The Right Moment: How to know when you're ready to start writing your story

with practical tips and a guided writing exercise

This piece is the third of three articles on kickstarting our stories. This one’s about knowing when you’re ready to start and overcoming any obstacles in the way. The first was Getting Started Is Easier Than You Imagine. The second was Famous First Lines: How to Hook Your Reader from the First Sentence.

I hope you find them useful!

The heralding of a new writing project begins for me with a feeling. A new book is coming; far off yet, but I know it's there. This is a beautiful sensation, something akin to the way I felt with each of my pregnancies, knowing there was a miracle of new life growing inside me. There's a sense of apprehension, a little fear perhaps, delight, satisfaction, as well as a great sense of mystery. It's a succumbing to a power and a process that is beyond oneself. The enigmatic smile of the Mona Lisa reminds me of this sense; an inner knowing, a looking within. This is what happens when the seed of a story plants itself. After that there’s an inevitability to the process, as the seed begins growing towards something and instinctively knows its own way.

It’s my responsibility to gently nurture the tiny seed of an idea until that moment when it struggles out of the darkness seeking the sun, but even then, I must tend to it, ensuring it has all it needs to grow and fulfil its potential. During this nurturing time, nothing has yet been written but there are flashes of images in my mind, unformulated ideas that hover in the background awaiting their moment.

The Ripening Process

When discussing her own writing process, Virginia Woolf said, ‘As for my next book, I am going to hold myself from writing it till I have it impending in me: grown heavy in my mind like a ripe pear; pendant, gravid, asking to be cut or it will fall.’ A beautiful metaphor to describe this process of birthing a new work. There is a perfect moment but it’s not always easy to identify it. It’s not an intellectual decision. Or at least it shouldn’t be. In a sense as Woolf says, the story itself should let us know when to begin. It’s an intuitive sense, something we need to listen out for, a kind of inner knowing. But if we’re afraid, then our attention is elsewhere and the door to our intuition slams shut, leaving us in the dark.

Not starting is probably the second biggest reason why people don’t finish writing a book. The biggest reason is starting too soon and giving up part way.

• If we have an idea and plunge straight into the writing, it’s likely we’ll run out of enthusiasm and energy. We’ll hit a brick wall, not know enough about our story and give up in despair.

• If we plan and ponder for too long, we can end up overwhelmed by all those plans, all those notes, too confused to know where to begin.

• If we feel we know the story, the setting, the characters inside out, it can feel impossible to match it on the page.

The excuses we make are almost always born out of fear. We don’t have the time, the blank page is overwhelming, we want the outcome but not the work, we can’t decide where to start, how to start, whether the idea has legs. We might fail, it’s been done before, we won’t do the idea justice, the writing of it will spoil the world of the story we have created in our imaginations . . . the excuses are endless, the outcomes are all the same. A blank page and a frustrated writer.

To Plan or Not to Plan

Are we procrastinating when we hesitate to begin a project? Not always. Sometimes we need more time to allow our ideas to ripen in the back of our minds. Sometimes research is needed or planning but how much of either depends upon the requirements of a particular project, as well as our individual approach to the creative process. Some of us like to plan, others to just launch in, some to research before, others to research along the way, some a bit of both.

There’s no standard formula for how much you need to know before starting and no strategy that satisfies everyone. Every writer has to find what works for them and this can change from one project to the next. Some of us write haphazardly with no story in mind, then cut and paste, creating links between sections until a story emerges. Some plan everything before sitting down to actually write a story, mapping out chapters and scenes, character traits and biographies. Others plan very little and simply trust the process. There are dangers and rewards in each of these approaches. Too much knowledge of a story can set the boundaries so tightly its natural growth becomes restricted. Too little and the story might never be found.

Personally, I like to know as little as possible, perhaps an image or a theme or two, perhaps a few loose signposts to guide me. I say loose, because anything too tight will restrict the growth of the characters and then the plot will feel forced and implausible. As E L Doctorow once said, 'writing a novel is like driving a car at night. You can see only as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip that way.' This is how I write, trusting that there really is a road beyond those headlights. However, it also means that there are times when I have to stop and do some research before moving on, perhaps because a character is evading me or I need to understand better the 'world' of the novel I am creating.

Following the Trail

Once I choose a starting point, something concrete that I can bring to life on the page, then I plunge in and immerse myself in the writing process. That’s when the synchronicities begin; a series of clues appear like a trail of pebbles that I follow in order to find my story: a plot point here, a character trait there, some background research, a theme or simply a glimmer of understanding about what I am writing and why I must write it. The clues appear random and yet they're linked in some way. I pick up a second-hand book at a market stall, then another in a book shop, while at a dinner party someone mentions a subject that leads me in a new direction. . . It feels as if I’m being led through a maze of ideas, all designed to help me find my way with this new creative project.

Flannery O'Connor spoke of writing 'as an act of discovery' and for me that is certainly the case. Aside from a journal to note down ideas, I rarely use any planning tools, not because I’m averse to them but because I don’t often feel they’re needed, not before or during the writing process. Instinctively I shy away from planning and even from talking unnecessarily about my work-in-progress, because I have found that planning and talking are easy substitutes for doing. For me the joy of writing lies in the uncertainty about what is ahead, not the comforting knowledge that all is mapped out for me. I would prefer the occasional signpost and an inner compass to a detailed map and schedule because it seems to me that creativity itself demands that we embrace uncertainty. Writing is an act of faith. Not in God but in the creative process. This is where the magic lies. A story will come and we open ourselves to it, nurture it, sometimes even push it, but never dictate to it.

Whatever approach we take, it’s never seamless. There are good days and bad days, stops and starts, times when we lose faith, times when we lose our way. This is all part of the creative process. And writing is all about process not product. The product is the end result, when we as writers step back (sometimes reluctantly), and hand over our writing to our readers, a new idea often already ripening in the back of our minds.

The true rewards come to us through the writing process. Like any journey we have to commit to process, take the first steps, turn up every day and persevere through the highs and the lows. Only then are we rewarded with the magic, the synchronicities, the joy and the new understandings of self that are inextricably woven through the creative process, ensuring that we emerge from our journey forever changed.

Rosie

A Guided Writing Exercise

Take an idea you’ve been toying with but not committing to, then close your eyes and hold it in your mind. Inspect it from all angles, exploring the parameters of the idea.

• Are the themes apparent to you?

• Do you have a premise?

• Do you have a character or characters?

• Do you know where your story is set?

Then ask yourself: How does my idea feel inside me? Is it pulling at me? Asking to be written?

Now ask yourself the question. Am I ready to start?

If so, decide at what point in the story you want to begin and get started writing the first scene.

If not ask yourself. What is stopping me?

There might be a number of answers.

• I don’t have the space - then find one and dedicate it to your writing. It might be a particular seat at the kitchen table, a laptop stand on your bed, a library, a small table in your bedroom . . .

• I don’t have the time - then look at your routines and identify a space for your writing. A half an hour in the morning before work, at lunch time, before bed? It doesn’t need to be long but it does need to be consistent.

• It’s been done before – then remember that there are a limited number of stories and themes but an infinite number of costumes. Yours will always be unique.

• I haven’t done enough research – then make a list of exactly what more you need to know, do the research and tick off that list.

• I haven’t done enough planning- then ask yourself if you need to know how the whole story unfolds before starting? Is there a place you can start and then continue planning as you go?

• I don’t know where to start – then have a read of Getting Started is Easier than you Imagine.

• I don’t know how to start - have a read of Famous First Lines: How to Hook your Reader from the First Sentence.

Once you’ve identified what needs to be done to enable you to start, then take the required steps.

Check back in on your idea again, and ask yourself: Am I ready to start?

Feel how the idea sits with you. There should be some excitement, some apprehension and a sense of rightness.

Now make a promise to yourself . . . This is my idea. It found me. I am the one person who can write this. So I’m going to start and I’m going to keep with it, through the hard times and the easy times, in the knowledge that it will require trust and hard work as well as inspiration.

Then start . . .

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I’m Dr Rosie Dub, a novelist and non-fiction writer, as well as a creative writing teacher, mentor and developmental editor. My PhD research explored the purpose and function of story as an evolutionary tool for individuals and societies. I’m also the creator of the Alchemy of Story workshop series.

I feel strongly about the value of the writing process so I do not use AI for either the writing or editing process of my articles or books. If you would like to read more about AI and the challenges it brings for writers and readers, have a read of this article: Process or Product? What We Lose When We Let AI Write Our Stories for Us

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Photograph: Aziz Acharki unsplash