcomplicate it sometimes. Start and finish. Start and finish. Stuff the inner critic in a closet and tell her it’s not her turn yet. Here’s to reaching the end of many stories this year!
Time and tiredness. I work full time, and I get a lot of story ideas that I write down, but I never seem to get the energy to sit in front of my laptop and write the story! I’ve been organizing my notes and stories this week. I have a lot of material to go with!
So… here’s how this went in my head…
“Hi Sherry.”
“Val! Hi! Good to hear from you!”
“I’m calling because I’ll be passing through your town in about two hours. I thought we could meet for lunch? It’s been … what… five years since we’ve seen each other?”
“Oh. Wow. Yeah, OK.” hearing from my best friend wanting to meet up on the spur of the moment threw me for a loop. She knows spontaneity isn’t my thing, yet we haven’t actually seen each other in person for years. So why wouldn’t she call? Why shouldn’t she? But I just felt so tried. Working long hours, all I really wanted to do was rest and read and binge watch Bones.
“You are off today?” She was noticing my hesitation.
“Oh sure. So where do we want to meet?”
“It’s your town, Woman. You pick the restaurant.”
“I know a great little Italian place!” I was starting to get excited. I couldn’t wait to give Val a hug.
“Sounds good. Shall we meet at the truck stop and I can follow you?”
So we made plans and met and had lunch. She stayed longer than she meant to, but told me later that it made her more rested to finish her drive. She’s going to stop by on her way back through and I’m looking forward to it!
I love this! It’s so true– I’m often the one reluctant to go out, but once I go, I wonder why I don’t do it more often. It’s such a great analogy for writing. Time and energy are always at the top of my obstacle list too (I teach full time), and like your character, I have to schedule time and do it if it is a priority for me. Thanks for sharing your writing. It was such a good reminder.
If it’s not “no time”, it’s everything else and more. I also seem to think that my “writer’s voice” has changed SO much in the last 20 years (manuscripts in varying degrees of unfinished in box under bed) that when I re-read what I WROTE years ago, I think “Man, I was good! I’m not that good, anymore,” and it stops me cold. I’ve also tried my hand lately at just writing story lines that are okay but not what I really am interested in – but what is selling now. I’m stuck, that’s for sure. I like reading fantasy, for example, but writing it sucks; I enjoy reading shapeshifter stuff, but again – writing it isn’t my forte and I think my work stinks! Plus…I often wonder at my age. Am I “too old” to begin, again???
You’re never too ANYTHING to write. Sounds like your inner critic has an extremely loud and powerful voice. I’ve been there too. All of life is a revision– we start over, we backtrack, we forge ahead. It’s all grist for the writing. I get stuck when I worry too much about whether or not something is “good” when I’m still in first draft stage. I just keep telling myself to push through, that it is a marathon and I just need to get the first draft down. No genre is easy when you begin writing it (as I’m discovering with a mystery right now!). I hope you’ll keep getting the words down though. Thanks for reading and commenting!
I’ve wanted to be a writer since I was a young teen – life kept getting in the way and other things were always more important. Now, at age 74 I’m finally saying, “I’m a writer.” Even more important, I’m writing, having completed one novel and a travel book, I’m now working on my second novel. It’s never too late
I stared at the screen. The words just weren’t coming. I knew where the story began, of course, and I knew where it would end. I had even written the last chapter.
But connecting the two – the middle – seemed impossible.
I had tried introducing a new character to shake things up a bit, but as I reread what I’d written, I realized he was silly. Worse, he was cumbersome, slowing the story down instead of driving it forward.
A knock at the door interrupted me. I sighed. Maybe it wasn’t them again. Maybe I’d be lucky and it would just be a pair of Jehovah’s Witnesses, or maybe the UPS guy delivering a package. I rose from my seat and made my way to the door, dreading it was them, but hoping it wasn’t.
I opened the door.
It was them.
“Mr. Carroll,” the young, beefy-looking man said.
“You again?” I asked, not trying to conceal my exasperation.
There were half a dozen of them now. When he had started coming around, it had just been him. They carried a discordant array of weaponry: A shot gun, a baseball bat, a spade, a monkey wrench….
“Mr. Carroll,” Beefy began again, “I know it seems improbable, but you must believe me. The zombie apocalypse has started. If you’ll come with us….”
“Look, I don’t know what you crackpots are up to, but I’ve got work to do.” I slammed the door before Beefy could respond.
“Zombie hunters,” I muttered.
I turned back to my computer and read what I had written. Definitely lame, I decided.
Maybe I should set this story aside and start a new one about a group of zombie hunters. I bet it would sell. Of course, it was much more likely I would end up with two unfinished novels instead of one.
Another knock pulled me away from my thoughts again. “That’s it,” I grumbled, standing. I rushed to the door and opened it wide.
“I thought I told you….”
Dead eyes stared back at me from a decaying face as the smell of death wafted through the doorway.
I hadn’t expected zombies to knock.
HA! Well-played. Well-played. This line explains my entire collection of hard drives full of work (some finished, some interrupted): “Of course, it was much more likely I would end up with two unfinished novels instead of one.” I share your disdain for those pesky middles. Terrific dialogue, straight into the action, loved it. Thanks for sharing, Bruce!
Wow, Sue, you really know how to make a struggling author feel good about his writing! Thank you so much for your kind words.
This post is a breakthrough for me. Thank you!
I want to write lots and write fast to practise and hone my storytelling and writing skills. It’s like a muscle that that needs working out with daily exercise 🙂 So, based on Ray Bradbury’s advice to writers, I set myself the goal writing a short story a week.
I knew it would be difficult, I knew the quality wouldn’t be great, especially at the start, and I was prepared to tell myself again and again to let go of expectations, and just write. Just put in the writing time and you’ll get better despite yourself 🙂
What I didn’t anticipate was how difficult it was to actually finish a story or write a complete scene.
For the past 2 weeks, I’ve sat down daily to ‘write a story.’ I’ve written half ideas, themes, descriptions, interesting choices, dialogue, characters and even settings that don’t go anywhere.
I haven’t been able to craft any of it into something a cohesive scene or story that I was interested enough to flesh out or finish. I felt like I was failing even when I was putting in the writing time.
The exercise above taught me to take the distraction of ‘what’s the ending? / where’s the conflict?’ and let it be part of my writing. I’m writing from a ‘true place’ – at least for now 🙂
The structure and time pressure made me put words on paper quickly and made me create a clear want, obstacle and character. It’s not earth shattering but I don’t care because at least it’s cohesive.
So thank you. I’m much more motivated and excited to continue practising my writing and storytelling.
Onwards and upwards!
Jacinta, So glad you found this valuable. Finishing is the single hardest thing to do for me. The structure and a timer method you mentioned is my go to technique for finishing. Those last few paragraphs (or chapters) I’m constantly reminding my inner editor that she will get a turn to fix it later– when it is done! Thanks for stopping by. Keep going!
thanks for the inspiration to write a chapter in my middle grade mystery story “Family Secrets.” For those readers here unfamiliar with this genre, it is written for children in grades 4-8.
Fearful Thoughts
This family secret frightens me. No one wants to talk about my grandfather. Why? He seemed like a nice man in the pictures of him with my mother. They went to a beach house he owned at the shore. I don’t even know where they went on their vacation. Too many mysterious events in my mother’s life.
Is she hiding some secrets about her father because she is scared? Nana, Cousin Hope, and Mom won’t tell me anything and I want to know! My own cousin Lindy seems to know more. How can I get her to talk to me about what she suspects?
If I am calm and caring, maybe I can draw out her thoughts about our grandfather. She seems concerned more about her parents’ marriage. What our parents are thinking is not something I usually even think about. Maybe I should be more aware of our parents. Too many adult secrets in this family.
I will just concentrate on the history of this unknown grandfather who died before I was born. Lindy was a toddler and she is sneaky so maybe she heard some talk when she was little. I have to ask questions without her realizing that I am being a “detective” about our family history. No more fears about the mystery. It isn’t as if there are any bad guys in our group. They are just family secrets hidden for years.
Hi Beth! That opening line hooks us. We want to know about this secret too. Thanks for reading and sharing your practice.
That’s an energizing fueling advice to those writers who really possess the charisma to write something wonderful. Thanks a lot for this @disqus_vfRXPvia4R:disqus. I only have one problem that I’m not quite familiar with the UK/US writing style. So please if you have any advice then it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!