The Ten Best Ways to Get Started on a New Project

My top tips for beginning a new writing - or any other - project

Have you set any writing resolutions this year? I’m generally not one for new resolutions (one of mine was to eat more seaweed and funnily enough, that was still an unfulfilled resolution several years later). I do like having a break and then re-setting my intentions though, and so perhaps (since not everyone celebrates the new year in January anyway) we can think of this as a recharge and a reset (see my post on The Power of Retreats). But even with the best of intentions, getting started can be hard.

“Begin at the beginning “ said the king very gravely, “and go on till you come to the end: then stop.”

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Here are my top tips for getting going on that writing project you want to begin or begin again:

1. Don’t begin at the beginning

It can be excruciating to face a blank page and - what do I say, what comes next, what will the reader expect, OMG this needs to be such a stellar sentence and I have no idea what to write… That’s what was going through my mind right then! Coupled with the pressure of knowing that agents and publishers rarely read past the first paragraph - maybe a whole page if you’re lucky - before deciding if you’re worth their time. As for readers, 70% of the decision to buy a book is based on what the cover looks like; the other 30% is based on whether they have heard or already read the author’s other books, then what it says in the blurb, before maybe scanning the first few lines in the book. That’s a lot to deal with when you’re sitting in front of your laptop, word document wide open and not a sentence to be seen.

So…I never begin at the beginning. Phew, a load of pressure shed right there.

I make some notes about how the book is going to start and then I begin somewhere else, maybe chapter 1 if there’s a prologue, as there often is in a thriller. If you have a stand-out opening sentence or paragraph in your mind - go for it - but then feel free to skip ahead and come back if the pressure of continuing by beginning at the beginning feels too great.