How to Write When You Have No Idea Where to Start
UPDATED AUGUST 2020
Have you ever had a great idea for a story/book/writing project, but didn’t know where to start? Or wanted to write but didn’t seem to have any ideas...at all?
Welcome to the writers club!
Welcome to the writers club!
The desire to write runs strong for a lot of us, and yet, many never live out that dream. Sometimes it’s because life gets busy with significant others, kids, work, and other activities. Sometimes, though, it’s purely because we just don’t know where to start.
The good news is, even if you don’t have any “good” ideas, you can still write! You don’t need to have an “aha!” moment or a wild inspiration to get going.
What do you do if you have no ideas?
As much as it seems like prolific writers have an abundance of ideas, not all writing is “inspired.” If you’re fresh out of brilliant ideas, try writing one of these scenarios. Paint the clearest and most concise picture you can. Act as if you were living or reliving the moment. If you need to separate yourself from the experience (because you can’t picture it), write the scene without names using he/she/they or with aliases.
Tell the story of a supremely happy memory.
Set the scene:
What happened immediately before the moment?
What happened in the moment?
Who was involved in the moment?
What made the memory so happy?
What makes this memory so special that it has become your favorite?
Tell the story of a funny situation.
Set the scene:
What happened immediately before the moment?
What happened in the moment?
Why was it so funny?
What kind of funny was it (Embarrassing, cute, corny, etc.)?
What was so memorable about the moment?
Tell the story of a hard situation.
Set the scene:
What happened immediately before the moment?
What happened in the moment?
Was the situation hard mentally, physically, emotionally, or a mixture of everything?
Who else, if anyone, was involved in the situation?
What was the outcome?
How did you overcome?
Tell the story of a crazy dream you had recently.
Write down all the details you can remember about your dream:
Who was there?
What they were doing?
Why they were doing it?
What did the surroundings look like?
Was it realistic or fantastic?
Did it end or was it just a small piece of a bigger dream you don’t remember?
If it was part of a bigger dream, how would you like it to have ended?
Describe your favorite person.
We all have someone we love(d) dearly, so take some time to appreciate their quirks and things you love about them.
What do they look like?
What do they wear?
How do they act around others? Around you?
What do they love to do for fun? For work?
How do they feel about topics important to you? (Such as pets, families, etc.)
What’s your favorite part about them as a person?
Let yourself think and write freely.
Describe the most meaningful act someone has done for you.
Has someone unexpectedly done a service for you or given you a heartfelt compliment?
Perhaps someone gave you an amazing gift or went out of their way to see you when you were sad.
Describe the time when someone did something meaningful for you.
What was the act?
Why was it so meaningful?
Why did the person do this for you?
What is your relationship with the person?
What was your reaction?
Describe the worst day you’ve ever had.
Everyone has had a “worst day” (sometimes more than one).
Perhaps someone you love passed away, or a long-term relationship became irreparably broken.
Find it in your heart to think about that day.
What happened from the moment you woke up to the moment the day ended?
Which parts were particularly harrowing?
How were the events of your day related?
How did you feel when you woke up versus when you laid down to sleep at the end of the day?
Describe a day in your dream life.
If money was not a factor in your dream life (assume you have plenty), what would it be like?
Thinking about an ideal day:
When would you wake up?
What would you do throughout the day?
What job would you be doing (or not doing)?
What adventures would you go on? Who would be by your side?
Why is this your dream?
Thinking about your life in moments rather than as a whole is helpful because when we’re thinking about characters, we don’t try to write their lives all at once. Sure, we probably have growth in mind of where they came from and where they’re going, but when you’re in the middle of writing, you probably don’t stop to think, “Wow, John Doe’s life is boring. He doesn’t have any experiences that anyone wants to read about.” You probably don’t want to read a book like that either!
What if absolutely nothing interesting happens in my life and I can’t use that as a starting place?
You might be asking: What if absolutely nothing interesting happens in my life and I can’t use that as a starting place?
First, I promise your life is not that boring! Words are powerful, and when used well, can bring almost any scenario to life. It can be hard to work through this, though, if you are stuck in a rut.
If you have a (self-proclaimed) insufferably boring life, try writing one of these scenarios instead:
Tell the story of the object closest to you.
Choose an object around you and think about where it came from.
What is its function?
If this object had human characteristics, what would they be?
Right now, there are approximately 20 Post-It notes (or more) stuck up all over my desk and computer. Everything has a story, and these sticky notes are no different! They were “born” in a factory, packaged nice and orderly, and shipped out all over the world. This pack happened to land here in Indiana, and now has a semi-comfortable life in my top desk drawer.
Tell the story of an everyday hero.
Choose someone who does good in their community and tell their story. It doesn’t have to be someone you know personally. If you don’t know too much, imagine what their life might be like.
If you want to get extra creative, you could even imagine them like an undercover superhero.
What is their superpower?
What is their weakness?
Think about people you admire who are role models. Who work hard and literally, or figuratively, saves lives.
For instance, maybe it’s the nurse who took amazing care of your child when s/he had an accident and needed stitches. Or the IT guy you called in a panic because you accidentally downloaded a virus and he managed to save all 8,000 of your documents (that were not backed up anywhere).
Tell the story of a dastardly villain who commits ridiculous crimes.
What is the silliest or most ridiculous crime you can think of?
Got it?
Now, think about the villain who commits this crime.
What does s/he do? Why does s/he commit the crime?
What are the effects?
How do people react to the crimes?
For example, a vandal who is drawing mustaches on all of the upper management’s very expensive oil paintings in the formal workplace.
Have fun with it!
Describe a day in your own life through your neighbor’s eyes.
Imagine you are your neighbor.
What parts of your day do they see?
Do they see or hear your morning routine?
Do they see when you get home or what your pet does during the day?
Are they a conspiracy theorist who has a far-fetched impression of your actually quite normal life?
If you don’t know your neighbors very well (we don’t all have a Homer Simpson/Ned Flanders relationship with the people in our neighborhood), image what they might think.
If you don’t have neighbors, pretend just for a little while you do - what would they think of your life?
Describe a day in your own life through your pet’s eyes.
Imagine you are your pet.
How do you see yourself from your dog’s eyes?
What do you think as your human does their morning routine and only gives you absentminded pets?
Do you love your human unconditionally?
Or get annoyed they are taking too long to feed you?
I use dog as an example, but if you have a cat, a guinea pig, or even a fish, you could imagine it through that perspective, too.
Describe a day in your own life through your cell phone’s screen.
Consider what your phone might think, if it had human characteristics.
Are you glued to your phone 24/7?
Would it be needy & clingy if you put it down to go out with your family for the evening?
If you don’t use your phone very much, would it be lonely & longing for attention?
If you have an older model phone, would it be grumpy and complain when you use it?
Would it be judging you for your Google searches or the number of texts you sent asking your mom for advice?
We are inundated with information all the time, so it’s easy to overlook or just plain forget to look at our lives from a different view sometimes.
We are inundated with information all the time, so it’s easy to overlook or just plain forget to look at our lives from a different view sometimes. It’s all about perspective.
These ideas are fun and engaging, and will also help you get a different perspective on your life. Getting out of our own head can be a great key in unlocking our potential when are figuring out how to write when we have no idea where to start.
On the other hand, some writers are blessed with great ideas that seem to never end. The trouble then begins when we sit down to physically write or type, and stare at the blank page for what seems like hours. We might type or write a bunch of titles and delete them because they are terrible. Or maybe they’re not terrible, but they don’t meet the expectations we’ve set up in our minds.
What’s a writer to do when they have brilliant ideas but too many places (or nowhere) to start?
What’s a writer to do when they have brilliant ideas but too many places (or nowhere) to start?
6 Easy Tricks for How to Start Writing Now
Write a filler sentence or phrase.
You can put any words on the page in whatever order you want. They don’t even have to make sense.
As long as you put words on the page, you’re no longer staring at blank white space.
My personal favorite is “BLAH BLAH BLAH INTRO.” That little fluff line got me through all my grad school papers.
Type or write “Untitled” at the top of the page and have a conversation with your main character about themselves.
Typing Untitled allows you to table the title (for now) and move along. Then, pretend to interview your main character.
Ask them things like “Tell me about yourself” & “Where do you see yourself in 5 years.”
After you pose the question, answer in your character’s voice.
Describe the most exciting thing about your idea.
What’s the part that gets you most excited about your new idea?
Write it down on the page!
Is it the characters?
The setting?
The bad guy/gal?
Write down the exciting part(s), and then write down why it excites you.
Describe the setting in your idea.
You have this great idea, and it has to happen somewhere, right?
Write down all the details you’ve thought of about the world where this idea takes place.
Include things like:
Landscape
Buildings
Climate
Anything that helps make this world real for you so you can picture it in your mind.
Describe the main character & profile them.
Maybe you didn’t have an idea about a place, but a person.
Write down everything you know about that person so far.
What does s/he look like?
Act like?
Feel like?
Also write down the things you don’t know yet.
If you’re not ready to write about what s/he is doing, create a character profile for her/him. For my novel, I used this really cool template from Reedsy to help me begin to figure out the details.
Write the first thing that comes to mind when you think about your idea.
If your idea is still kind of hazy, clear your mind, and then come back to the idea with fresh eyes.
Write down the first thing that comes to mind when you think about it.
Once you have that, analyze it.
What else do you need to know for this to be a scene or a realistic picture of your idea?
Not knowing where or how to start writing happens all the time. Every semester, without fail, I see the moment when at least one student gets excited about an idea, which then kind of fizzles out when they realize they have to actually write about it. I always tell them that for a lot of people, starting is the hardest part. Myself included! Hence my BLAH BLAH BLAH INTRO trick - works every time!
Every piece of writing starts somewhere, even if it’s not what you thought it would be when you first had the idea. You will eventually go back and revise and edit anyway, so you might as well get the idea out onto the page!
Writing is hard work. It doesn’t matter if you’re brand new or if you’ve been doing it for years. It’s a skill, and hopefully if you want to write, it’s a passion. Remember, starting is the hardest part.
If you have a passion for your writing project, and you have put words to paper, you have overcome the obstacle that stops a lot of people from writing at all. Take that passion and run with it. Be excited about it! You’ll enjoy where it takes you.
Have you had an experience where you’ve been stuck on your writing? Where you didn’t feel so great about an idea? Email me at rachel@capturingyourconfidence.com or drop a comment below. I’m always curious to hear about the experiences of fellow writers!
Next Steps
If you’ve been “stuck” or in a rut with your writing before, you know the frustration of not knowing what to do to start again - or start at all. The next time you have a hard time with how to start writing, try using these prompts & remember that starting is often the hardest part of writing!
So what do you do with this information going forward? There are several simple steps you can take. Notice I didn’t say “easy” - starting and working on a piece of writing isn’t necessarily easy, but it IS worth it.
1. Decide you will write, even if you’re not inspired…Yet.
Do you want to start with one of the prompts above? Or maybe you’ve been inspired to use one of the techniques to get going in your own way? Make the conscious decision that you will write, and then stick to it. Remember, you can always change your writing later, but not if there’s nothing there to work with.
2. Find someone to be accountable with.
Sometimes what we need to make progress is someone to talk through our ideas with, and someone who will help us stay accountable for making progress.
Whether you go with a trusted friend or a professional, make sure that whoever you want to work with will be a) honest and b) tell you what you need to hear, even if it’s not what you want to hear. This generally means try to find another writer.
If you are interested in working with me, I offer 1:1 accountability sessions for just this reason. A lot of writers don’t have other writers in their life to do this with, at least not friends who they are close enough with to feel comfortable working with in this way.
I’ve been a writer and writing teacher for years, and I’ve seen almost everything in writing. I’m always going to be honest, but I will always be kind about it. If this sounds like something you want to investigate more, click here to read more about some of the services I offer along with accountability.
3. Sit down & write
Once you’ve decided you’re going to write, and you’ve found someone to be accountable with, sit down and do the damn writing! Pick one of the prompts above and just go to town. Let yourself feel the words & know that nothing needs to be perfect.
My challenge to you is to sit down within the next week (accountability partner or not) and write. You can set a timer if you like, but make sure to put words on the page.
Have you struggled with how to write in the past? Or where to start? I’d love to hear about your experiences! Find me on social media, drop a comment below, or email me at rachel@capturingyourconfidence.com!
Let’s chat because you, my friend, are on your way to great writing.