Creative Writing

The only way to start writing is to start writing 

People sometimes say that they would love to have a go at creative writing but they don't know how to start. The best way to start is to just write. Use cheap notebooks, scrap paper, anything that's available and write down thoughts, memories, whatever comes to mind. The writing won't be great for a start but you'll be exercising a new skill, like learning to play a violin but not as noisy. If you need ideas for topics then use a headline from the newspaper or the title of a book on the shelf or the first word that comes into your head. Write for about 5 minutes (increasing it to 10 minutes when you get more used to it). This is called free flow writing and the following points will help you get started.

Free flow writing

This is sometimes called stream of consciousness writing. It’s an accepted way of kick-starting creative writing. The following is only one way of doing it. It's the way that works for me:

1. Start writing about a given topic.
2. Don’t stop to think. Let yourself go and just write, write, write. 
3. Don’t correct any mistakes in content, spelling or grammar. Don’t even cross things out. 
4. Don’t stop to read through what you’ve written so far. 
5. Keep writing whatever happens. 
6. Don’t try to reword things to make them sound ‘better’. There’ll be time for that later. 
7. Don’t stop yourself from writing things that you want to keep secret or feel embarrassed about. No one else will ever read this but you. 
8. If you run out of things to write copy the topic title down over and over and then start writing about the first thing that comes into your head.
9. Don’t worry if your writing has moved right off topic. All writing is relevant for this exercise. 
10. Don’t expect this piece of writing to be a great literary piece. That’s not what it’s about. It’s to free the ideas in your head and if you keep on writing and let yourself go it’ll work.

Remember, it doesn't matter initially what you write about. The important thing is to write. 

Oh yes, and I'd love to hear how you get on with this technique.