Lecture 1: Starting the Writing Process
This approach allows you to discover the story in much the same way
that a reader does.Psychological Question Revisited
z It’s clear that starting a story involves making a number of choices,
and that, in turn, can ratchet up a writer’s anxiety. Let’s return, then, to
the psychological question mentioned earlier: How do you gear up—
emotionally—to begin? One way to sneak up on this question is to
remind yourself of what you
don’t need to do or know to
start a story.z First of all, writing a story
is not necessarily linear;
you don’t have to write it
the way the reader will read
it. Writing can be more like
putting a puzzle together:
You can start anywhere in
the story; then, when the
larger picture gets clearer,
you can craft a beginning.z You also don’t have to
know how the story ends.
Sometimes knowing the ending is a good thing because it gives you a
point to aim at, but sometimes not knowing can allow you to discover
where the story itself wants to go along the way.z Further, you don’t have to have an outline, and even if you do, you don’t
have to stick to it. Be prepared for happy accidents.z Your story doesn’t even have to be good to begin with. As a writer, you
have the luxury of being able to do as many drafts of a story as it takes
to get it right, or you can revise as you go along. Don’t be afraid to
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the process.A whole novel might be developed by
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a baseball game, working backward and
forward in the characters’ lives.© Stockbyte/Thinkstock.