Just Get Something Down
How do you begin to write when you don’t know what to write? How do you craft a draft when you cannot even get through a few lines or even a single meaningful sentence?
Just get something down on the page. It doesn’t really matter what it is to start — a few random lines rising from the back of your mind, a list of ideas or goals you have for the writing, or a simple stream of words expressing your frustration with writer’s block. This may seem like fool’s advice or simple anyone’s advice, but numerous experts also recommend advice or strategies similar to this. Often, the first draft can just be brainstormed topics, random ideas, or a very rigid and semi-indecipherable outline.
Why is starting to write often so hard? Part of it is the blank page that whispers to you. Some of the messages it whispers can be so inspiring, as the quote goes “White. A blank page or canvas. So many possibilities.”
It can be easy to get carried away with visions of success and grandeur when considering those countless possibilities. And then if you recognize the words that start to form are not yet the workings of a masterpiece, it can be easy to close down the word file or toss aside the notebook. No wonder, then, is it the case that so many aspiring writers easily despair.
Certainly, the sky is the limit for each of us in terms of stories, memories, ideas, and viewpoints to bring alive on paper. But just like if you are wanting to build a skyscraper you have to start with the foundation thousands of feet below, you can’t expect your amazing written work to reach fruition without all the proper ingredients. And just like the most beautiful flowers in the garden start with small seeds, the first ingredients to a substantial final draft include those very rough drafts that can soon be redrafted, edited, reedited, and perhaps many more steps until that final amazing work you already envision in your mind’s eye.
Once you have started to get something down on the blank screen, avoid the temptations to throw it out. Now, as I write this piece I am starting to realize the garden analogy may in many ways be troublesome(and am tempted to delete). Unlike seeds that are planted and start to grow, perhaps most very sloppy undecipherable first drafts(or pre-drafts might be a better term) will probably never be developed past that point. But does that mean they don’t have value? No, quite the contrary, they can have immeasurable value in themselves if they are discovered later by the individual or perhaps even someone else who comes across them. Also, some of those seeds do start to stretch their roots into the ground to begin morphing into an amazing final product.
But if you delete or throw aside those early rough drafts, it seems kind of like the mother in Jack and the Beanstalk who throws the beans out the window. But unlike in the fairy tale where the beans grow into a huge beanstalk Jack can climb to a magic land, your draft that could have morphed into a final piece of incalculable riches is now forever lost in the abyss. Luckily, many online platforms like Medium or Quora automatically save drafts, as do many cloud services. But if you are using a laptop, desktop, or even a zip drive, don’t be afraid to save those pre-drafts on a regular basis. You don’t have to save them indefinitely, but maybe put them aside for a set time period in which you can easily revisit them and modify or decide to delete later. The nice thing about the “old-fashioned” medium of paper or notebook is that you can save these as long as you deem necessary.
So, what to do if you cannot write — especially if you just feel writer’s block or daunted by the whole task? Just get something down. This point among many others to be considered sounds almost the same as the advice given to someone who has lost their appetite for any number of reasons — “just get the smallest bit of food down as you need the nourishment.” Well, like other art forms, the writing life is also a type of nourishment, but for the soul. And unlike the tangible substance of foods for the physical appetite, the ingredients for writing are quite different. There are the visible words, yes, but also the spaces between the words shadowing the writer’s sparks of hard work, critical assessment, and profound insight many times originating from a few indecipherable lines or random strokes of an unguided pen.
