If In Doubt – Write

This happened yesterday.

I was writing my current book and had no idea what was going to happen next.

I started to think of all the people who have told me that they would like to write a book but don’t know where to start.

I had just finished a chapter. I was in that place, that hovering place, that scary place, where I have no idea what I’m going to write next. I didn’t know what the characters wanted. I didn’t know what they were wanting to say. I didn’t know anything—other than what I had previously written. That helps, of course. (There’s nothing as daunting as starting a book.)

Then I found myself talking to an imaginary friend who was a wannabe writer.

“I don’t know how to start,” they said.

“I don’t know how to start this next chapter.”

“I’ll think about it some more.”

“That’s the very reason why you haven’t started to write your book. You’re thinking too much.”

“But when I think I get ideas.”

“Do you write those ideas down?”

“No. I’ve tried. But I always come to a dead end.”

“That’s because you’re thinking too much. Sit and write.”

“About what?”

“The first thing that pops into your head. It could be a name. A place. An emotion. A feeling. A desire. An urge. A smell. A taste. A fear. Write it down.”

“Then what?”

“You’re thinking too much. Just write. Here, I’ll show you.”

I was in that same place remember. I didn’t know what was going to happen next. I had left my heroine standing in a doorway to a tunnel. That was how the previous chapter ended.

To show my imaginary friend, I sat at my computer, the dreaded vertical line flashing at me, and wrote: “She set off down the dark tunnel, and quickly noticed the drawings on the walls.”

Here’s the thing: I had no idea, before writing this sentence, that there was going to be drawings on the walls. No idea whatsoever. At least not consciously. But now I had something else to play with, a new texture, a new colour to help me paint my picture.

Writing is done when you sit down and write.

Just write something.

Writing is rewriting, so don’t aim for perfection.

Just write.

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I thought I would share that with you.

Best get back to my story.

Gavin

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