Write What You Want First: A Gentler Way to Start Your Story

Starting a short story, essay, novel or memoir can feel overwhelming when you think about the whole thing at once.

There’s the structure. The theme. The ending. The voice. The question of whether the idea is strong enough. The fear that you’ll start in the wrong place and waste your time.

For many writers, this is where the pressure begins. Before a single sentence has been written, the project already feels too large.

But sometimes the best way into a piece of writing is not to start with the whole project.

Sometimes the best way in is much simpler:

Write what you want first.

Write what you want first - start with what's most fun for you

A lot of writers assume they need to begin at the “proper” beginning. They think they need to understand the whole shape of the story before they can write the first scene. They think they need the opening line, the structure, the theme, the character arc and the ending all neatly arranged before they are allowed to begin.

But writing rarely works that cleanly.

Sometimes the scene you are most drawn to is somewhere in the middle. Sometimes the only thing you can hear is a piece of dialogue. Sometimes all you have is an image, a room, a question, a memory, or one moment that feels alive.

Start with the part that has energy

For me, that often means dialogue. I usually start whatever I’m writing with a conversation, or little voice notes of what I hear in my head. The final scene may not have any dialogue at all. That isn’t the point. The point is that dialogue helps me find the scene.

It gives me a way in.

For another writer, the way in might be the setting. They may need to see the room, the street, the landscape, or the establishing shot before anything else can happen.

Someone else might begin with a single image: a woman standing at a window, a child hiding under a table, a suitcase left open on a bed, a person walking alone through an unfamiliar city.

Another writer might begin with a question they can’t stop thinking about.

What if she never tells the truth?

What if he comes home and everything has changed?

What if the thing they wanted most is the thing that ruins them?

None of these starting points is wrong. The mistake is thinking you have to begin with the most difficult part, or that you need to understand the entire piece before you are allowed to write anything at all.

The first draft is not a performance

The first draft does not need to prove that you know what you are doing.

It does not need to impress anyone. It does not need to arrive fully formed. It does not need to begin in the place where the finished piece will eventually begin.

A first draft is not a performance. It is a discovery process.

You are not only writing the story, essay or memoir. You are also finding out what it is. You are learning what matters. You are discovering where the heat is.

That means you are allowed to write toward the energy instead of forcing yourself through the part that feels cold, vague or impossible.

You can build the structure later

This does not mean structure is unimportant. Structure matters. Shape matters. Theme matters. Revision matters. But those things often become clearer after you have material on the page. It is much easier to shape a piece of writing once you have something to shape. A messy scene, a strange fragment, a half-formed conversation or a vivid description gives you more to work with than a perfect plan that keeps you frozen.

Try this writing exercise

If you are stuck at the beginning of a story, essay, memoir or chapter, try this:

Do not start at the beginning.

Instead, choose the part you most want to write.

Set a timer for 15 minutes and begin there.

You might start with:

• a conversation

• a room or landscape

• an image

• a memory

• a conflict

• a question

• a line of dialogue

• a moment you can see clearly

• the scene you are scared to write

• the scene you secretly want to write most

Don't worry about whether it belongs at the start. Don't worry about whether it is good.

Just enter through the door that is already open.

You may discover a character’s desire. You may find the tone. You may understand the conflict more clearly. You may realise that the real beginning is not where you thought it was. Or you may simply have written something.

That counts too.

Let writing become an invitation again

So much writing advice is built around discipline, productivity and pushing through resistance. There is value in discipline. Of course there is.

But not every writing problem is solved by forcing yourself harder.

Sometimes, the kinder and more effective move is to lower the pressure and begin with the part that actually interests you.

If you are craving space to reconnect with your writing, The Writing Grove’s Yoga & Writing Retreat in Puglia offers gentle movement, creative workshops and quiet time to return to your work with more ease and clarity.

Learn more here