How I used a Special Place to Kickstart My Writing
My last great idea came to me when I was trying to calm my one-month-old baby girl down during a nappy change. Which meant each time I changed a nappy for the following 15 months I’ve thought about that idea. Imagine my frustration, then, when I struggled to actually write anything. It turns out that I’d not thought enough about the setting for my story — once I’d figured that out, the writing was a lot easier.
Blank page phobia
For over a year I had a rough idea of the story, an outline of the characters and even a theme floating around in my head. When I got to the keyboard, however, I was unable to get anything down. Figuring out where to start can be intimidating, as the blank page is so full of potential, being the first step in turning a great idea (in theory) to a great idea (in draft).
I’ve lost count of the number of people who tell me that they’ve got a great idea for a story, if only they could get it down on paper. I always tell them the same thing: “If it ain’t down on paper, it ain’t a story.” Sometimes I even tell them with correct grammar. Was I destined to add this idea to the thousands of unwritten stories out there?
It was all rather frustrating. So I did what I sometimes do when I’m in the writing dumps — I went for a walk.
