How to Get Started Writing

From lifesavvy.com:

What Is Creative Writing?

Creative writing is a lot of things, so it may be easier to focus on what it’s not: writing college term papers, articles, or the like.

Creative writing is often referred to as literature. It’s not always made-up stories, but it is all about telling a story.

While an article might tell you how to do something or what’s happening in the world, creatively written works take you someplace and help you imagine other worlds, whether those worlds are real or made up. It’s an expressive form of writing, rather than a way of presenting facts.

When you want to try creative writing, it helps to know the different types of writing that fall under this umbrella term. You’ll want to start your foray into creative writing with one type, rather than overwhelming yourself with too many.

Here are some genres to start with:

• Fiction (from vampire horror stories to realistic historical stories)
• Poetry
• Scripts for TV shows and movies
• Plays
• Songwriting
• Memoirs (often written in a creative way, even if they are based on real events)

You can see why we’d suggest starting with one as trying to tackle so many different forms out of the gate would get pretty overwhelming pretty quickly.

Getting Started with Creative Writing

Once you choose which type of creative writing you want to delve into, start looking at the techniques needed to write creatively.

While there are no strict rules to adhere to, most creative pieces include at least some of the following:

• A plot and plot development
• Characters and character development
• A setting for the story
• A point of view (this could be first person, omniscient, or from the perspective of any of your characters)
• Dialogue
• An underlying theme
• Metaphors (these work great in poetry)
• Anecdotes
• Emotional appeal
• Imagination
• Descriptive words and imagery

For some, the words will pour right out. For others, the writing process needs a little coaxing to get started.

Now that you know some of the stuff your writing needs in order to be creative, here are some tips to help you get started with your short story, poem, or play.

Pick a Place to Write

Finding a place of comfort and solitude for writing is important. Solitude, as a writer, doesn’t always have to mean you’re completely alone—it just means you’re away from distractions.

Many people do their writing at coffee shops and libraries, where plenty of noise is going on around them. The solitude comes from the lack of direct interruptions (like the dog wanting to go outside or a roommate knocking at the door).

If you have a home office, that may be the place you find most comfortable for writing. A screened-in porch can give you the natural light and view of the world you need for inspiration. Each person’s preferred writing space will be different, so experiment to find what works for you.

Make a Ritual out of It

Not all, but most writers have some sort of ritual they do before they start writing.

Rituals can be something as minute as placing your pen and paper on the desk in a certain spot before sitting down, or something as time-consuming as brewing a cup of tea and watching your favorite inspirational film before you get started.

You don’t have to have a ritual, but if one works for you, use it.

Write Every Day

One thing most writers will tell you is that you need to write every day. Even on the days you don’t feel like writing or don’t think you have anything to write, you need to write something.

This is why all writers should keep a journal. It’s a great place to keep prompts, to write when you don’t feel inspired, and to reference for future stories.

Search “writing prompts” online, and you’ll find a plethora of memes and more that will help you when you need a little push. Set aside 20 minutes each day where you write anything you can manage to. Don’t worry about whether it makes any sense or will be useable in the future, just write. You can go back and make edits later, or choose not to do anything with it.

Practice Makes a Better Writer

Spend some time learning creative writing techniques. You can find lessons online that will walk you through learning different types of poetry, how to build a character, or how to create a fictional world.

On the days when the words aren’t coming freely, spend some time learning, which will have you writing in no time.

A great book for beginners (and anyone wanting to brush up on their creative writing skills) is The Daily Writer. Fred White walks you through all sorts of writing lessons, from getting down to the details of the story to writing satire.

You don’t have to go to college for a degree in creative writing, but you may find it useful to take an online class or two in the fields of creative writing you’re most interested in.

Join a Writers Group

The life of the writer might seem like a solitary one, but it doesn’t always have to be.

If you want to get good at writing creatively, it’s important to share your work with others. You can do this by joining a local writers group, or finding one online.

Many writers group do readings and critiques of members’ works, and have exercises to help with inspiration. This gives you a chance to spend time with like-minded individuals who are passionate about creative writing, too.

Why Are You Writing?

Finally, consider your reasons for creative writing.

If you simply like to write, that may be motivation enough. But many people begin their foray into the world of creative writing with the hope of getting published. If this is your goal, make sure you’re finding the publications and contests you want to enter and staying focused on the deadlines they have for entries and reading periods. Deadlines are very motivational.

https://www.lifesavvy.com/2019/how-to-get-started-with-creative-writing/

From blog.udemy.com:

Step by Step Guide to Start Writing a Book

Step 1: Pick a Genre

Take a quick glance at your bookshelf. What do you see? Mills and Boons historical romances? Charles Bukowski’s Dirty Realism? Paperbacks straight from the NYT Bestsellers list? Anne Rice vampire rip-offs? The complete Dune and Foundation series?

Picking a genre is the first step in writing a book. Don’t base this choice on what genres sell best, but what you like to read. A hardcore sci-fi fan writing a ‘new adult’ novel is only going to produce a shoddy book – if she finishes it at all.

In other words, write for yourself, not the market. Stephen King puts it best:

“When you write a story, you’re telling yourself the story. When you rewrite, your main job is taking out all the things that are not the story. Your stuff starts out being just for you, but then it goes out.”

Step 2: Start from the End

Endings are the hardest part of any story. Don’t take our word for it; just ask any writer buddy of yours. Most beginners start out strong but find themselves flummoxed by the time the ending draws near. It doesn’t help that the ending is also the thing that stays longest with readers.

So before you put a single word to paper, figure out how your story ends. Not how it begins – that can be redrawn and revised indefinitely – how it closes. Work your way backwards. How does the character(s) reach his/her ultimate fate? What are the catalysts that lead to the close? What was their origin? And so on. Your plots will sound much more plausible and you’ll avoid the dreaded Deus Ex Machina that plagues so much fiction.

Step 3: Create Your Characters

Characters, not plots, are the soul of good writing. You don’t recall the story from Henry V; you recall Falstaff. The plot of Catcher in the Rye is mostly superfluous. It’s Holden Caulfield who holds your attention. Same with Sherlock Holmes, Atticus Finch, and Hercule Poirot. Characters stay with readers for generations, the stories are mostly forgotten.

This is why you must draw out your characters before you start writing the book. These tips should help:

• Write a Character Biography: When was the character born? What is her name? Who were her parents? Was she rich, poor, or middle-class? Where did she go to school? What did she study in college? Answering questions like these will help draw a deep portrait of the character and make her more convincing.

• Understand the Character’s Motivations: What does your character want? What are her motivations for doing what she does?

• Understand Character Arc: Character arc refers to the character’s development through the story. The essential quality of every good character is change. For example, Harry Potter starts off naïve and ends up a steely eyed adult, while Frodo Baggins is a nobody from Shire who ends up as the savior of Middle Earth.

• Understand the Struggle: “Character A wants B, but C stands in the way”. How A manages to overcome C and get B is the heart of any story. For example: Rocky wants to be a champion, but crushing poverty and Apollo Creed stand in his way. How he overcomes this is the meat of Rocky, not the final fight itself.

Step 4: Make an Outline

Once you have your characters firmly in place, start creating an outline of the plot. This is meant to serve as a very rough guideline to hold the plot in place. You don’t have to follow it word for word; feel free to improvise while you write.

Chiefly, the outline should:

• Give a brief overview of what happens in each chapter.

• Delineate the primary struggle in the novel.

• Show how different events and characters interact and affect each other (A murders B, C takes the fall, etc.)

• Allow plenty of room for improvisation

Step 5: Write the First Draft

“There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and bleed”

https://blog.udemy.com/how-to-start-writing-a-book/

 

From writersedit.com:

1. Take a Walk

If you think this sounds like a cop-out, it’s not. When you’ve been staring at a computer screen for the last hour or so, it’s time to move.

We don’t mean go MIA for a day. We mean, take a quick stroll around the block, go grab a take away coffee – anything that gets some fresh air into you and your mind off the task at hand momentarily.

All this does is take the pressure off, re-awakens your brain, and makes you feel like when you sit down again, you’re starting with a clean slate.

2. Re-work a Previous Story

Is your current piece not really doing it for you today? Are you sitting in front of a blank screen with a blank space where all your ideas should be? Why not look at an old story of yours, one you haven’t seen for a while…

Does anything catch you eye? Do you see room for improvement? Why don’t you take some time to explore the ideas you had when you wrote this story with fresh eyes? Does anything inspire you? Do you like a particular sentence?

Whatever you find in this old piece of writing, it can only have a positive outcome – you either practice your editing skills, learn from mistakes of the past, or find new passion and new avenues for an old idea.

3. Find Inspiration: Writing Prompts & Photographs

Many writers use writing prompts to get themselves started. A writing prompt can be anything from an image, to a single word, sentence, or paragraph that attempts to spark an idea.

Writer’s Edit does Weekly Writing Prompts, you can check them out, here. Sometimes though, your brain might be craving a more visual kickstart.

Often, we find that looking at beautiful photography is all we need to put pen to paper. Have a look at some of our favourite inspirations, here. If neither of these work, why not have a read of our article on 8 Ways to Improve Your Creativity?

https://writersedit.com/fiction-writing/7-ways-get-writing-started/

 

From thewritelife.com:

1. Invoke multiple senses

When you experience a situation, you pick up more than just its sights. By describing sounds, scents, tastes and sensations, you’ll immerse readers in your story’s world.

The following scene from Saladin Ahmed’s “Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela” does a wonderful job of pulling the reader into the story by using senses other than sight.

Her voice is more beautiful than any woman’s. And there is the powerful smell of jasmine and clove. A nightingale sings perfumed words at me while my mind’s eye burns with horrors that would make the Almighty turn away.

If fear did not hold your tongue, you would ask what I am. Men have called my people by many names—ghoul, demon. Does a word matter so very much? What I am, learned one, is Abdel Jameela’s wife.

For long moments I don’t speak. If I don’t speak, this nightmare will end. I will wake in Baghdad, or Beit Zujaaj. But I don’t wake.

She speaks again, and I cover my ears, though the sound is beauty itself.

The words you hear come not from my mouth, and you do not hear them with your ears. I ask you to listen with your mind and your heart. We will die, my husband and I, if you will not lend us your skill. Have you, learned one, never needed to be something other that what you are?

Cinnamon scent and the sound of an oasis wind come to me.

2. Create intriguing, complex characters

Readers want characters with whom they can sympathize (Harry Potter) or revile (Tywin Lannister) — or both. They want to get to know the characters and learn more about their experiences in the story.

In the following excerpt from “The Children of the Shark God,” Peter S. Beagle introduces us to the protagonist quickly, but in a way that makes us care about what happens to her.

Mirali’s parents were already aging when she was born, and had long since given up the hope of ever having a child — indeed, her name meant “the long-desired one.” Her father had been crippled when the mast of his boat snapped during a storm and crushed his leg, falling on him, and if it had not been for their daughter the old couple’s lives would have been hard indeed. Mirali could not go out with the fishing fleet herself, of course — as she greatly wished to do, having loved the sea from her earliest memory — but she did every kind of work for any number of island families, whether cleaning houses, marketing, minding young children, or even assisting the midwife when a birthing was difficult or there were simply too many babies coming at the same time. She was equally known as a seamstress, and also as a cook for special feasts; nor was there anyone who could mend a pandanus-leaf thatching as quickly as she, though this is generally man’s work. No drop of rain ever penetrated any pandanus roof that came under Mirali’s hands.

Nor did she complain of her labors, for she was very proud of being able to care for her mother and father as a son would have done. Because of this, she was much admired and respected in the village, and young men came courting just as though she were a great beauty. Which she was not, being small and somewhat square-made, with straight brows — considered unlucky by most — and hips that gave no promise of a large family. But she had kind eyes, deep-set under those regrettable brows, and hair as black and thick as that of any woman on the island. Many, indeed, envied her; but of that Mirali knew nothing. She had no time for envy herself, nor for young men, either.

As authors, we must give readers insight into what makes our protagonists tick. What motivates them? What are their aspirations? Inthis passage, we learn that Mirali, while not conventionally beautiful, is a kind soul who works hard for her parents and is appreciated by her community. And the key? We quickly start to become invested in what happens to her.

3. Evoke strong emotions

In this scene from “Frost Child” by Gillian Philip, it takes the reader a moment to realize what the child witch is feeding her newly-tamed water horse — and that moment allows the strong emotion of horror to set in.

“He’s very beautiful,” I smiled. “Make sure he’s fully tame before you bring him near the dun.”

“Of course I will. Thank you, Griogair!” She bent her head to the kelpie again, crooning, and reached for her pouch, drawing out a small chunk of meat. The creature shifted its head to take it delicately from her hand, gulping it down before taking her second offering. She stroked it as she fed it, caressing its cheekbone, its neck, its gills.

I don’t know why the first shiver of cold certainty rippled across my skin; perhaps it was her contentment, the utter obliteration of her grief; perhaps it was the realisation that she and her little bow had graduated to bigger game. The chunks of flesh she fed it were torn from something far larger than a pigeon, and as the kelpie nickered, peeling back its upper lip to sniff for more treats, I saw tiny threads of woven fabric caught on its canine teeth.

By revealing a previously undetected detail that helps readers understand the implications, the author causes them to wince and recoil — and wonder what happens next. Of course, we have many emotion-evoking arrows in our writing quivers — humor, love, determination, anger, and so on. These strong emotions keep the reader engrossed in the story and curious about the characters’ futures.

4. Use rich character voice

The voice chosen by the author has a profound impact in how readers interpret the story and view the characters. In the following excerpt from “The Adventures of Lightning Merriemouse-Jones” by Nancy and Belle Holder, the voice and sentence length quickly convey the time period and lighter tone of this comic horror story.

To begin at the beginning:

That would be instructive, but rather dull; and so we will tell you, Gentle Reader, that the intrepid Miss Merriemouse-Jones was born in 1880, a wee pup to parents who had no idea that she was destined for greatness. Protective and loving, they encouraged her to find her happiness in the environs of home — running the squeaky wheel in the nursery cage, gnawing upon whatever might sharpen her pearlescent teeth, and wrinkling her tiny pink nose most adorably when vexed.

During her girlhood, Lightning was seldom vexed. She lived agreeably in her parents’ well-appointed and fashionable abode, a hole in the wall located in the chamber of the human daughter of the house, one Maria Louisa Summerfield, whose mother was a tempestuous Spanish painter of some repute, and whose father owned a bank.

The longer sentences, combined with the choice of words like “environs,” “pearlescent,” “vexed,” “abode,” and “repute,” place the reader in a Victorian setting even without the reference to 1880. The narrator’s voice also clearly sets a tone of felicity and humor.

Just as the narrator has a distinct voice, characters should have their own unique voices to help readers distinguish one from another and to convey aspects of their personalities.V oice is a terrific tool to help readers get to know and appreciate your characters.

5. Pull the reader into the action

Of course, interesting characters and engaging dialog are important, but writing gripping action scenes is a skill all its own. Jim Butcher has mastered this skill, as shown in this excerpt from “Even Hand”:

The fomor’s creatures exploded into the hallway on a storm of frenzied roars. I couldn’t make out many details. They seemed to have been put together on the chassis of a gorilla. Their heads were squashed, ugly-looking things, with wide-gaping mouths full of shark-like teeth. The sounds they made were deep, with a frenzied edge of madness, and they piled into the corridor in a wave of massive muscle.

“Steady,” I murmured.

The creatures lurched as they moved, like cheap toys that had not been assembled properly, but they were fast, for all of that. More and more of them flooded into the hallway, and their charge was gaining mass and momentum.

“Steady,” I murmured.

Hendricks grunted. There were no words in it, but he meant, I know.

The wave of fomorian beings got close enough that I could see the patches of mold clumping their fur, and tendrils of mildew growing upon their exposed skin.

“Fire,” I said.

Hendricks and I opened up.

The new military AA-12 automatic shotguns are not the hunting weapons I first handled in my patriotically delusional youth. They are fully automatic weapons with large circular drums that rather resembled the old Tommy guns made iconic by my business predecessors in Chicago.

One pulls the trigger and shell after shell slams through the weapon. A steel target hit by bursts from an AA-12 very rapidly comes to resemble a screen door.

And we had two of them.

The slaughter was indescribable. It swept like a great broom down that hallway, tearing and shredding flesh, splattering blood on the walls and painting them most of the way to the ceiling. Behind me, Gard stood ready with a heavy-caliber big-game rifle, calmly gunning down any creature that seemed to be reluctant to die before it could reach our defensive point. We piled the bodies so deep that the corpses formed a barrier to our weapons.

https://thewritelife.com/5-powerful-writing-techniques/

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What do you think? How do you start writing?

Visit the discussion section of the KC Storytellers Meetup page (https://www.meetup.com/Kansas-City-Storytellers/discussions/) to discuss or leave a comment below.