WRITING FICTION: WHERE DO I START?
“I have an idea for a book, but where do I start?”
I have been getting this question a lot lately. My answer is always the same.
As to the key portion of this question, you start anywhere. When writing fiction, I always start with character. Other authors start with plot, and yet others with a concept or an idea. No starting point is wrong. Wait. Let me rephrase that. The only bad starting point is no starting point. In other words, there is no wrong place to start, but in order to write, you must start somewhere.
I have a tendency to write my way into story, often discovering who my characters are along the way. This means that sometimes, what I thought was chapter three ends up being chapter one and what I thought was chapter one ends up being pulled from the story.
When I talk to other writers about this, especially those who are just starting out on their writing journeys, I always point out that we all have a process and that each writer’s process may be different, but every one’s is valid. My own process tends to morph and seems not only to depend on the book I am writing, but on the character whose story I am telling. But I don’t let that changing process bother me. As long as I am writing, I will at some point have the words on paper that I need in order to mold and shape and polish the final story into something worthy of my readers.
But, in order to get those words on paper, I have to start somewhere. Beginning. Middle. End. Character description. Plot outline. Short scenes. Snippet of dialogue. The question, what if? A single emotion. A taste. A smell. Anywhere. Just so long as it gets words on page.
WRITING IS REWRITING.
Words are not carved in stone. As writers, our work is flexible and malleable, less like marble to be chipped away, more like clay that can be reshaped and refined over and over until we get it where we want it. Revision is a powerful tool, allowing us to take the ugliest lump of clay and shape it into a powerful work of art.
In reality, writing is all about the final execution. Where we start is a matter of process and taste.
But, in order to finish, we must first start.
The post WRITING FICTION: WHERE DO I START? appeared first on SharonSkinner.com.
