When I don’t know where to start on a writing project, I’ll begin to put some ideas down like I’m brainstorming or just listing things out. Even though it’s not intended to be part of the first draft, it will get me thinking about the ideas that I currently have for the project and how I want to include them.
If I write long enough, I’ll start exploring ideas that I hadn’t originally thought of. I’ll get into specifics of those ideas, and clarify concepts that were more like rough sketches at first than the blueprint of what I wanted to create.
At some point, the writing process will take on a life of its own, and it will direct itself as if it knows where to go. Sometimes, we just need to start writing to get a project started rather than to endlessly think about it until it’s perfect in our minds. Even if we don’t know the entire blueprint for an idea, writing helps us to discover it, and to bring it to life.
Fallton Havenstonne 