Have you ever had a great story idea that you struggled to put down on paper? I have. And this post is mostly about that struggle. By the end of it, I hope you’ll know that if you’ve ever had trouble starting, you’re not alone. And there is a way out of it if you stick with it. Here are my three reasons why starting a first draft is hard.

Reason #1: Excitement Only Takes Me So Far

I love the excitement that comes with a fresh idea. I feel energized and, dare I say, clever as I imagine the plot and characters in my head. Endorphins rush in, I giggle to myself. I’m primed and pumped and ready to go. But as time passes that excitement wanes. I’ll eke out a first paragraph, maybe a first page, and then something happens. I hit a snag. Or maybe I realize that I’ve rambled for 600 words, and what I see on paper is nowhere near what I see in my head. How to fix it? How to move forward? So many questions to ponder, and then of course, there’s life. Which brings me to reason number two.

Reason #2: Life Doesn’t Stop Happening

The pressures of life hit me before I can slip into a rhythm, or it interrupts my rhythm midstride. UPS is at the door, it’s time to pick up the kids, the smell from the garbage that’s overflowing just won’t go away. And did I start the dryer? Have I eaten yet? Did I take my meds?

Life doesn’t stop happening because I want a quiet moment to flesh out my thoughts on paper. In fact, life in those moments feels intentionally obnoxious. It’s pretty easy to get caught up in the rigamarole of life. Easier than sitting down to flesh out a story plot. Before I know it, interruption evolves into procrastination. That said, here’s reason number three.

Reason #3: Moving Too Slow Is Costly

A few weeks of putting it off, and the story starts to fade. I can’t remember the awesome name I created for my MC. The one I spent hours researching to get just right. I can’t remember essential parts of the plot, or how exactly each dot was connected. I’ve wasted too much time, and now I’m detached from the story. So, I get frustrated, I lose interest, and the story dies.

Or . . .

I sit down with my thoughts and put them down on paper. Usually, it’s a list scribbled on a yellow legal pad. It isn’t practical to tote my laptop with me everywhere I go, but legal pads are fairly light. So while the linens are in the dryer, I put pen to paper. While I’m sitting in the carpool line, I jot down everything I can remember about the story. I read it. I reread it. I get excited again, and I make a plan. A plan that, let’s be honest, isn’t perfect.

But it’s something. Maybe it’s a resolution that for one hour a day, three days a week, I’m going to work on this story. Three hours a week isn’t much. But it’s enough to keep the story alive. And when I have more time, I use it to write. When I don’t have time, I think about the story. I dream about the characters. I talk my husband’s ear off about a plot hole I need to work out.

There are a few instances where I’ve written a story without going through this rough patch (I once wrote a novel in 5 days!) but those were crazy unicorn-born-on-a-blue-moon type instances. I rarely have time to write for hours on end without interruption. I have a family, other obligations, laundry. Always laundry.

If you find yourself in a rough patch, remember that every writer goes through them. Mine are usually right after I’ve started, and right at the finish line. And sometimes in the middle, too. But the only way through them is, well, through them. Write a garbage sentence. A trash paragraph. A sloppy page of prose. Then keep writing and keep writing. Reread what you’ve read and keep at it. Get the story out as quickly as you can. Don’t worry too much about the rough parts. Editing a segment of bad writing is much easier than writing an entire novel from scratch. More on that in my article “7 Steps To Help You Edit Your First Draft.”

If you need more practical steps for getting your first draft on paper, stay tuned. I’ll be posting an article on that topic soon.

That’s my Write or Die Advice for now. Happy starting.