Becoming an Author: Where Do I Begin?

Where to begin to tell the greatest story?

Writing in any kind of genre or style, only becomes a much harder process if you don’t treat it the same way.  If you don’t employ the same methods for fiction as you do for a non-fiction piece of work, then you may well be doomed to the blank page syndrome.

The biggest thing I’ve learned not to ask myself when I begin writing is:

“How and where should I begin?”

If this is your first question you’ll probably get stuck.  You’ll be throwing all kinds of ideas around in your head and you’ll probably not be able to capture any of them.

Instead, the first question I recommend you ask yourself, time and again, is the one that parents always get bored of their kids asking of them:

“Why?”

Then I explore that why with:

“Why … do I want to write this tale?”

“Why … do I love it so much?”

“Why … do I want to share it?”

To begin writing a book, take it right back to the beginning.  Think about the story you want to tell (fact or fiction) and allow it to send a thrill through your body, your emotions and, if you believe it is there hidden somewhere way deep inside, your soul too.

Perhaps you got the inspiration to write because of say, that movie you saw you thought you could have written better.  Or, perhaps…

• that little vignette of your life that you simply cannot forget – the one that made you laugh so much your faced ached
• that tremendously sad moment, the one that made you cry so much your heart hurt and your eyes felt sore
• that heat-pounding time when you were so scared you almost went grey

Once you capture either one of these reasons in your mind – allow it to grow.

Allow it to take form.  

Allow it to become a series of pictures in your mind.  

Allow yourself to feel it.

EXTRACT from: How to be an Author – Vol.1: Writing Your Writing