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.]
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.]
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