How Do You Start Writing?

I’ve seen this question posed in several writing groups lately by people who want to become writers, “How do you start writing?”

As if there is some top-secret magic trick that we writers have been holding out on the world.

The secret is…  you just start writing. That’s it. If you want to write, you write.

If you have a story inside that you want to tell, if you have characters who want to be heard, if you have advice you want to share… Write it down. Write what you see in your head. Write what you hear your characters say. Write what they do. Write what you want people to know.

And you don’t have to use any certain program or device to be a writer. Write in Word, Notepad, Scrivener, Google Docs… Write on your laptop, your ancient desktop, your phone, your tablet, napkins while you’re out to dinner, or your old spiral notebook you still have saved from high school.

Now, of course you can do things to help yourself be more organized during the writing process before you even start writing like: plotting, world building, and character profiling, but that isn’t what makes you a writer, and you don’t have to do that to start writing.

Just write. It’s that simple.

XoXo,

Michelle