How do we move from endless preparations into the real start of a new book and take the writing plunge?

For around six months now (I know, I know) I’ve been chasing a new novel and it’s time to let it catch me. It’s historical so there’s research. I’ve been chatting to the new characters too, learning about them. And that has given me lots of scenes, some of which have landed with me like a roaring thunderstorm during my ‘quiet writing’ times in Broadstairs and Sturry.

Playwright Tom Stoppard said the most difficult part is getting to the top of page one. Is that our best place to start? Or is it too daunting? With a first draft, the only important thing is to finish it. Start anywhere, let your inner writing self run amok and keep writing until you can feel that the thing has reached some sort of conclusion. If it helps, sketch out and plan and start in the middle. People have been talking about ‘in medias res’, starting in the middle like the Ancient Greeks and Romans. That’s usually about the finished structure of your story but it can apply to where you start your draft too. Just fly – you can tidy up later.

What you’re after is the urgency of a good story, the intoxicating voices of your main characters as you step aside and let them tell the story through you, and a breathless, powerful finish. Everything else can be fixed later. ‘Good enough for now’ really is good enough for your first draft.

My next book, scheduled by Colorful Crow Publishing in the USA for next year, will have tips I’ve learned the hard way about how to develop a writing process for life, how to nurture the first glimmer of an idea, and how to start and keep going time after time even when we feel as if we’re skittles in a bowling alley with life throwing everything at us. As I feel my way into the adventure of writing this new novel, I’ll post tips again so that we can write together, wherever you are.

Happy writing!