When I start a story, I’m not trying to write eloquently or find the right words. I’m diving right into the scene, recording what I see in my vision. In fact, the entire first draft is akin to a painter doing a preliminary sketch. My goal is to get the basics ideas down as I create the story from scratch.
It’s not until the editing process that the finer details are worked out. That can’t start until the story exist in the word document first.
When starting a story, I don’t like to stop typing until the chapter/scene is done. I don’t mind all of the spelling mistakes or grammar errors that the software catches. I have a vision in my mind and my goal is to type it before it disappears. Once it disappears, I won’t be able to get it back. I might get glimpses of it if I try to remember, but not the entire vision in its raw form.
Starting a story is exciting and intense. When the words flow off of our fingers to the keyboard and into the computer, it feels like being transported into another realm. It’s like being in the zone and nothing matters except the story.
And as we write, the story splashes onto the page. The ideas become paramount. The descriptions unfold. The scene takes shape. Everything comes together, and we experience the most thrilling and exciting thing about writing: creating a new world.
Fallton Havenstonne 