First Line, First Page — STOP Obsessing, START a Campfire Tale...

I swear…

So-called online experts want to scare the poo-poo out of new writers with their pressure-mounted one-liners, like, “Your first sentence, your first page, must be stellar!”

A new writer reads this, and thinks, Man, the last thing I ever did that was stellar was accidentally fly my HUUUUGE dragon kite near an airport, and get a fine for messing with incoming jet traffic. (Okay, this maybe a true story, and may not be your story. I’m saying no more…)

The last thing a struggling writer needs to read are words like the above, which passive-aggressively hint at, “Write perfectly, you heathen hack, or you’ll be forever tarred and feathered by all in the literary universe!”

The ONE thing I’ve learned about the literary world is there exists queer ducks in it who, in the act of attempting to help new writers, achieve the exact opposite.

Fact No.1: EVERY DRAFT OF EVERY STORY EVER WRITTEN IN CRAP.

I don’t care if you’re Joe Nobody or Ernest Hemingway.

I don’t care if you’re invisible on social media or are an influencer from hell.

I don’t even care if this is your first time at the literary bat, or you own the damn bat.

YOU WILL WRITE DRAFT CRAP. ACCEPT IT. EMBRACE IT. LIVE IT.

Soooo…

Instead of obsessing about creating that so-called perfect first line or perfect first page that’ll get you a book contract with a zillion dollar advance, plunk your creative mind down in front of that figurative campfire over there, and tell those campfire listeners a story. An honest to goodness story.

Don’t obsess about word choice.

Don’t try to shock and awe.

Begin your tale like you would if your friends were gathered around you, eager to hear your wondrous flight of fancy.

Sit down, and start plunking out the words that fit with the starting scene you visualize in your mind’s eye: Where are we? Who is there? What’s happening? Who is saying what to whom?

Chances are that what you’ve seen will end up typing out just right without you obsessing over anything. Either way, plunk it out, and leave it alone. It’ll ferment behind the scenes as you continue writing the story.

Your first line, first page, “perfectness” (hey, I’m a word weaver. I can make up words if I wanna) can come later in the edit and Read Out Loud phases. Right now, it’s all about your tale and how you are seeing it unfold, and nothing else.

Don’t let first line, first page article writers intimidate you into not writing at all.

Instead, wonder how many rewrites they undertook in drafting that article.

And wonder how supremely crapola-filled that initial draft was.

A HINT: if you’re having problems typing out the words, leave the laptop, and say the story out loud to yourself while recording it on your device. Replay it, and see what words you used, and type those down as a start,

THE KEY: When that first page is filled, LEAVE IT ALONE. Continue writing your story to The End, and then after you've let the finished story breathe for a couple of weeks, return to that first line, first page, and edit. Chances are now that the whole story is written, you’ll have a much better grasp of how to perfect that line and that page, obsession-free, stress-free.

HOMEWORK: If you’re first line, first page obsessing right now, STOP it, DROP it, and type on.

You need to write this tale to The End. Without reaching The End, that first line, first page perfection is moot.

Type on......

First Page, First Line - Just Tell the Story...

Deep in the forest... tents are pitched around a crackling bonfire. Those who you love and trust are sitting on logs, eyes sparking, as they anticipate your story.

You lean forward, with eager eyes, and say one word.

Then, you say, "No, scratch that." And then you utter a whole sentence.

Then, you say, "No, I didn't mean that. I meant this."

And through your umpteen restarts, everyone has yawned, stretched, shook their heads in disgust, and gone to their tents.

Story time by YOU ended before it ever began.

Would you tell a campfire story that way? Nope. You wouldn't. You would just start to talk and keep talking until the story ended.

So, why should you start any story in that confounded way? There's no reason at all.

~~~

You've obviously seen your story unfold in your mind's eye. Simply tell it. Hit the keyboard. Imagine those loved one's sitting around you, and type out your story. No fitful starts. To take backs. Just begin typing what you see, and worry much, much later how it looks.

Too many new writers obsess about articles that push the need for that perfect first line, that perfect first page, and that anything less will make you a literary failure, to the point you freeze your mind and become incapable of telling that story at all.

Do you seriously think sculptors re-affix their chiselled-off pieces?

Do you think painters paint that first brush stroke, then, ad nauseam, keep wiping it off?

At some point, you have to trust your brain, your own imagination, and your ability to tell a story.

What you should wipe from your brain, if anything at all, are those so-called article experts giving you mental fits about creating that perfect beginning.

Art is messy. It's undefined. It has to be attempted, roughed out, before it can ever be refined.

Heck, come that last page where you type, The End, your outlook on the beginning of your tale maybe vastly altered from what you foresaw months, years ago, so why obsess at the beginning when your literary journey has only begun?

Don't. Just don't. STOP obsessing. Seriously.

Write what your mind's eye sees. Get it down on the page. Write one scene, then the next, and keep writing until you type, The End.

Your goal right now is to be able TO write, and finish that book. Don't let others mess with your vision, your creativity or your confidence by what they "think" you need to do.

HOMEWORK: 

a) If you're just starting out to write your book, write that first line, that first page, without thinking. Tell that campfire story. 

b)If you're past the first page, STOP returning to it and changing it. Write on. That so-called perfection can come after you've written, The End. (Spoiler Alert: Mr. Perfection will never show up. That sucker is always a no-show. Don't put out your fine china for that idiot. He's not worth it.)