Naruto Magazine: Issue #11

✲Advice: Starting a Story✲

Well in this issue I’d like to bring out a very important topic that I’m sure many other writers, here and outside of WattPad, find hard to overcome and deal with.

Today’s advice would concern the difficulty that writers endure during the beginning of every new chapter or more specifically, deciding on how the writer wants to start his story.

Let us say that you wanted to publish a new story, you’ve got the idea and plot ready, the character’s role and behaviors have all been decided and planned, and now you’re all excited and can’t wait to just start writing.  So you open Microsoft Word or Wattpad’s create button and you suddenly find yourself greeted by a white blank page.  You bring your hands near the keyboard and want to start typing something, but you find yourself that you just simply can’t.  All the ideas are in your mind and yet you struggle to find of a perfect way in how you can introduce or start your story.

Writing, in general, doesn’t come so easily for a lot of us (including me -.-). It takes loads of mental power, twists your working memory and often makes you feel exposed if you try to be open and honest in your work. The effort, alone, is hard enough, but tied with the pain of placing your work out into the world and letting others critic it, this alone can be enough to stop you from getting started.

I myself still haven’t totally overcame this obstacle, but I found a simple solution that if I let myself to write badly, at first and just start, I would later find myself easily writing with the idea and writing pattern just flowing and accessible.

You guys don’t have to be afraid that your draft might turn out to be bad (it probably will be, but that’s okay xD). You could always come back later and edit and review your mistakes. And don’t worry almost all good writing begins with horrible first efforts. You just need to convince yourself to begin somewhere. So start by getting something or anything down on paper.

Other advices that I find useful in conquering such barrier are:

1) Try working while your internet is turned off. You might want to refrain yourself from getting distracted. With the internet on, you would be constantly checking stuff on the internet and thus wasting time.

2) Make sure that your surroundings work well with both your physical and mental condition. You would want to, for example, to write when it’s quiet and comfy.

3) Allow your imagination to run free. Nothing is banned or off-limits. You can always come back later and clean up your mess.

4) It’s okay if you stylistically steal minor ideas from other writers, as all great writers do

5) And last but not least, keep your huge ass in your chair until you’re done or satisfied. Never get out until finished with a chapter or specific part.

And this problem doesn’t just come during the start of a new story, it even occurs during the start of every new chapter. So I hope that what I wrote was helpful and beneficial for you guys and I hope you best luck in all of your writings and always remember if you got any question or problems, where you wish to seek advice about, please either comment below or PM on my account, @Kurama91.

 So I hope to see you all again next month :)