TSS - The Hardest Part: Start Restart

The Hardest Part - Start/Restart

A Writing Mechanics article by Benjamin Hall

Those dreaded words to a wannabe author: “Starting a book”. Yes, so you have all your ideas planned out, your characters are living, breathing figments of your imagination, your world is a vibrant and exciting place… but you have written precisely zero words on your story. What could be worse?

Actually, here’s what could be worse. You’re halfway through your story. You like the way things are going – things are original, interesting and exciting. Smooth sailing, right? Wrong. The real world catches up with you, maybe you get some kind of big coursework assignment or a family holiday leaves you stranded without a computer for two weeks. You’re finished and you want to start going again… but something just stops you from being able to do this. Some kind of little niggling in the back of your mind keeps you from carrying on writing, and your story has gone into hibernation.

So, in either of these cases, what’s the problem? Lack of motivation? Well, I’d say the prospect of leaving your characters hanging there in your mind to be pretty bad myself after your effort in shaping and crafting your story. Is it a lack of inspiration? Nope, can’t be that either – we already went through this earlier, you know where you want to go with your story next. It’s just something you can’t quite pin down.

I went through this situation recently, and can testify to it being one of the most horrible writing experiences that you can have. I think, however, one word defines this feeling to a tee: Fear. That’s write – in a situation like that, what’s most likely holding you back (in my experience) is fear of something. You might have important business in the real world to deal with and don’t want to get distracted. Or, as was the case with me, you might be afraid of your story – it sounds stupid, but it can actually be the case. I stopped because I was worried about the use of cliché which I was going to have to do, but realised that clichés aren’t the end of the world, do long as they’re implemented well.

The point is, your story is just that: it’s YOUR story, nobody else’s. I’ve heard it said that “If it works, it works”, and that’s a very VERY true statement in writing. If it helps your story slide smoothly along, without seeming unnatural or clunky, than it should be acceptable. Clichés, while frowned upon, do not carry the Writer’s Plague, just a relatively harmless writing bacteria. It’s only harmful to your story in large numbers.

Back to the point. Starting and restarting stories can be split into many analogies. The other day, Hugh suggested to me that it’s like moving a car – it starts slowly and painfully, but once you gather speed it’s easy and natural to flow with. Because of the fear factor, another useful analogy is the Swimming with Sharks (which I just thought up on the spot, but it’s very likely been used before). You are on one side of a large body of water. You want to get to the other side, but there are sharks in the water in between. The media gives sharks a bad name, so naturally you’re scared.

You really want to get to the other side, however, and you make that terrifying first plunge into the water. You’re scared, but you keep on going, and after a while you just go on and on, smoothly as if it were the most natural thing in the world. On your way you spot small islands. Very tempting islands, too. Stopping off at an island is like taking a break from writing – it feels nice at first, but you’re itching to get to the other side of that water, and now you’re even more scared of the sharks because there’s less time to go (“you don’t worry about dropping the eggs until you’re almost home”), so you put it off and remain stranded on the island.

Will you stay there forever? You’ll stay there until you start writing again. Then you make the plunge a second time, and your fears evaporate. The sharks are harmless, and the end is in sight. You swim gracefully through the metaphorical ocean, and land safely at Completed First Draft Island.

There you go – first bit done. But, ahead of you is the Ocean of Rewrites and Editing – be prepared for much more of the same…

So, the point is this: Starting and restarting is difficult and scary – but once you’ve done it, you’re in for one amazing ride.

- Benjamin Hall