Some bloke in tights came by and kissed the editorial director. So we're back to work.
We've renamed the blog, which seemed like an obvious move, but as for next steps - of all the spaces you could watch, why not watch this one?

Ideas come from writing. That’s the problem. You need to start before you can properly get started.
 
Ideas also come from planning, yes, okay, and from completing any sentence that begins with “I want to write about…” But if they don’t lead quickly to words on the page – actual writing of your actual book – they won’t count for much.
 
Trust the ideas that come while you’re writing. This is what people mean when they talk about the characters taking over. The plan may say that these two characters fall in love, but if you can feel the writing taking you towards a confrontation – go with it. Don’t try to wrench it back. You can always delete it later – and the odds are, you won’t.
 
You may decide that you’re writing a more convoluted rom-com than you imagined, or you may decide – as you write – that they’re long-lost brother and sister, or international assassins, or married already and about to divorce, or Princes of the Realm of Imaginaria, with dragons and magic and everything, or the last survivors of a zombie apocalypse…
 
Or it may just occur to you that the next scene would work better in a bar than in a loft...
 
Or not. None of the above. Okay. The ideas that flow when the writing flows [No – don’t build this up into a river metaphor, please. Ed.] may not seem to fit and don’t have to be used, but at the very least, they’re opening you up. Don’t stop the flow [No… Ed.] of ideas. The flow of ideas. This is how you do it: hit the return key, jot down the idea, hit the return key, keep writing.
 
This series of blog posts, by the way, is shaping up to be the first draft of a downloadable booklet titled How to Write a Book. No, wait. Idea incoming. How to Write a First Draft. No. How to Start a First Draft. One of those. Decide later.
 
We’re publishers. We publish books. Some of us even write books. We have views. We have know-how. We could maybe put in a Q&A? How about [Stop. You’ve made your point. Enough. Ed.]

Here’s a suggestion.

Fail.

It’s better to have something to delete than to sit staring at a blank screen. [You've said this - Ed.]

So do something. Write a note about a character. Write a letter to yourself about wanting to write whatever it is you want to write.

[Oh, come on. Not again. Ed.]

Write the back-cover blurb. Or the dedication.

The point being that ideas only come from writing. [This isn't necessarily true. Ed.] The point we want to make in this post [You made it before. Ed.] The ENTIRELY NEW THING we want to say in this post is that writing is the only way to write. [What about planners? Ed.] Even planning is writing. Just don't draw a picture of a character and think you've started.

So...

Why? Why do you want to write? Why do you want to write this?

It’s kind of chic for writers to talk about the difficulty of writing – how mad, masochistic and strange it is to want to put yourself through writing – but they all do it and they have reasons. What are your reasons?

["Chic"? What kind of a word is that? Ed.]

By the way, it isn’t mad, masochistic and strange.

It’s fun.

So write something. Actually write. To a character, maybe.

Look at what you've written. Think about it.

Then delete it and write something else. If you’re a traditionalist, print it out, screw it up, throw it across the room.

Your pile of screwed-up sheets of paper is allowed to get big – perhaps waist-high is average but overflowing the waste-paper basket is essential. [Get a waste-paper basket. Ed.]

But what might happen, eventually, is that you write something, and … you don’t stop writing.

We’ll come back to this.

[Please don’t. You are starting to repeat yourself. You need to get on and write about why you’re writing this. Then get into some serious stuff about pace, rhythm, info-dumps and BINMAD. Ed.]

When you start a new project, write down the date.

Not necessarily on the day. Not necessarily the exact-right date. But do this.

Don't hesitate because you can't remember the exact date on which you had the idea first, or when you wrote the first word. Write down a date that's around the time your new project got serious.

Just write down a date, okay?

Every time you put off working on your project because you're not in the right mood, or because you're tired, or because you'll feel better tomorrow, or be more creative if you just Hoover the carpet first, or move your desk just slightly to the left - every time you do any of that, look at that date you wrote down.

If you've been going for two years, and the carpet's immaculate but you still haven't settled on an opening sentence...

It's remarkably easy to let time slip by, isn't it?

If you don't do anything, you can't fail. But you can't succeed either. Take the risk.

Get to work. However you're feeling. However badly you need to clear out the attic first. Work.

We first barricaded the doors of this page and started broadcasting on 20th April this year - three days ago.

We've started. And we've got so much more to say - soon.

That is the question - or at least, it'll do until next week.

Where to begin writing a book?

We say - anything is preferable to a blank sheet of paper. [Blank screen, surely? Ed.] To a blank screen. So start by starting. Write down an idea, a first sentence, the name of a character, a chapter head if you're writing fact.

But write. You haven't started if it's still in your head.

If you're writing fact, start with a contents page. It's a great way of sorting out the logical order of whatever you're trying to say. Or start with something else, but, y'know, giving you a hint here.

If you're writing fiction, start by starting. Simple as that. Write something in the knowledge that you can cross it out later. Idea, first sentence [You've said this - Ed.] or whatever else might come to you. Doesn't have to be the right thing, the best start, the perfect time to start, anything. How about now?

Because there is an enormous difference between having nothing and having started. Take the first step - take any step, in any direction.

We'll come back to this.

[Not a bad start. Sort out "begin" and "start". And you need to come clean about your motive. But at least you've got this project started, eh? Ed.]