Do you have any advice for someone trying to get a story started? I have all the characters and the plot pretty secure in my head but I’m having a difficult time starting it on paper. Are there any writing exercises you’d suggest to get creativity flowing?

characterandwritinghelp:

  • Freewrite. Sit down and write. It doesn’t have to make sense or flow or anything—just write something. You can start off describing a character and get to describing their role in the plot, how awesome their character arc is, something really fantastic you want to do with their development, and discover all kinds of things to include.
  • Stream of consciousness. Ditch your sentence structure, capitalization, punctuation, all of that. Write what you’re thinking. In this exercise, you focus on getting words on the paper, no matter what words they are. You can rearrange and edit them into proper sentences later. Right now, just get them out.
  • Try a mind map. Put words, ideas, plot points, characters in bubbles and branch out with details and story progression. This can help you plan out a scene, a character’s development, the entire plot, or just help you get thinking about the story.
  • Write that scene. You know the one. That scene is the one you look forward to writing when you think about your plot. Start somewhere that interests you and get excited about your story. Jump around within your story and write whatever you want to write.

Check our getting started tag and stuck? tag for more thoughts. Best of luck!

-Headless