Filmmaker and conspiracy theorist, Oliver Stone, apparently has a sign above his desk which reads, "Writing equals butt plus chair." That pretty much says it all about writing. Happily, though, this equation, some paper and a pencil are all you need to get started. As a matter of fact, it's all you will ever need (though you will eventually require more paper).
Finding the time to write can be daunting. There's a million other things to do, all of which seem like more fun. But unlike many of the other arts, no expensive equipment is required (though I use a laptop, and you probably will too), nor any grueling training. There are some basic rules of story telling, which we'll get into in tomorrow's post, but for now, all you need is something to catch the ideas as they occur to you, and a willingness to get crackin'.
So, what to write about? Well, every subject is potentially a great one; and, conversely, each can turn out to be not so great. A great story can be told from simply watching your dog play, and it's possible to write a real snoozer about robot dinosaurs in a shootout with zombie cowboys (Hold on, I may actually use that.). The thing that makes you interesting and unique - your personality and point of view - is what will make your writing stand apart from everyone else's. What will make it good is your willingness to continue finding that chair and completing Oliver Stone's equation.
"Okay, already" you may be saying, "just tell me how to get going and I'll take it from there." Outstanding, here's five quick steps to starting your story:
1. Find a quiet place and sit down with paper and pencil. You will need thirty minutes to an hour, and a promise not to judge anything you write. All ideas are good ones at this point, even if you don't know yet what you want to write about.
2. Let your mind wander. This isn't math so there are no correct answers. Concepts don't even have to be related yet. Just jot down everything that occurs to you. A flower, an ocean, a seagull, a rocketship. It's all good, and you never know how these ideas may start to attach to each other.
3. Start thinking about a hero. Your hero doesn't need to have super powers, or even to be heroic. If you want to do the superhero thing, then great, but you don't have to. He or she can be a rock star, a tree, a worm, or a whale. You just need a main character for all of your fantastic ideas to swirl around.
4. Find out what your hero likes (and dislikes). Interview your hero. The amazing thing about writing - and I never would have believed this before I started doing it - is that eventually your characters will start talking to you. Just like if you owned a real talking worm, your make-believe worm will begin telling you about itself; where it lives, what it likes to eat, who its friends are, and what kind of car it drives. At this stage, just listen, and write it all down. We'll send him off on a journey soon enough.
5. Find your chair tomorrow. When you're done writing for the day, leave your work alone. Don't go back over it until tomorrow. Remember that it's way, way, way too early to decide what's good and what's not. At this point you are a farmer and your ideas are seeds. And just as there's no way to look at a bag of apple seeds and decide which one will be the most beautiful tree with the most delicious apples, well... You get the idea.
The most important thing is to just find that chair tomorrow, if only for a half an hour, sit down and keep grabbing ideas. We'll get further down the road in the next post.
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