How to Start Writing (Or, the tips that actually help me.)

Decrease Spam.

I'm talking broad strokes, and tiny details. First, minimize distraction. Set a writing schedule, if you can. Or a writing habit. Whichever works best for you. Clear your desk of dirty dishes and take out your trash. Close YouTube and Netflix and Hulu. If your email is left open, turn off your notifications. Silence your phone, log out of Instagram and Twitter until you're done. If you live with other people, and they don't want to give you time to write, try writing earlier in the day, before everyone's up, or later, before you go to bed. Don't break any rules, but this is your life. Your dream. Support your dream by decreasing spam.

Set the Mood.

Open your music player (if you use YouTube, I would recommend getting premium if you can, as ads can be distracting.) I use Amazon Music since I already have an Amazon Prime account. My playlists for writing are very specific: Writing Playlist, and Writing Playlist: Ceremonial. I usually listen to Ceremonial, since it's a collection of an hour and a half of my favorite writing music. I created m,y playlists within the genre of my book: scores from fantasy movies, TV shows, and video games that move me. I write to mostly orchestral music, but that's my preference. Light a candle. Wear fuzzy socks, or place your replica sword on your wall next to your computer. Find statues and ancient books that feel like your story, and soon, your suburban house will feel like a castle. Or, you know, whatever vibes with your story.

It is a Myth that You Start at the Start.

Eventually, of course, your story will start at the beginning. But that's rarely where I start. I'll start in the middle, or, this last go around, I started on book two before realizing I needed book one first. And even then, I didn't write the book in order.

Maybe, when I'm in the shower, I'll catch a glimpse of a scene, usually just a flit, a flutter, a feeling. Most recently, it was a character. He leaned against his desk, pressing his knuckles into the grain of the ancient desk as he nods, reading. He looks up at me, tells me to wait a moment before joining him. He's talking to someone else. Maybe an attendant, or a confidant. He's an ancient friend, a new ally, I realize, as I'm standing in the darkness, but he's not until later. This, standing together, as close as we are in the dark room, is way later. Books and wars and deaths and uprisings later than the first book I'm writing. And yet, still, I write him, noting his surefire confidence and his local notoriety among the women of his town. He'll come around when he's ready. Until then, I'll keep finding vignettes in my spare time, writing them down, building a story of places and moments in time and silly stories, until I can suss out their order, toss the unnecessary, and fill in the blanks. Write what you want to write when it appears.

If You're Writing, You're Writing

Some people finish a manuscript in six weeks. Some finish it in two years. Some work on it their whole lives. Writing's not a race, it's creating an entirely new language. Sometimes the scenes you write will only be for you, and will never end up in a book. And it's all alright. Productivity and production are two different things. If you don't have a deadline to meet, sometimes, taking your time to learn your style, understand your plot, and reach out to beta readers is worth it. Who cares if you're not already published? My best advice that doesn't cost a dollar: stop putting pressure on your passion to financially support your life. Elizabeth Gilbert wrote about this in Big Magic: Creative Living Beyond Fear. Read it.

Find Like-Minded Media

You want to write a post-apocalyptic romance with space cowboys and a theme of pro-separatist leanings? You better be watching as much media that even looks like what you want to write. If you have to be on social media (how else am I supposed to see photos of my niece and ancient Egyptian ruins in the same app, mom,) follow creators and artists and actors who speak to you, whose work could run parallel with yours, without overlapping (think Star Trek and Star Wars.) Follow ranchers in the Australian outback on Instagram. Read pro-separatist literature. Visit planetariums and watch documentaries on space travel Pursue what you want to write about, because it's all research, and you want to be an expert.

Play in Your Writing

In the same vein of "If you're writing, you're writing," sometimes you can take a break from your larger narrative and write something that's not requisite to the story. Especially if you've got writer's block. Try writing a short scene that takes place in your universe, but has nothing to do with your story (a market. The coffee shop across the street from your main love interest's apartment that they've never visited. A museum dedicated to the aftermath of your story a hundred years later. A cabbage merchant who just keeps being in the wrong place at the wrong time,) and have fun with it. Worst case, you're writing something no one will see, but it's creating depth to your universe. Best case, it's something you can use later.

Take a Break

When I was working through my English degree, I had to write countless essays each semester. In fact, that's what most of my degree was: writing. And I found that, sometimes, no matter what, I couldn't write another word. So, if I could, I would give myself time away from my ancient and wheezing MacBook. If all else fails, you may need to take a break. It's okay to give yourself space from your writing. If you need to take a break, it's not because you're a failure or you're not good enough, it's merely because you're tired. In the same way that athletes need recovery time to perform at their best, your brain needs space to figure out plot, character development, and other features of your writing, and staring at a word document isn't going to be the best cure for writer's block if you're truly fatigued. I can write for an entire day, take photos for the website, write a couple of blog posts, and by the time I switch back to my main book draft, I'm exhausted. Instead of pushing myself to write, I can take the evening, watch some pointless YouTube videos, do way too many facemasks, and not feel guilty in the morning when my word count hasn't changed. Implement regular breaks into your writing, whether small breaks during productive periods or longer breaks when you can't quite figure out where to go. (Oh, and don't take a break out of fear; I think a lot of writers when they first start out are terrified of writer's block. At this point, I'm no longer scared of it. It's usually a sign I've reached a point where either a.) something isn't logically working in my writing, or b.) the direction I'm taking the narrative isn't sustainable. Taking time away from the narrative can make both of these paths more obvious. Then, the scarier thing than writer's block: the backspace.)

As Mentioned Above: Backspace

I'm terrified of deleting something and then regretting it. Recently, I realized that a revised scene was far too dramatic and redundant (a strange combo) for the tone of the chapter. The first draft had a much simpler scene, where the stakes were lowered, and it gave the reader a respite from the chaos that I was building as we steamrolled toward the point of no return. Reading it back, I was truly saddened that I'd changed the scene. Very, very luckily, I have a habit of saving everything, and though it took some digging, I found an old draft that still had the original dialog and context, and I was able to integrate it into an existing scene that felt so much more authentic. So, my advice: when you're revising, take ANYTHING you want to delete and Ctrl + X the writing into another document in case you need to pull from it in the future. I call mine The Dump Doc. As in, I'll dump anything I don't like here, but at least it's saved if I decide I was wrong for chopping it.

Those are all the things I can think of that really helped me through my degree and finishing my first and second drafts of my book. As I said above, truly, your writing deserves all the time you can give it, but your life and your mental health take priority. Especially right now, when all the tweets I see say, "Now's the time to write your book!" Like, no. Please, no. Write because it's what you WANT to do.

Do you have any other tips that help you write when you feel stuck? Tell me in the comments below and we can build a SUPER list of tips.

x Bea