GHOSTY TOASTY asked Veronica Roth:

Do you have any tips on how to start writing a book?

Veronica Roth I've never chiseled a sculpture out of a big rock, so this is probably going to be a wildly inaccurate comparison, but I imagine at a certain point you just have to pick up hammer and chisel and give it a whack, and the same is true of writing a book.

I have tried several methods, but I always feel like a child attempting to jump into cold water. Do I dip in a toe or do I just hurl my body into the pool? Sometimes I make a list of all the scenes I have ideas for and then I start writing one, and then inevitably I hate it, trash it, and start over; sometimes I just start writing and then stop, write an outline, and start over; sometimes I make a meticulous outline and then start writing the first scene, decide I hate it, throw it out, and start over.

Basically what I'm telling you is that if it feels daunting, that's because it is, and you have to find a way to make your brain understand that whatever you start with probably won't end up in the final draft (at least not without a lot of revising), and that's FINE and the only "right" way to start is with the scene you need to start with, even if you ultimately cut 50+ pages from your beginning, which I have done several times before (Carve the Mark, Chosen Ones, and my current work in progress).

So if what you need to do is start in the middle, do that; if you need to start with a scene that's really interesting to you, do that; if you need to start five different times and then pick the best one, do that; if you need to write a detailed outline before you make an attempt at writing a scene; do that; and if one of these things doesn't work for you, let go of it and try something else. Just take a chunk out of that rock, my friend, and the more you chisel the more your draft will take shape, even if you have to lose some bits along the way.

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