“A Writing Challenge for the Ages: Getting Started”
In the years I’ve spent writing my books, I’ve learned to appreciate the various stages of the writing process. Formulating ideas, doing research, and even talking about my plans are essential early steps, but the moment I sit down to a blank screen and commit to bringing my words to life is when the journey becomes real. The challenge is on. In the beginning, there’s a feeling-out period where the task before me seems as daunting as a head-first dive into icy-cold water. I know my words are present because I can hear them in the background. The problem is extracting them. It’s like trying to catch smoke or grasp running water. I’ll reach wildly, like a game show contestant grabbing for cash inside a money booth, but with nothing to show for my efforts, I’m forced to step backwards to reassess.
There’s nothing easy about starting a new writing project.
Courageous writing requires the resolve to plow forward. This is what I remind myself when I hit the first wall. Determined, I’ll push ahead, moving along one windowless corridor after another. With my blank screen still in front of me, I’ll focus on my endpoint and how I want to reach it, but because I don’t actually change my strategy, I’ll realize, too late, the pattern I’ve fallen into by having overlooked and undervalued the first, and most critical step of the sequence. It’s then that I’ll hear it, just when it seems the cycle will never end. The voice of reason. The one that will stop me in my tracks. The one that’s been speaking to me all this time, but I’ve been too stubborn to listen to.
Just start writing something and see where it takes you.
No two writing projects are the same, which means there’s no universal template that any writer, whether established or aspiring, is bound to follow. Throughout my writing journey, I’ve learned to accept that I’m human. I make mistakes, and at times, can fall victim to unproductive tendencies. I do recognize the voice of reason once I hear it though, along with what it feels like to be on the right path. The time I spend on the path is when I know I’m being true to myself, and the contentment it brings me is more than enough to keep me going.
Know what you’re passionate about. That’s where your best writing will come from.
I can remember wanting to write a book as far back as my freshman year of high school. I had an English teacher, Ms. Achterberg, who, for portions of the year, would split our class time into two sections: independent reading followed by independent writing. It was the simplest and smartest curriculum model I can imagine using at any level of education. In the years that followed, I continued to read and write both in and out of the classroom, always with the idea that at some point, a story worth telling would occur to me. I didn’t know what it would be about since my reading and writing interests were so varied. Somewhere in the fantasy, thriller, horror, or paranormal genres in what I figured. Or maybe I’d write something related to my experiences on the basketball court, knowing how impactful the game’s teachings had been during my adolescent and young adult life.
A big idea begins with a focal point.
The inspiration for my book series came to me when I was living in Chicago during my third year of optometry school. I was watching an investigative journalism show on television about orphanages in Eastern Europe. The program was concluding with a series of heartbreaking photos of the children who lived in the orphanages, while the song, “Fix You,” by Coldplay, played in the background. During the final verse of the song I was struck by the image of a man playing basketball in the rain. I didn’t know who he was, or, where he came from, only that he was hurting inside, and projecting his pain onto the basket. I also caught a glimpse of a boy. He, too, was playing basketball, but someplace different. He appeared small for his age; a kid with a good heart who nobody believed in. There was a connection between the two characters I hadn’t completely worked out yet, but something told me they needed each other.
When it becomes easier to write than to keep finding excuses not to, you’re ready.
At last, I’d found what I was looking for. The early makings of my story were forming, yet it’d take me over a year to build up the nerve to begin writing my first book. I remember the opening sentence: “For a kid like Danny Stevenson, basketball was a chance to step away from the mediocrity that seemed to define his seventeen years of adolescence.” That line never made the final draft (thankfully), nor, I suspect, did anything else I wrote that first day. The wheels were in motion though, and just like that, the chase was on.
Writing a book requires persistent hard work, but it’s doable.
People will ask me how I find time to write. The answer is simple. You have to build the writing into your life. You have to sew it into the fabric of your daily routines and responsibilities. The amount of time doesn’t matter. What’s important is that you follow through on it. Start with one character and put them in a unique setting. View the world through their eyes and follow them around for a while. Before long you’ll get some momentum going, and as your writer’s voice becomes clearer, your words will fall into rank and file. Be realistic. Don’t expect them to behave like well-trained soldiers. Moderately well-behaved children is more like it.
The most important quality of an author’s writing should be honesty.
When I set out on this writing journey so many years ago, I had no idea where it would take me. My plan was to dig as deep as I could, and to shape whatever I found into the best story I was capable of telling. My books have lived, and grown with me throughout multiple stages of my life. And here I am, still in the thick of it! I was looking for a big project, and that’s what I’ve been handed. Be careful what you wish for, right?
If you have any insight, unique experiences, questions, or feedback you’d like to share then please do. Take care and thanks for reading!
- Todd
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