How to Begin Writing Every Day

For some writers, September means the start of meticulously planning out what they’re going to write in November. For some pantsers, even thinking about writing is still months away. But no matter what your writing style is, just starting anything can be the hardest part. Today, writer Rosario Martinez shares some words of wisdom about beginnings:

You want to write a story. It’s the story that’s been there in the back of your mind. The one you’ve frequently thought about writing down, the one you thought you’d never get to tell. Until one day, poof! There it is, like a shiny new pencil. Quickly gather your notebook—a new one that you’ve assigned for this occasion. You might already have a couple notebooks that you’ve gathered over the years for this exact moment. All those empty pages hiding away the hundreds of possibilities. All the stories. All of them just waiting for you to sit down and write.

The real beginning—the part before the story ever starts—is where we as writers have to condition ourselves to write. Perhaps not everyday, but at least thinking about writing constantly, is the hardest part. 

Think of all the people who candidly say they have always wanted to write a book but simply don’t have the time. If there is something that I have learned since beginning my novel, it’s that the right time to write will not come, bells ringing, at a particular time of the day. I remember I wanted to write at specific times of the day, every day, uninterrupted, to complete my word count each day. I was disappointed when it didn’t happen and decided to start anew every day after that. 

It was a huge relief when I began to be flexible about my writing time. In the early days I set an event on my phone calendar around the time that I’d most likely be home to remind me that this was a good time to write. Today the event is still there; it’s there the 365 days of the year. While I don’t write every day, it helps to keep writing on my mind, it helps me begin every day.

The writing journey itself has several beginnings, middles and endings—it’s kind of meta if you really think about it. Each day, gradually we carve out the time to write. How? By thinking about our writing in the way one would approach a math problem, step by step. (Math, right? Fractions, or something.) But it makes sense to think about it this way. 

I often thought about writing a book as some unattainable kind of magic, and that was daunting. It’s too overwhelming to think about a whole book all at once. All the parts start to move and often you don’t know where to begin. That was one of the things that kept me from writing. I started out collecting scenes I’d written, names I liked for characters, possible locations, and backstory. I had the skeleton of a story, and while I had an ending in mind, I had absolutely no idea where to begin. 

The truth is, there is no one way to start your story, because only you know your story. I started writing out of order and that got me through for a couple of scenes—not chapters. Then I wrote the ending before I wrote the beginning and circled back to the start. It took a few tries and rewrites until now I think I’m at a good spot.

The beginning is always tough. I’m here to tell you that it will be okay you will get through it. All you have to do is sit and begin.

Rosario Martinez is a writer in Dallas, Texas where she lives with her husband and their 4 sweet but demanding cats. She’s currently working on her debut YA Fantasy novel set in a parallel world where magic isn’t the only rising power. She has too many flannel things and believes a good bowl of nachos is life. To follow her journey to publication, visit her blog or find her on Twitter @lemmonavenue08 and Instagram @rosariowrites.

Top photo by Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash.