March 11, 2025 • 28 mins
Whether you're a seasoned novelist or a newcomer to the craft, we all come to the page and need to BEGIN. It's easy to say "Just start," but it's often not that simple. This week, I have some fresh encouragement and practical tips to help you start writing with confidence.
Links mentioned:
- Write Now Episode 102: Journaling & You
- Write Now Episode 142: No Rules, Just Write
- Write Now Episode 014: Creating A Space For Writing
- Write Now Episode 001: What's Keeping You From Writing?
For show notes and a full transcript of this episode, please visit: https://www.sarahwerner.com/how-to-start-writing-wn-165
Thank you for listening! To support the work I do here at the Write Now podcast, you can become a patron on Patreon at https://patreon.com/sarahrheawerner, or send me a tip on Ko-Fi at https://ko-fi.com/sarahwerner.
Happy writing!
— Sarah
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
This is the Write Nowpodcast with Sarah Werner,
Episode 165 (00:03):
How To Start Writing.
(00:26):
Welcome to Write Now, the podcastthat helps all writers - aspiring,
professional, and otherwise- to find the time, energy,
and courage you need topursue your passion and write.
I'm Sarah Werner,
and today I want to talk about afundamental piece of the writing
puzzle - and that is,
(00:47):
"How do I start?" You may havenoticed that I left the title of this
episode purposefully ambiguous becauseI want it to apply to two different
types of writers.
The first type being those of youwho haven't technically started yet,
and who are maybe listening to thispodcast to get an idea of what it means
(01:07):
or what it takes to actuallystart writing a story.
The second audience is those of youwho have maybe in the past done some
writing,
but you find yourself perhaps at aloss in need of some inspiration,
in need of a reminder abouthow and why to do this thing
that you feel compelled and driven to do.Even if you are an
(01:31):
established writer,
even if you are pretty far downthe proverbial writing path,
you still have to start everyday. I do this myself. I wake up,
I make my coffee, I feed thecats, I sit down in my office,
and I have to start.And sometimes it's easy.
Sometimes I have left myself a littletrail of breadcrumbs from the day before.
(01:54):
Maybe I've left off in the middle of asentence or in the middle of a paragraph
or in the middle of an idea.
Maybe I've left myself alittle handwritten note for the next day, like, "Hey,
go through this scene and add thisand or this." But there are also
days when I sit down and I openmy laptop and it takes me a
while as I sit my coffee and the caffeineslowly enters my bloodstream into my
(02:18):
brain to figure out... what are thoseweird little markings on the screen?
Oh, those are words.Okay, what do they mean?
Where was I going withthis? How do I jump back in?
How do I make this sound goodand smart and relevant? And
there are other days when I'm not justjumping back into something I've already
(02:41):
started,
but I'm sitting down and either I openmy laptop or I open a notebook (because I
like to brainstorm by hand andwrite first drafts by hand),
and I will look at thatblank page and say, "Okay,
a giant magnificentstory needs to go here.
How do I start?" So whether you identifywith that first audience of people
(03:03):
who maybe have an idea that they wantto try writing or they want to get into
writing, maybe they have astory to tell - yes, you,
maybe you have a story to tell- or whether you are a little
bit further along your writing journeyand you are just looking for the
motivation and inspiration to openyour laptop or open your notebook
(03:23):
and continue to restart,
to jump back into where you leftoff... These are both perfectly valid.
We are going to talk about both ofthose today. If you are looking to start
writing, I'm really excited for you.
You have a beautiful and transformative
andmaybe-perhaps-a-little-difficult-sometimes road ahead of you,
(03:48):
and I'm really glad thatyou're here with us.
Storytelling is an innateurge that we as humans have.
There are a lot of theories as towhy this is, but for whatever reason,
we are motivated anddriven and even educated
by narrative, by a story.
(04:08):
A story is a snack-sized bit ofthe human experience that we can
ingest and parse meaning fromand learn from and take joy in
(because yes, entertainment is aperfectly valid reason to write,
but we'll get into that in just a second).If you've ever seen the movie The
Sound of Music, you mayrecall Julie Andrews singing,
(04:31):
"Let's start at the very beginning,
A very good place to start!" Andthat would seem like good advice
for starting a story,
for looking at how to start writingstart at the beginning, but...
what IS the beginning?When we're talking about writing,
when we're talking aboutdiving into a piece of art,
(04:51):
what does that beginning look like?Is it the first word on the page?
Is it the title that we've thought of inour head or is it us? Is it ourselves?
I know it's easy to jump aheadand start thinking about beat
sheets and three x structure versusfive x structure and metaphors
and pacing and tension and character arcs,
(05:13):
but that can get reallyoverwhelming really quickly,
and so I think that whenwe get started writing,
no matter if you are just gettingstarted or if you are a professional,
a good place to startis to ground yourself,
to be present and begin byacknowledging who you are and where you
are. This can be as simple as,"I'm Sarah, I have a story to tell,
(05:36):
and I'm really excited to starttyping." Or it can be a little more
introspective and you can say, "Okay,
my name is Sarah and I'm feeling anxious.
I don't have a lot of confidencein my ability to write.
I am not a professional,
but writing sounds cool and fun and Ihave some aspirations to express myself
(05:58):
or to get published,
et cetera." The key here is to be honestabout where you are in your writing
journey and not to disparage yourself.
I've been writing for years and it isstill very easy for me to sit down in the
morning and say, "Okay, I'm Sarahand I've no idea what I'm doing."
I mean, which is true becausethe more you learn about writing,
(06:19):
the more you realize all of the thingsthat you don't know you don't know,
but it won't do to start off bytearing yourself down by saying,
"Ugh, I'm Sarah and thisis probably going to suck,
and why am I bothering doing thisanyway?" And then you close your laptop or
your notebook and then you run away.I don't want that to happen to you.
(06:42):
I don't want you to start off thiswhole experience berating yourself.
A simple acknowledgementwithout judgment will do.
And if you're sort ofcaught up in the idea that,
"I've never taken a writing class,
I don't have a writing degree," I haveto tell you - I have taken writing
classes and I do have a writing degree,
and I think I learned just asmuch by growing up reading,
(07:05):
and reading as an adult,
and reading thoughtfully than I didout of any of my classes in high
school or college. It may also helpyou to remember that people like
Jane Austen - famous novelists -I'm pretty sure she didn't have an
MFA (which is a master's in fine arts).
I'm also relatively sureshe didn't go to college,
(07:29):
or even high school.
She didn't have a degree on her wall asfar as I'm aware that ascertained that,
yes, you are certified Jane Austen,
you have permission to write.I talk to a lot of aspiring writers
who really get down on themselves becausethey don't have the "right degree" or
the "right number" of classesthat they've taken when really,
(07:52):
those things, those credentials,are a relatively new invention.
And in fact, the things that youlearn in a creative writing class,
in a degree program for creative writing,
those are all based on works and exampleswritten by people who did not have
that education themselves.Next, I'd like you to think:
(08:14):
what do you want outof this whole process?
What do you want out ofthe writing experience?
What do you want to get out of this?
Do you want to write becauseyou have a story to tell,
that you are excited toshare with the world?
Do you want to write because you feelyourself strangely compelled to write?
Do you want to get published?
(08:34):
Do you want to just process your ownthoughts and get them down on paper?
Do you want to entertain people?Do you want to entertain yourself?
Are you bored?
Did your therapist tell you that youneeded to do some writing? Whatever your
reason, they are all extremely valid,
but I think it's important to understandwhat you want out of the experience,
(08:55):
whether it's a feeling or a tangible goal,
because that will help you set yourexpectations and ultimately will help
you understand whether or not you'vebeen successful in this whole endeavor.
Speaking of expectations,
whether you are just getting startedor you've published 10 books,
(09:16):
don't expect every single wordyou put down onto the page,
physical or digital, tobe amazing or even good.
This is a frustration for writersat all levels - and that is,
your work, the writing that you produce,
will probably not line up exactlywith the version of it that
(09:36):
exists in your head. And that's okay.
That's normal.Our job as writers is to
extract that vision we have in ourheads and translate it onto the
page. And as we get moreproficient in the craft,
the translation willget better and better.
(09:57):
But I know a lot of writers who startout and they hammer out the first
paragraph of their dream novel andthey read it later and they're like,
"This is terrible.
I'm a terrible writer." And thenthey give up. And maybe this is you.
Maybe this is somethingyou've experienced.
It's definitely something Ihave experienced - that sense of
(10:18):
frustration that,
"This is not coming out howI wanted it to come out," or,
"This is not that good." That's normal.
Part of the issue comes becausewe compare what we are starting
with to other people's published work,
and what you see in front of you isyour own messy notes and drafts and
(10:40):
thoughts,
and what you see when you pick up apublished book is everything but the
notes and thoughts and messy draft.
We don't get to look insideHemingway's trash can.
We don't get to see all thosecrumpled up pages full of mistakes and
spilled ink. We don't get to seeall of the times that he messed up.
(11:02):
But we do see that in our own work. So Iwant to say this as an encouragement to
you:
go into the experience hopeful andaspirational and even ambitious -
those are all good things.But don't go in demanding.
Don't go in judging,
even if you're not a perfectionist(like many of us are).
(11:23):
If you go into this experience expectingthe Great American Novel to come out on
the first try, you'regoing to be disappointed.
So whether you stick with it or notand eventually do publish that great
American novel dependson your expectations.
Are you getting out of this experiencewhat you expected and you maybe need
(11:44):
to readjust your expectationsor rewrite them entirely?
Another question that gets wrapped upinto the whole how to start thing is the
question of where to start.
And this is a more practical questionthan a lot of the other ones we've been
talking about today. "Where do I start?
Do I just open up a notebookand put words on it?
(12:06):
Do I just jump right intowriting chapter one of my novel,
or do I need to do some charactersketches first? Do I need an outline?
How do I know, if I have alot of stories in my head,
how do I know which one to tell?
Where do I start with that?" So I'mgoing to break this down for you,
because there's a lot to cover here.Many writers get started
(12:27):
writing fan fiction. I didn'thave a term for it at the time,
but when I started writing, I remember,my novel that I wrote in seventh grade,
I wrote because I had seen"Star Wars Episode IV:
A New Hope" for the first time,
and I was in love with it and I wantedto write my own characters in this world
of space wizards.
(12:49):
Fanfiction is a perfectly validplace to start. Adjacent to that
is... I don't know ifthis actually has a term,
but I know when I wassort of learning to write,
I would find a book that Ireally loved and I would just
copy down sentences that that author hadwritten in the story to get a feel for
(13:09):
what it was like on the page. Now,
this was not plagiarismbecause I wasn't publishing it.
I was just literally copying it down intoa notebook to see what it felt like to
write those words, and then when I feltlike I had internalized it a little bit,
I would try writing my own.
This is a good way for new writersto start to develop their voice,
is to understand, "Is thissomething that I would say?
(13:30):
Is this something that I would write?"and to begin to understand what makes you
different from other writers. Anotherplace to start is simply free writing,
which is where you open up a Worddocument or you pick up a notebook or a
typewriter or wherever itis you prefer to write,
and you just let the words come outin a sort of stream-of-consciousness
fashion.
(13:51):
This sort of writing will probably notbe ready for publication immediately,
but it's a really good way to juststart to get past that initial
barrier of fear, to get past theblinking cursor or the blank page.
I know some people who just writedown random words until their brain
engages and finds the thread ofa story and begins to follow it.
(14:14):
Sort of akin to freewriting is journaling,
and there's so many differenttypes of journaling.
I will not go into them right now - Ithink I actually have several episodes,
or at least one episode, about journaling,
so I'll have a link to that inthe show notes for this episode.
But even just opening upa journal and processing,
"What am I noticing right now" - this isan exercise I do a lot to get started.
(14:37):
In the morning, I'lljust... in my journal,
I will write down the word"Noticing" in all caps,
and then underneath that I'll juststart to write down: What am I hearing?
What am I feeling? What doesthis coffee taste like today?
Is my brain not willing to move forwardbecause it's stuck on a dream that I had
that I need to explore?What am I worried about?
(14:58):
What am I looking forward to? This issomething similar to a practice called
"Morning Pages" that JuliaCameron is famous for...
I don't know if "inventing"is the right word,
because it's literally justwriting whatever's in your brain to clear it out and
prepare yourself for sittingdown to write your story.
And it's useful for some people,
and it's not useful for other people.And the biggest and most frustrating piece
(15:21):
of advice I can give you is that...
most of this you'll only know if it'sright for you by trial and error.
So if you've tried writingfanfiction and you hate it,
that doesn't mean that you'renot a writer or you can't write.
It just means you need to trya different type of writing.
If you found that you hate five-paragraphessays - I don't even know if they
make people write those in schoolstill, but when I was going to school,
(15:44):
we had to write five paragraphessays - if you loathe those,
if every time you are assigneda five-paragraph essay,
your soul dies or feels likeit's crumpling up in your chest,
like one of EarnestHemingway's mistake papers,
you don't have to write five-paragraphessays in your free time!
You can write a romance.You can write a screenplay.
(16:06):
You can write some really angry poetryabout having to write five-paragraph
papers. A lot of people love journaling.A lot of people hate journaling.
But most of the time you don't knowuntil you give it a try. Be willing to
experiment because, as we were talkingabout with expectations earlier,
maybe you have this dream ofbecoming a famous poet, but really,
(16:29):
when you put pen topaper, you realize, "Oh,
I'm actually really good atlong-form storytelling. Oh,
okay." Personally,
I grew up dreaming aboutbecoming a novelist.
I wanted to write books when I grew up,
and I didn't even know until I startedexperimenting with the medium that
I could write for audio that I couldwrite scripted podcasts and audio
(16:53):
dramas, and that experimentationallowed my career to take off.
Another thing I haven't mentionedis the use of writing prompts.
So these are ideas thatwill get you writing,
and they come in a lotof different formats.
So you might see awriting prompt that says,
"Recall a time when you felt sad,"or you might see a prompt that
(17:16):
is a picture of a rabbit playing a cello,
and be asked to write a story aboutthat. There are prompts everywhere,
especially now that we have the internet.
All you have to do is Google "writingprompts" and start to look through,
if this sounds like something that wouldbe good for you to experiment with,
look through and see what's available.
See what kind of prompts are interestingto you. What seems fun to write about?
(17:40):
Curiosity and whimsy and asense of joy are all extremely
valid reasons to write,
and following those feelings canoften lead to some excellent work. I
know we're still talking aboutthe "where" to start writing,
and I want to be very clear, if I haven'tbeen clear enough about this already,
that there is no rightor wrong way to write.
(18:04):
I have a podcast episode about this.
If you go back to Episode142 - it's called "No Rules,
Just Write" (like W-R-I-T-E,
haha puns) - and I'll have a link tothat episode in the show notes for this
episode. But the entire point is,
writing is personal,writing is subjective,
writing is art.I know that there's a lot of shoulds and
(18:27):
do nots out there whenit comes to writing.
I know that there's a lot of rules.
I am constantly coming acrossarticles and podcast episodes and
videos that are like,
"The Top 10 Things ToNever Do An A Story," or,
"Three Things You Should Never DoIn Character Development." There are
(18:49):
people who say you should write every day.
There are people who say youshould not write every day.
There are people who say youshould start with an outline.
There are people who sayoutlines are for chumps.
There are people who say you shouldnot end a sentence with a preposition.
There are people who say you shouldstart with your characters in mind.
(19:09):
There are other people who say you shouldstart with the plot in mind. There is
so much writing advice out there,
and there are so many rules that havebeen constructed around this medium,
and over the years I've kind of foundthat I've lost patience with them.
Some things make sense -if the hero of your story,
if the first thing the maincharacter of your story does,
(19:30):
is murder a puppy,
I think people are going to have a hardtime identifying with and cheering for
that hero. So... common sense.
But I'm still not going to say youshouldn't do that, because it might be,
for some people,
a very interesting character arc tosee how this hero is going to come back
(19:50):
from having murdered a puppy.And can they come back?
And what are theramifications in their life?
And what do other people think about them?
And why did they do it?I know a lot of us tend to look for
guidelines about how to dosomething "the right way" because
it is so frustrating andtime-consuming to feel your way through
(20:15):
the process. So I want to say,if guidelines work for you,
if they're sort of like the bumpersin bowling that keep your ball in the
lane and headed toward the pins,then totally take advantage of those.
But take them with a grain ofsalt. Experiment with them.
Keep your mind open. If a piece ofadvice someone gives you feels wrong,
(20:38):
or if you try experimenting with it, andit just isn't going anywhere for you,
and you feel defeated and your heartfeels like someone stepped on it,
then stop that rule because it'snot for you. A lot of people
recommend Stephen King's book OnWriting as a really good place
to start and just pick upsome guidelines for writing.
(20:59):
It's sort of anautobiography/writing guide,
and I've read it several times.
Stephen King's path isStephen King's path.
Stephen King says to write every day,because that's what works for him.
I went through a time when I tried writingevery day and I burned myself out and
sank into a terrible depression.
(21:19):
Stephen King also did a bunch ofdrugs that I would not want to do,
and made some choices that Imight not have made. However,
it can often be helpful orinspirational to read books about
how to write, to feel a sense ofsolidarity with other writers,
to learn from other mistakesthat other writers have made,
(21:40):
and to take away from thosebooks what works for you.
Please know you also have permissionto discard any of that writing advice
that does not work for you.
You can write a novel where you endevery sentence with a preposition,
and if it works, it works.
If you would feel more comfortablestructuring your story around an outline,
(22:03):
then give it a try. If it works foryou, it works. And if it doesn't,
then you can say, "Okay,outlining does not work for me,
and I am moving on." The question of"where" to start writing can also be
interpreted in a moreliteral sense, as in:
"Where am I going to sit down and write?
Where am I going to find the time towrite?" And I have entire episodes
(22:25):
of this podcast dedicated toquestions like that. So for example,
if you go back to episode14 of the Write Now podcast,
which I will have a link to in theshow notes for today's episode,
that episode is called "Creating A Spacefor Writing," and it's all about - do
you go to a coffee shop to write?Do you write at home before work?
Do you write during your commute?
(22:46):
Do you need to have a cupof coffee in order to write?
Do you need to have music? Do youneed to have complete silence?
So for those of you interested in theliteral "where to write" question,
check out that episode. One finalthing I want to address in today's
episode about "how to start writing" isthe things that keep us from writing;
(23:08):
the things that keep us from starting.
I recorded an episode about thisback in 2015 - the very first episode
of the Write Now Podcast - it's called,
"What's Keeping You From Writing?" andI'm not sure if I want to link to that in
the show notes or not, becauseit's a really old episode.
But it still has some validpoints. But basically,
(23:29):
there are so many fears andso many things that stand in
our way. For whatever reason,
when it comes to thedesire to write a story,
the desire to write, andthe act of writing it.
Worries about whatother people will think,
worries as to whetherwe're any good or not.
(23:49):
There are fears about failureand also, perhaps strangely,
fears about success.
I've been hosting thispodcast for 10 years,
and over those years I'veaddressed the many, many,
many things that keep us from writing.
(I'll have some of those bullet pointedin the show notes for you if there's a
(24:09):
specific one that speaks to you.)There are fears about wasting our
time, about how we're perceived,about all the work that's involved,
about succeeding, failing,about facing certain emotions.
It's all there.So, in answering this big question of,
"How do we start writing?" the bestpiece of advice I can give you is to
(24:31):
jump into it knowing whoyou are, who you want to be,
and what you want this writingexperience to look like.
What you want to getout of this experience.
There is no surefire waythat works for everyone.
There is no silver bullet that solvesall of the problems that you might face.
There are no guarantees thatif you start with an outline,
(24:54):
you will get a perfect or good orexcellent or award-winning novel.
All there is is you sittingdown at the page and getting
started.My advice is: write what delights you.
Write what brings you joyand fulfillment and meaning.
Write because you feelcompelled to tell a story.
(25:15):
Write because you wantto write. And remember,
no one actually knows what they're doing.
Even people like me who spoutadvice - most of the time,
we just feel like scared little kids.
Which is why I encourage you toexperiment, to write what interests you,
and fills you up with light.
And do the best that you can withwhat you have. I hope this was
(25:40):
a helpful episode.
I'm always tempted to cover every singlething about a topic in an episode,
and this topic was just too broadto cover everything. So I will,
as I mentioned before,
have links to helpful episodes of theWrite Now podcast in the show notes for
today's episode. This is,again, episode number 165.
(26:01):
You can find the show notes for thisepisode either in the podcast app that
you're listening to right now,or you can go out to my website,
Sarah Werner dot com - that's
S-A-R-A-H-W-E-R-N-E-Rdot com - and navigate
to episode 165 of the Write Now Podcast.On my website,
you will find not only theshow notes for today's episode,
(26:22):
but also a comment section.
If you scroll all the way downto the bottom of the page,
I know it's underneath the show notesand the transcript and all the other
stuff, but at the very bottom of the page,
there's a place where I wouldhonestly love to hear your thoughts.
What is your answer to the question,
"How do I start writing?"Where do you start?
(26:42):
I am deeply curious toknow. So again, let me know,
in the comments for this episode,your thoughts and your experience.
I read and respond to every commentI receive out on my website,
so I hope to see you there.If you would like to support the work
that I'm doing here atthe Write Now podcast,
and if you would like to helpkeep it ad-free for everyone,
(27:04):
then please consider donating $1, $2,
or what have you, tothe work that I'm doing.
You can do that through Patreon, youcan do it through Ko-fi slash "coffee",
you can do it through PayPal.Whatever it is, however it is,
I am deeply grateful to all of thepeople who donate and keep this show
(27:24):
going.Special thanks go out to patrons: Laurie,
Regina Calabrese, Amber Fratesi,Charmaine Ferreira, Kim,
Mike Tefft, Poppy Brown,Summer, Tiffany Joyner,
and Whitney Magruder. Thank you allso much for your generous donations.
Again, if you would liketo donate to the show,
(27:45):
you can go out to my website andclick on the button or link that
says "Support the Show." I woulddeeply appreciate it. And with
that,
this has been episode 165of the Write Now Podcast,
the podcast that helps allwriters - aspiring, professional,
and otherwise - to find the time, energy,
(28:06):
and courage you need to pursue yourpassion (or even discover that you have a
passion!) and write. I'm Sarah Werner,
and I'm so excited to see what you write.
This is the Write Nowpodcast with Sarah Werner,
Episode 165 (00:03):
How To Start Writing.
(00:26):
Welcome to Write Now, the podcastthat helps all writers - aspiring,
professional, and otherwise- to find the time, energy,
and courage you need topursue your passion and write.
I'm Sarah Werner,
and today I want to talk about afundamental piece of the writing
puzzle - and that is,
(00:47):
"How do I start?" You may havenoticed that I left the title of this
episode purposefully ambiguous becauseI want it to apply to two different
types of writers.
The first type being those of youwho haven't technically started yet,
and who are maybe listening to thispodcast to get an idea of what it means
(01:07):
or what it takes to actuallystart writing a story.
The second audience is those of youwho have maybe in the past done some
writing,
but you find yourself perhaps at aloss in need of some inspiration,
in need of a reminder abouthow and why to do this thing
that you feel compelled and driven to do.Even if you are an
(01:31):
established writer,
even if you are pretty far downthe proverbial writing path,
you still have to start everyday. I do this myself. I wake up,
I make my coffee, I feed thecats, I sit down in my office,
and I have to start.And sometimes it's easy.
Sometimes I have left myself a littletrail of breadcrumbs from the day before.
(01:54):
Maybe I've left off in the middle of asentence or in the middle of a paragraph
or in the middle of an idea.
Maybe I've left myself alittle handwritten note for the next day, like, "Hey,
go through this scene and add thisand or this." But there are also
days when I sit down and I openmy laptop and it takes me a
while as I sit my coffee and the caffeineslowly enters my bloodstream into my
(02:18):
brain to figure out... what are thoseweird little markings on the screen?
Oh, those are words.Okay, what do they mean?
Where was I going withthis? How do I jump back in?
How do I make this sound goodand smart and relevant? And
there are other days when I'm not justjumping back into something I've already
(02:41):
started,
but I'm sitting down and either I openmy laptop or I open a notebook (because I
like to brainstorm by hand andwrite first drafts by hand),
and I will look at thatblank page and say, "Okay,
a giant magnificentstory needs to go here.
How do I start?" So whether you identifywith that first audience of people
(03:03):
who maybe have an idea that they wantto try writing or they want to get into
writing, maybe they have astory to tell - yes, you,
maybe you have a story to tell- or whether you are a little
bit further along your writing journeyand you are just looking for the
motivation and inspiration to openyour laptop or open your notebook
(03:23):
and continue to restart,
to jump back into where you leftoff... These are both perfectly valid.
We are going to talk about both ofthose today. If you are looking to start
writing, I'm really excited for you.
You have a beautiful and transformative
andmaybe-perhaps-a-little-difficult-sometimes road ahead of you,
(03:48):
and I'm really glad thatyou're here with us.
Storytelling is an innateurge that we as humans have.
There are a lot of theories as towhy this is, but for whatever reason,
we are motivated anddriven and even educated
by narrative, by a story.
(04:08):
A story is a snack-sized bit ofthe human experience that we can
ingest and parse meaning fromand learn from and take joy in
(because yes, entertainment is aperfectly valid reason to write,
but we'll get into that in just a second).If you've ever seen the movie The
Sound of Music, you mayrecall Julie Andrews singing,
(04:31):
"Let's start at the very beginning,
A very good place to start!" Andthat would seem like good advice
for starting a story,
for looking at how to start writingstart at the beginning, but...
what IS the beginning?When we're talking about writing,
when we're talking aboutdiving into a piece of art,
(04:51):
what does that beginning look like?Is it the first word on the page?
Is it the title that we've thought of inour head or is it us? Is it ourselves?
I know it's easy to jump aheadand start thinking about beat
sheets and three x structure versusfive x structure and metaphors
and pacing and tension and character arcs,
(05:13):
but that can get reallyoverwhelming really quickly,
and so I think that whenwe get started writing,
no matter if you are just gettingstarted or if you are a professional,
a good place to startis to ground yourself,
to be present and begin byacknowledging who you are and where you
are. This can be as simple as,"I'm Sarah, I have a story to tell,
(05:36):
and I'm really excited to starttyping." Or it can be a little more
introspective and you can say, "Okay,
my name is Sarah and I'm feeling anxious.
I don't have a lot of confidencein my ability to write.
I am not a professional,
but writing sounds cool and fun and Ihave some aspirations to express myself
(05:58):
or to get published,
et cetera." The key here is to be honestabout where you are in your writing
journey and not to disparage yourself.
I've been writing for years and it isstill very easy for me to sit down in the
morning and say, "Okay, I'm Sarahand I've no idea what I'm doing."
I mean, which is true becausethe more you learn about writing,
(06:19):
the more you realize all of the thingsthat you don't know you don't know,
but it won't do to start off bytearing yourself down by saying,
"Ugh, I'm Sarah and thisis probably going to suck,
and why am I bothering doing thisanyway?" And then you close your laptop or
your notebook and then you run away.I don't want that to happen to you.
(06:42):
I don't want you to start off thiswhole experience berating yourself.
A simple acknowledgementwithout judgment will do.
And if you're sort ofcaught up in the idea that,
"I've never taken a writing class,
I don't have a writing degree," I haveto tell you - I have taken writing
classes and I do have a writing degree,
and I think I learned just asmuch by growing up reading,
(07:05):
and reading as an adult,
and reading thoughtfully than I didout of any of my classes in high
school or college. It may also helpyou to remember that people like
Jane Austen - famous novelists -I'm pretty sure she didn't have an
MFA (which is a master's in fine arts).
I'm also relatively sureshe didn't go to college,
(07:29):
or even high school.
She didn't have a degree on her wall asfar as I'm aware that ascertained that,
yes, you are certified Jane Austen,
you have permission to write.I talk to a lot of aspiring writers
who really get down on themselves becausethey don't have the "right degree" or
the "right number" of classesthat they've taken when really,
(07:52):
those things, those credentials,are a relatively new invention.
And in fact, the things that youlearn in a creative writing class,
in a degree program for creative writing,
those are all based on works and exampleswritten by people who did not have
that education themselves.Next, I'd like you to think:
(08:14):
what do you want outof this whole process?
What do you want out ofthe writing experience?
What do you want to get out of this?
Do you want to write becauseyou have a story to tell,
that you are excited toshare with the world?
Do you want to write because you feelyourself strangely compelled to write?
Do you want to get published?
(08:34):
Do you want to just process your ownthoughts and get them down on paper?
Do you want to entertain people?Do you want to entertain yourself?
Are you bored?
Did your therapist tell you that youneeded to do some writing? Whatever your
reason, they are all extremely valid,
but I think it's important to understandwhat you want out of the experience,
(08:55):
whether it's a feeling or a tangible goal,
because that will help you set yourexpectations and ultimately will help
you understand whether or not you'vebeen successful in this whole endeavor.
Speaking of expectations,
whether you are just getting startedor you've published 10 books,
(09:16):
don't expect every single wordyou put down onto the page,
physical or digital, tobe amazing or even good.
This is a frustration for writersat all levels - and that is,
your work, the writing that you produce,
will probably not line up exactlywith the version of it that
(09:36):
exists in your head. And that's okay.
That's normal.Our job as writers is to
extract that vision we have in ourheads and translate it onto the
page. And as we get moreproficient in the craft,
the translation willget better and better.
(09:57):
But I know a lot of writers who startout and they hammer out the first
paragraph of their dream novel andthey read it later and they're like,
"This is terrible.
I'm a terrible writer." And thenthey give up. And maybe this is you.
Maybe this is somethingyou've experienced.
It's definitely something Ihave experienced - that sense of
(10:18):
frustration that,
"This is not coming out howI wanted it to come out," or,
"This is not that good." That's normal.
Part of the issue comes becausewe compare what we are starting
with to other people's published work,
and what you see in front of you isyour own messy notes and drafts and
(10:40):
thoughts,
and what you see when you pick up apublished book is everything but the
notes and thoughts and messy draft.
We don't get to look insideHemingway's trash can.
We don't get to see all thosecrumpled up pages full of mistakes and
spilled ink. We don't get to seeall of the times that he messed up.
(11:02):
But we do see that in our own work. So Iwant to say this as an encouragement to
you:
go into the experience hopeful andaspirational and even ambitious -
those are all good things.But don't go in demanding.
Don't go in judging,
even if you're not a perfectionist(like many of us are).
(11:23):
If you go into this experience expectingthe Great American Novel to come out on
the first try, you'regoing to be disappointed.
So whether you stick with it or notand eventually do publish that great
American novel dependson your expectations.
Are you getting out of this experiencewhat you expected and you maybe need
(11:44):
to readjust your expectationsor rewrite them entirely?
Another question that gets wrapped upinto the whole how to start thing is the
question of where to start.
And this is a more practical questionthan a lot of the other ones we've been
talking about today. "Where do I start?
Do I just open up a notebookand put words on it?
(12:06):
Do I just jump right intowriting chapter one of my novel,
or do I need to do some charactersketches first? Do I need an outline?
How do I know, if I have alot of stories in my head,
how do I know which one to tell?
Where do I start with that?" So I'mgoing to break this down for you,
because there's a lot to cover here.Many writers get started
(12:27):
writing fan fiction. I didn'thave a term for it at the time,
but when I started writing, I remember,my novel that I wrote in seventh grade,
I wrote because I had seen"Star Wars Episode IV:
A New Hope" for the first time,
and I was in love with it and I wantedto write my own characters in this world
of space wizards.
(12:49):
Fanfiction is a perfectly validplace to start. Adjacent to that
is... I don't know ifthis actually has a term,
but I know when I wassort of learning to write,
I would find a book that Ireally loved and I would just
copy down sentences that that author hadwritten in the story to get a feel for
(13:09):
what it was like on the page. Now,
this was not plagiarismbecause I wasn't publishing it.
I was just literally copying it down intoa notebook to see what it felt like to
write those words, and then when I feltlike I had internalized it a little bit,
I would try writing my own.
This is a good way for new writersto start to develop their voice,
is to understand, "Is thissomething that I would say?
(13:30):
Is this something that I would write?"and to begin to understand what makes you
different from other writers. Anotherplace to start is simply free writing,
which is where you open up a Worddocument or you pick up a notebook or a
typewriter or wherever itis you prefer to write,
and you just let the words come outin a sort of stream-of-consciousness
fashion.
(13:51):
This sort of writing will probably notbe ready for publication immediately,
but it's a really good way to juststart to get past that initial
barrier of fear, to get past theblinking cursor or the blank page.
I know some people who just writedown random words until their brain
engages and finds the thread ofa story and begins to follow it.
(14:14):
Sort of akin to freewriting is journaling,
and there's so many differenttypes of journaling.
I will not go into them right now - Ithink I actually have several episodes,
or at least one episode, about journaling,
so I'll have a link to that inthe show notes for this episode.
But even just opening upa journal and processing,
"What am I noticing right now" - this isan exercise I do a lot to get started.
(14:37):
In the morning, I'lljust... in my journal,
I will write down the word"Noticing" in all caps,
and then underneath that I'll juststart to write down: What am I hearing?
What am I feeling? What doesthis coffee taste like today?
Is my brain not willing to move forwardbecause it's stuck on a dream that I had
that I need to explore?What am I worried about?
(14:58):
What am I looking forward to? This issomething similar to a practice called
"Morning Pages" that JuliaCameron is famous for...
I don't know if "inventing"is the right word,
because it's literally justwriting whatever's in your brain to clear it out and
prepare yourself for sittingdown to write your story.
And it's useful for some people,
and it's not useful for other people.And the biggest and most frustrating piece
(15:21):
of advice I can give you is that...
most of this you'll only know if it'sright for you by trial and error.
So if you've tried writingfanfiction and you hate it,
that doesn't mean that you'renot a writer or you can't write.
It just means you need to trya different type of writing.
If you found that you hate five-paragraphessays - I don't even know if they
make people write those in schoolstill, but when I was going to school,
(15:44):
we had to write five paragraphessays - if you loathe those,
if every time you are assigneda five-paragraph essay,
your soul dies or feels likeit's crumpling up in your chest,
like one of EarnestHemingway's mistake papers,
you don't have to write five-paragraphessays in your free time!
You can write a romance.You can write a screenplay.
(16:06):
You can write some really angry poetryabout having to write five-paragraph
papers. A lot of people love journaling.A lot of people hate journaling.
But most of the time you don't knowuntil you give it a try. Be willing to
experiment because, as we were talkingabout with expectations earlier,
maybe you have this dream ofbecoming a famous poet, but really,
(16:29):
when you put pen topaper, you realize, "Oh,
I'm actually really good atlong-form storytelling. Oh,
okay." Personally,
I grew up dreaming aboutbecoming a novelist.
I wanted to write books when I grew up,
and I didn't even know until I startedexperimenting with the medium that
I could write for audio that I couldwrite scripted podcasts and audio
(16:53):
dramas, and that experimentationallowed my career to take off.
Another thing I haven't mentionedis the use of writing prompts.
So these are ideas thatwill get you writing,
and they come in a lotof different formats.
So you might see awriting prompt that says,
"Recall a time when you felt sad,"or you might see a prompt that
(17:16):
is a picture of a rabbit playing a cello,
and be asked to write a story aboutthat. There are prompts everywhere,
especially now that we have the internet.
All you have to do is Google "writingprompts" and start to look through,
if this sounds like something that wouldbe good for you to experiment with,
look through and see what's available.
See what kind of prompts are interestingto you. What seems fun to write about?
(17:40):
Curiosity and whimsy and asense of joy are all extremely
valid reasons to write,
and following those feelings canoften lead to some excellent work. I
know we're still talking aboutthe "where" to start writing,
and I want to be very clear, if I haven'tbeen clear enough about this already,
that there is no rightor wrong way to write.
(18:04):
I have a podcast episode about this.
If you go back to Episode142 - it's called "No Rules,
Just Write" (like W-R-I-T-E,
haha puns) - and I'll have a link tothat episode in the show notes for this
episode. But the entire point is,
writing is personal,writing is subjective,
writing is art.I know that there's a lot of shoulds and
(18:27):
do nots out there whenit comes to writing.
I know that there's a lot of rules.
I am constantly coming acrossarticles and podcast episodes and
videos that are like,
"The Top 10 Things ToNever Do An A Story," or,
"Three Things You Should Never DoIn Character Development." There are
(18:49):
people who say you should write every day.
There are people who say youshould not write every day.
There are people who say youshould start with an outline.
There are people who sayoutlines are for chumps.
There are people who say you shouldnot end a sentence with a preposition.
There are people who say you shouldstart with your characters in mind.
(19:09):
There are other people who say you shouldstart with the plot in mind. There is
so much writing advice out there,
and there are so many rules that havebeen constructed around this medium,
and over the years I've kind of foundthat I've lost patience with them.
Some things make sense -if the hero of your story,
if the first thing the maincharacter of your story does,
(19:30):
is murder a puppy,
I think people are going to have a hardtime identifying with and cheering for
that hero. So... common sense.
But I'm still not going to say youshouldn't do that, because it might be,
for some people,
a very interesting character arc tosee how this hero is going to come back
(19:50):
from having murdered a puppy.And can they come back?
And what are theramifications in their life?
And what do other people think about them?
And why did they do it?I know a lot of us tend to look for
guidelines about how to dosomething "the right way" because
it is so frustrating andtime-consuming to feel your way through
(20:15):
the process. So I want to say,if guidelines work for you,
if they're sort of like the bumpersin bowling that keep your ball in the
lane and headed toward the pins,then totally take advantage of those.
But take them with a grain ofsalt. Experiment with them.
Keep your mind open. If a piece ofadvice someone gives you feels wrong,
(20:38):
or if you try experimenting with it, andit just isn't going anywhere for you,
and you feel defeated and your heartfeels like someone stepped on it,
then stop that rule because it'snot for you. A lot of people
recommend Stephen King's book OnWriting as a really good place
to start and just pick upsome guidelines for writing.
(20:59):
It's sort of anautobiography/writing guide,
and I've read it several times.
Stephen King's path isStephen King's path.
Stephen King says to write every day,because that's what works for him.
I went through a time when I tried writingevery day and I burned myself out and
sank into a terrible depression.
(21:19):
Stephen King also did a bunch ofdrugs that I would not want to do,
and made some choices that Imight not have made. However,
it can often be helpful orinspirational to read books about
how to write, to feel a sense ofsolidarity with other writers,
to learn from other mistakesthat other writers have made,
(21:40):
and to take away from thosebooks what works for you.
Please know you also have permissionto discard any of that writing advice
that does not work for you.
You can write a novel where you endevery sentence with a preposition,
and if it works, it works.
If you would feel more comfortablestructuring your story around an outline,
(22:03):
then give it a try. If it works foryou, it works. And if it doesn't,
then you can say, "Okay,outlining does not work for me,
and I am moving on." The question of"where" to start writing can also be
interpreted in a moreliteral sense, as in:
"Where am I going to sit down and write?
Where am I going to find the time towrite?" And I have entire episodes
(22:25):
of this podcast dedicated toquestions like that. So for example,
if you go back to episode14 of the Write Now podcast,
which I will have a link to in theshow notes for today's episode,
that episode is called "Creating A Spacefor Writing," and it's all about - do
you go to a coffee shop to write?Do you write at home before work?
Do you write during your commute?
(22:46):
Do you need to have a cupof coffee in order to write?
Do you need to have music? Do youneed to have complete silence?
So for those of you interested in theliteral "where to write" question,
check out that episode. One finalthing I want to address in today's
episode about "how to start writing" isthe things that keep us from writing;
(23:08):
the things that keep us from starting.
I recorded an episode about thisback in 2015 - the very first episode
of the Write Now Podcast - it's called,
"What's Keeping You From Writing?" andI'm not sure if I want to link to that in
the show notes or not, becauseit's a really old episode.
But it still has some validpoints. But basically,
(23:29):
there are so many fears andso many things that stand in
our way. For whatever reason,
when it comes to thedesire to write a story,
the desire to write, andthe act of writing it.
Worries about whatother people will think,
worries as to whetherwe're any good or not.
(23:49):
There are fears about failureand also, perhaps strangely,
fears about success.
I've been hosting thispodcast for 10 years,
and over those years I'veaddressed the many, many,
many things that keep us from writing.
(I'll have some of those bullet pointedin the show notes for you if there's a
(24:09):
specific one that speaks to you.)There are fears about wasting our
time, about how we're perceived,about all the work that's involved,
about succeeding, failing,about facing certain emotions.
It's all there.So, in answering this big question of,
"How do we start writing?" the bestpiece of advice I can give you is to
(24:31):
jump into it knowing whoyou are, who you want to be,
and what you want this writingexperience to look like.
What you want to getout of this experience.
There is no surefire waythat works for everyone.
There is no silver bullet that solvesall of the problems that you might face.
There are no guarantees thatif you start with an outline,
(24:54):
you will get a perfect or good orexcellent or award-winning novel.
All there is is you sittingdown at the page and getting
started.My advice is: write what delights you.
Write what brings you joyand fulfillment and meaning.
Write because you feelcompelled to tell a story.
(25:15):
Write because you wantto write. And remember,
no one actually knows what they're doing.
Even people like me who spoutadvice - most of the time,
we just feel like scared little kids.
Which is why I encourage you toexperiment, to write what interests you,
and fills you up with light.
And do the best that you can withwhat you have. I hope this was
(25:40):
a helpful episode.
I'm always tempted to cover every singlething about a topic in an episode,
and this topic was just too broadto cover everything. So I will,
as I mentioned before,
have links to helpful episodes of theWrite Now podcast in the show notes for
today's episode. This is,again, episode number 165.
(26:01):
You can find the show notes for thisepisode either in the podcast app that
you're listening to right now,or you can go out to my website,
Sarah Werner dot com - that's
S-A-R-A-H-W-E-R-N-E-Rdot com - and navigate
to episode 165 of the Write Now Podcast.On my website,
you will find not only theshow notes for today's episode,
(26:22):
but also a comment section.
If you scroll all the way downto the bottom of the page,
I know it's underneath the show notesand the transcript and all the other
stuff, but at the very bottom of the page,
there's a place where I wouldhonestly love to hear your thoughts.
What is your answer to the question,
"How do I start writing?"Where do you start?
(26:42):
I am deeply curious toknow. So again, let me know,
in the comments for this episode,your thoughts and your experience.
I read and respond to every commentI receive out on my website,
so I hope to see you there.If you would like to support the work
that I'm doing here atthe Write Now podcast,
and if you would like to helpkeep it ad-free for everyone,
(27:04):
then please consider donating $1, $2,
or what have you, tothe work that I'm doing.
You can do that through Patreon, youcan do it through Ko-fi slash "coffee",
you can do it through PayPal.Whatever it is, however it is,
I am deeply grateful to all of thepeople who donate and keep this show
(27:24):
going.Special thanks go out to patrons: Laurie,
Regina Calabrese, Amber Fratesi,Charmaine Ferreira, Kim,
Mike Tefft, Poppy Brown,Summer, Tiffany Joyner,
and Whitney Magruder. Thank you allso much for your generous donations.
Again, if you would liketo donate to the show,
(27:45):
you can go out to my website andclick on the button or link that
says "Support the Show." I woulddeeply appreciate it. And with
that,
this has been episode 165of the Write Now Podcast,
the podcast that helps allwriters - aspiring, professional,
and otherwise - to find the time, energy,
(28:06):
and courage you need to pursue yourpassion (or even discover that you have a
passion!) and write. I'm Sarah Werner,
and I'm so excited to see what you write.
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