“I think there are two types of writers, the architects and the gardeners. The architects plan everything ahead of time, like an architect building a house. They know how many rooms are going to be in the house, what kind of roof they're going to have, where the wires are going to run, what kind of plumbing there's going to be. They have the whole thing designed and blueprinted out before they even nail the first board up. The gardeners dig a hole, drop in a seed, and water it. They kind of know what seed it is, they know if planted a fantasy seed or mystery seed or whatever. But as the plant comes up and they water it, they don't know how many branches it's going to have, they find out as it grows. And I'm much more a gardener than an architect.” - George RR Martin
While lengthy, that quote gives me a lot of comfort as a writer and I hope it can for you. I always wanted to be more like the architect Martin described. In actuality, I tend to be more of the gardner, especially in regards to starting a story (the small bit of architect planning I have comes later on in my process, but more on that in a bit.
For me, starting a story isn't normally the hard part. A lot of the time I don't wait to have a solidified concept, I just get a sentence in my head and if I like the way it sounds, it might be the beginning of a new story and I just start writing and see where it takes me. I get some great things generated that way, but other times I don't. But hey, it's practice right?
However, this isn't the case for a lot of other writers. Some people really struggle with how to get a story started. Maybe they've got a great concept or one solid character, but when they open up that Word Doc? Nothing. Zip. Zilch. I have been there before and I know how frustrating it can be. But that is where my architect planning kicks in and my two takeaways if you don't know how to start your story: ask yourself questions and make lists.
Ask yourself questions about every aspect of your story: your characters, the setting, possible plot points, how you want readers to feel about your work. Write your answers down in a list, so if you get stuck again you have something to reference later (I like to make a folder in my Google Drive for each project I'm working on).
Some example question: What does your protagonist like to do for fun? How many siblings does your protagonist have? Do you have more than one protagonist? Where does it take place? Is it a real location or is it a fictional world?
Of course, I could keep going, but you get the idea. From there, you can always pick some answers you liked and start there. You don't have to use every single answer and don't be afraid to adapt them as you start writing. The whole point is to just get you started!
I also love to make character lists. I get anxious that I will forget about a character or over time, I won't be writing with their original personality in mind. So when I'm starting a story, I like to write down any characters I thought about in the question process and initial idea generation. From there, I write down any attributes I can think of that describe them.
At the end of this process, I have a little bit better of an understanding for the nuts and bolts of my story, but there's still room for more creativity. Hopefully these tips help you too!
How do you like to start a story?
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