It starts with...blood up the walls? Really?

I've been writing since I was four. Mom, somewhere in her attic, I suspect, has the little book I made, bound with wool, illustrated about as well as I can illustrate now, written in about four shades of crayon.
Heather emailed us and asked how we started - and when I got the email, I was midway between my hometown and my own home - we were travelling, 6 hours in a car, so I had plenty of time to think about how I 'start'. And I took some notes, I wrote some snippets. But I couldn’t really boil down to the root of where I ‘start’ my stories.
Five hours later, I still didn't have an answer, so I thought about it some more. And some more. Till I went to bed.
At which point, Elliot, my main protagonist "woke me up". And asked me why I'm ignoring the obvious.

And that's how it all starts - one of my characters wakes me up, and I have a conversation with them. I actually bicker with them, which is the funniest bit – my partner has told me that I argue with thin air, and have some really funny conversations about ballistic reports, and ongoing murder investigations – about the science of how my anti-matter drive works, or some interesting fact about magic. About the blood splatter pattern all over our bedroom wall, and what that can tell Elliot about the crime he's investigating.
It really bothered me for a while, but I found out that there's actually a medical explanation for it.
(Pay attention, here comes the science part ;))

Hypnagogic and Hypnapompic hallucinations occur as just as you go into or come out of REM sleep. Its usually fairly uncommon, as far as I've understood so far anyway, to have both - but I do, alongside bipolar disorder. They aren't considered 'sleep disorders' per se, but I'd say that people with the level of issues that I have probably feel like they are, to be honest. But, just like my bipolar diagnosis, I try to take the best from it.
I see everything from blood, to my characters, to things climbing on my bedside table, and more. It would probably be very funny if it weren’t for the fact that it really wrecks my ability to sleep properly.

There is an upside to this – I get some really GREAT material for my stories from these conversations and five minute flashes of visions. I keep a Dictaphone by my bed, and I tape it too.

Possibly slightly off the topic of the question, but I guess everything starts for me, just before I go to sleep, in my dreams or just as I wake up. How about you?

(oh, if you're interested in learning more about Elliot, please check out my newest site, DarknessPD - there's really not much there at the moment, but I'm putting up more every day, to support the NEW BOOK! WOOOOHOOO!!!!)

In which I ramble far from the topic

It starts innocently enough with my 8th grade novel. The one in the spiral notebook with the yellow cover, that long ago fell off. The cover I was sure I kept and now cannot find. I'm not sure why I care.

The whole thing is dramatic, angst filled, almost painful to read. My girlish scrawl with little circles for the i's and hearts at the bottom of exclamation points from the beginning to the middle and right through the end.

The end, which gives me a moment's pause to marvel at my 8th grade self's ability to know the end of something, to be sure of something, to be done with something, to do something she loved.

Despite the long passages that read like the finest in daytime tv and make me snort with laughter...

Such As: "Lacie,my god not her!" Lacie Ancall, my best friend, always there, never (oh God) never complaining. I had known her since the 1st grade, practically my whole life, and I guess I didn't know her well enough. Only 16, a brutal death from her own hands. She had tried to tell us, all of us, in her own way. She talked about death, she was obsessed with it. God, we just thought she was being her normally, abnormally strange self. But she was covering up her sorrows all these years, and I didn't even hear her cries for help, I ignored them and now she's gone."

Overlooking the random quotes at the beginning of each chapter that have me questioning my own 13 year old self's reasoning skills. Of course, this is the same 13 year old self who would have stepped in front of a bus and let it run over her 6 times in a row if it meant she could meet OMG he's soooooooooooo FINE, Kiefer Sutherland.

All that matters is that it's a story and it's done.

Not long after I find it (so long ago now) I start writing again. Just for me. Silly things that I don't think about publishing, showing anyone. Just because I can and I want to. Journal upon journal filled with moments.

Then to the blog and the audience, the markets and the book that I think will surely kill me. And I'm wrapped up in everything but the writing.

Until I think of those 93 pages of perfect writing in pen. I wonder how many pages I had to tear out to get it just right. I imagine the look of it was much more urgent than the content.

Which really might not be a bad thing. Back then, I never considered a word. I just went with the story.

I still do this sometimes. Block out the future, the markets, the audience...success and am gracious enough to listen fully to what's flowing through me.

But not nearly enough. And I promise myself to do it more often.

Getting Started: A Three Step Plan

I'm working at home today, so it was the perfect exercise in getting started.

Normally, I work outside of the home as a team leader of a 10 person sales team. There's no question on how I start: turn on computer, get started.

There's always something to do. Always emails waiting, always customers to contact.

So I transfer the techniques I use at the Real Life Job into my Writing Job.

Last thing first: start with the end.

Huh? Yep, the end.

Last night I cleaned off my desk and got it ready for my morning. No dishes left hanging around, no extra paper, no jewellery, no mail... just a clean desk.

So now I don't have the excuse of "I need to clean up first". Because I've cleaned up last.

Then I check email. I look for immediate responses required. Immediate action items.

Then I review my email and marry it to my To Do list.

And finally, I get started.

What I find happens with many writing mothers is that they don't treat this like a real job. Don't get me wrong, you don't HAVE to treat it like a real job if you don't want to. No one here is going to say that there's one way to do things. But if you want this to be your job, then you need to treat it like one.

So here's my three-step guide to determining your best way to start:

1. Determine what your barriers are to getting started. (Clutter, distractions, noise...)
   
2. Remove those barriers. (Sometimes this means that you don't get started until the distractions kids take a nap!)
   
3. Plan to start in a logical way and begin definitively. Open up a word doc and start typing. Write a blog post. Write about your dream last night. Write a to do list. It's all about But in Chair, Hands on Keyboard. (Imagine how you feel if the muse shows up and you aren't at the keyboard, while the trick is to be at the keyboard before she shows up!)

Now, it takes discipline... sometimes more than we have. I used to believe I couldn't write without the TV on for "background noise". But in reality, I was just unwilling to try, unwilling to MISS something interesting. But since I began to turn the TV off, I have gotten a HECK of a lot more writing done!

How do I get started?

Heck if I know. My process is an eclectic mixture of Googling, wondering whether I should throw in a load of laundry, and letting the dog out. I think I've come to the place where I accept that this is what it takes for me to really get going. I do have a couple of tools that help me maintain focus in the midst of all that procrastination.

1. Open a Word doc, title it, and save it to the appropriate folder.
The second two actions are vitally important, and I've learned this the (really very) hard way. Nothing is worse than unloading some brilliance onto a blank Word doc and then having your laptop battery die or software sieze up, causing you to lose all that work. Even though my computer gives me recovered documents when I reboot, some changes or additions can be lost forever. (And whenever I do lose something, I'm absolutely convinced that it was my best work EVER. Funny how that happens.)

2. Collect everything to this document.
I transcribe my interviews, paste urls and snippets of research, make outlines, and write various versions of ledes and transitions in this document. By the time it's all said and done it's a mess, but everything is there. And this document will never be seen by anyone else... unless I accidentally send it to the client. Yikes. But to keep that from happening, I title it something like, "Name of Assignment Notes."

3. Open a new Word doc, and start writing gibberish. Hopefully it isn't all jibberish, but it is basically free-writing at this point. It looks something like this:

When Mary Arthur first opened her lizard-training business in [date tk],
she had no idea it would be so popular among the [word for people out of
high-school but not yet 30] set.

Later I'll look up the date she opened her business in my notes and decide what to call her customer-base. But at this point, it's just about the getting the words to flow. Usually this freewriting produces both the worst and the best writing I've ever done.

4. You may have noticed that I didn't title and save this new Word doc. That's because I ALWAYS forget. So do as I say and not as I do: Give it a title like "Name of Assignment Freewrite" and save it.

5. Put it all together in a new titled doc with my byline, print it out, read it out loud, cringe, edit, read it again, cringe less, let it sit, read it again, tweak, and send it out. If I'm on deadline (which is always), I don't have time to let it sit, and when I finally see it in print, I think of a thousand other ways I could have written it better.

A great sentence from an article by Chip Scanlan of Poynter.org helps me out of this writer's remorse, and helps me write faster: "Fight perfectionism by telling yourself that what I wrote today is what I was capable of at this moment."

So there you have my convoluted process for getting started. For this post, I did NONE of the above. I just opened up the little blog-posty box and started typing. That's another very good way to do it.

Theme: How do you start?

We're all busy, we are all pulled in different directions by our family, our work, our writing... I don't know about you, but I find it very hard to get started when I sit down to write.

What's your trick to starting?

This week, I wanted to introduce you to someone.

Suzanne Lieurance is The Working Writer's Coach and she sends out a Morning Nudge each week. She is a former classroom teacher, now a fulltime children’s author, freelance writer, and The Working Writer’s Coach. She teaches children’s writing for the Institute of Children’s Literature based in West Redding, Connecticut, and is the founder and director of the National Writing for Children Center. Lieurance is the author of 20 published books and has written articles for a variety of magazines, newsletters, and ezines like Family-Fun, Kansas City Weddings, Instructor Magazine, New Moon for Girls, Children’s Writer, and many others. She hosts a talk show about children’s books, called Book Bites for Kids, every weekday afternoon on blogtalkradio.com.

Her March 19th Nudge really struck home with me and she's given me permission to post that Nudge below:

Are You Afraid to Be Happy?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wanna know why so many people don't set goals for themselves or write down what it is they want out of life?

It's because they're AFRAID they might actually attain those goals and get what they want.And something so wonderful and new for many people is very, very scary - even though they SAY they want this success.

But don't let fear keep you from claiming what you want.

When you get it, if it turns out NOT to be what you hoped it would be, you aren't stuck with it forever.

You can decide you want something else, and then go after that.

Right now, become fearless. Claim what you THINK you want.

Then go get it.

Keep doing this until you finally get what you truly desire. You'll learn a lot along the way, so your time and efforts won't be wasted.

Try it!
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I'd suggest that you head over to Suzanne's web site and get nudged! It is a great way to get started!!