The Writer’s Kickstart: Jump-Start Your Creativity and Begin Your Writing Project
Steps to ignite your creative spark and begin writing
I’ve got a number of books under my belt now, but I’m always looking for tips on how to write fiction better.
So, having read numerous books on the art of writing, I thought I’d share with you a few that I found useful.
First of all, how do you get started? Is there anything you can do to make writing that little bit easier?
Let’s take the first question first.
Personally, I don’t find it difficult to start writing. My head is always packed full of mad ideas for stories. I find it more challenging to keep going. However, I do know people for whom the beginning is always the most problematical.
Just Write
Here’s what I suggest you do: just sit down at your computer or notebook and write. Yes, it’s that simple. Set a timer for, say, ten minutes and write whatever pops into your head. This is called free writing and is a great way to loosen up your mental writing muscles. Don’t worry about spelling, grammar or punctuation. Or even if it makes sense of not. Keep writing and don’t stop until the buzzer goes.
Now read it. Are there any ideas in there that you could use in a story? Yes? Then go ahead and start developing it. No? Here are a couple more techniques for starting.
1. Ask yourself: what if? What if a creature burst through your character’s front door right now and demanded he or she hand over some device they have never heard of? What if a woman or a man’s boss declared his undying love for him or her? How would he or she respond? What happens next? What if your character is walking along the shoreline of a river and finds something odd sticking out of the mud? Now write what happens next.
2. Jumble up a sentence: this one is quite good fun and is a great way of getting those creative juices flowing. Here’s what you do. You write down a simple and boring questions such as: The man walked down the street, went into the newsagent’s shop and greeted the owner. Now, change some of the words in that sentence. If you’re writing science fiction or fantasy, that could be: The man walked down the alleyway, walked into a spaceship park and shot a guard. Or: The man flew across the river, stopped at a castle and fought the dragon. For war stories: The soldier crawled across no-man’s land, found the body of his comrade and removed his id tags A love story: The man strode across the dancefloor, took her in his arms and dipped her. These are very basic, but that’s all you need. The idea behind them is not to be the opening line of a story, but to trigger story ideas.
Do Groundwork
Okay, so you have your story idea, now what? I’d suggest you write up an outline of what the story is about. I do this for every book now, it saves a whole lot of time. I work out the characters and the main story arc of my novel via the use of Mindmapping or spider diagrams. Then I write up my outline. It might seem like a waste of time, but, trust me, it’s not. It helps me organise my ideas, my thoughts, and once completed, I can just write the story without having to pause to think up my character’s next move.
I also keep a file on the character’s names, physical appearances, likes and dislikes, friends and accomplices, where they live, descriptions of settings etc. This saves a whole load of time when you’ve forgotten what colour their hair was or who their best friend is. I do it on an Excel spreadsheet, but you could write your file in a separate notebook or on cards. It’s up to you.
Next, you should schedule your writing so that you are doing it every day (or nearly every day). By scheduling it, you are committing to getting those words down. You are saying to yourself: I am serious about this; I have set aside some time in my day to do this and I will write.
I find that if I don’t schedule, I don’t write. Let’s face it, there are loads of distractions out there that will whip away your time (I’m looking at you social media). If I have written down I will write 2000–3000 words on a specific day, I will do it. Of course, you don’t have to write so many. Work out what your optimum number of words you can write in one day and aim for that every day. You won’t always reach it and some days you will do more, but any words are better than no words. So, turn all notifications off, stay off the internet and just write. (NB I get so many word down because I plan my stories and I can touch type).
No Distractions
Make sure that when you write, you are also not distracted by other people in your home. Try and find somewhere quiet to sit for half an hour or an hour and write. It could be in a home office, at the kitchen table or in your bedroom. Be wild, mix it up a bit. Sometimes, I get so bored with writing in the same place, I take my laptop to a local café and treat myself to tea and cake. But, I only get the cake if I have met my writing goals on the previous day or week (now that’s an incentive to work hard!).
Take a regular break. There is no point exhausting yourself. Plus your creativity levels will plummet if you’re tied to your computer or notebook all the time. I have author friends who write for 25 minutes and then rest for five minutes. They do this up to four times before taking a half hour break. They also break for lunch. These are the people, by the way, who regularly write 10,000 words in a day. TEN THOUSAND WORDS!! And they all have families. I don’t know how they manage to write so much in one 24 hour period — my fingers would be falling off — but they do, and I aspire to be like them.
So, there you go. Those are my suggestions. What are yours? Are there any techniques that you use to kickstart your writing? I’d love to know.