Writing From Thin Air

I want to write but I just don’t know where to start.

Yeah, I’ve heard that one a lot. In fact, I heard it from me first.

Writing a blog, or an essay, a web page, an article – these things begin with a purpose. This is not to minimize the effort that goes into this work. But having a topic, a destination, a slot waiting for the finished product makes it just the tiniest bit easier to get started.

When you want to start writing just for the sake of writing, to explore your voice, to explore the wonder and craft of the written word, well, that feels quite different. You may think you need to know what you’ll write about before you start. There may be a very utilitarian part of you that demands to know what you’ll do with the piece of writing. You may have strong feelings about whether it will be prose or poetry or memoir. Your inner critic jumps into high gear and lets loose volumes of reasons why you can’t possibly do this. Oh, my dear one, you’re not really a writer, he whispers. (He’s often very chummy. Don’t get fooled!)

After all, what will you do? Just pull words out of the air?

Well, yes. In a way that’s what you’ll do if you want to write but don’t know where to start.

Here are a few things to remember when you are starting to write:

1. Not everything that flows from your pen will be wonderful, nor does it have to be. That’s what erasers, cross outs, delete keys and editing are for. And don’t forget fresh pieces of paper and new word documents.
2. Try starting from a newspaper headline, a quote, a random line in a book, the words “and then…” You don’t have to know why you chose what you chose. Let it be completely arbitrary. Let it choose you!
3. Keep the pen moving across the page even if you’re writing “this is crap. I don’t know what the &*#* I’m writing.”
4. If you keep the pen moving something will show up.
5. Allow your writing to surprise you. Words and sentences and paragraphs will gather organically.
6. Writing this way opens you up to ideas for longer pieces. Your notebook will become a treasure chest of phrases and imagery that will always be there for the taking.
7. Sometimes you have to write really terrible stuff to clear the decks for some really good stuff.
8. Always remember Rule #1.

In her book Writing Alone and with Others, Pat Schneider tells us that “a writer is someone who writes”.

If you want to be a writer, write.

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