The 6 Best Ways to Get Started Now

For a writer, staring at a blank screen with a blinking cursor waiting for inspiration or that perfect first line can be demotivating. And demoralizing. You may start to question whether you know what you're doing or have anything to say, which can quickly lead to catastrophizing ("I'll never amount to anything!").

But, fortunately, there are lots of ways to begin writing, perhaps some you've not yet tried. So why wait? Here are the 6 best ways to get started now:

1. Listing: Listing seems like such an obvious tool, but it’s one that’s often overlooked or underused. Many writers struggle with having multiple ideas in their heads so that when they begin drafting, most of what comes out is an unorganized mish-mash of stuff. Listing can help a writer move from thinking to writing. It gives you the freedom and space to say anything you want. Much of what you come up with might be ridiculous, or useless, but often you will come up with some gems, or at least diamonds in the rough.

2. Fastwriting: Fastwriting is a tool that is essentially freewriting, but is focused on a particular topic (also called focused freewriting, but that seems like an oxymoron). Fastwriting works well if you set a timer for a specified time (try 8-10 minutes), put your topic at the top of the page, and begin writing. The idea is not that you don’t lift your pen or pencil off the page but that you don’t make judgments. Sometimes you need to pause to think. If you write what you think is the “wrong” word or a “bad” idea, don’t stop to pass judgment, continue to write. Try writing about why you think it’s “wrong” or “bad” and then use other words to figure out what you are attempting to say or reason out.

3. Loopwriting: Loopwriting uses fastwrites as a way to get beneath the surface of your initial ideas. Peter Elbow describes loopwriting as an “elliptical orbiting voyage.” It is a process of discovering new ideas or further developing existing ideas and then circling back with a fresh perspective. One way to do it is to fastwrite for a specified amount of time. Read through your fastwrite, circling “hot spots” or interesting/compelling/promising ideas. Choose one of these ideas and fastwrite for a specified amount of time on just that topic. Keep going if you feel this is working well. Then read back through your fastwrites and think objectively about what you wrote. Are you trying to answer a particular question? If so, what is it? What do you realize you need to know more about or figure out?

4. Mapping: Some writers think best visually and mind mapping helps because it offers up a way to visualize your ideas coming together. Mind mapping does not need to follow any prescribed rules, but generally ideas are separated out with circles/bubbles and connected with lines. You could use mapping instead of listing or take something from your list (or fastwrite) and make a map. Because we generally don’t think linearly but instead tend to try and force linearity while we’re writing, mapping can help us break free from our expectations of logical progression.

5. Questioning: Questioning is a great way to move from surface-level ideas to more complex thinking. In your notes you could ask any number of questions about your thinking that will help you expand your understanding and reach for new possibilities. Some questions that work well for this are: “So what?” “What would happen if I didn’t think that way?” “What might my fiercest critic say?” “How is this similar/dissimilar to…?” “How does this complicate my thinking about…?” Then, of course, you want to take a stab at answering these questions, not to answer them and be done, but to answer them and see what other questions emerge in doing so.

6. Reflection: Reflection is an important part of any writing process. Being in touch both with your “critic” and “creator” seems essential for making any kind of progress. Reflection allows space for both to be in conversation with one another. You can use most any approach to reflecting on what you wrote and how it’s going, but you can most easily get into reflecting mode by asking yourself the “why” question. Like fastwriting, this kind of writing is meant to be more like a stream of consciousness than logical thinking. Sometimes we discover something in answering the “why” that then becomes integral to our thinking about our topic.