Writer's Net: Overcoming the Empty Page

The Real First Step: 

I'm sure many people think step one in writing is to take out the pen or device and start writing.  But when I start there, I don't have much to say.  I stare at the page and hope for words to magically appear.  I end up writing drivel about writing and writer's block.  Or I write from somewhere shallow and meaningless.

No, for real writing, for good writing, it starts with the Writer's Net.  What, you ask, is this net?  If you want to write, go into the world, either yours or another, and look for something that inspires you.  Listen to conversations.  Watch for something out of the ordinary or for someone to be doing something that catches the eye.  Then come up with a back story, a crazy explanation.  I was at a bus stop two days running and had someone hand me something.  One time, it was a token they didn't need.  I can't remember what the other was.  But from that, I wrote a story about a kid who gets pieces of a techno puzzle.  From there, he can open a passage to another dimension.  Be looking around for interesting turns of phrase, for crazy thoughts or words.  Open your net and be on the look out for things to get snagged in it.

Right now, I'm having my kids help me write a chapter book for preteens about animals.  Everywhere we go, every conversation we have, we're all on the lookout for a chapter title here or a plot point or character there.  The novel I just submitted for publication started with a conversation with myself that was along the lines of, "Self, they always say write what you know.  So what do you know?" I decided I knew what it was like to be a chubby, nerdy Mormon living in northern Utah.  That's not a story I've read.  So that's where my character began. Every family activity went into the net.  I took notes on places we went, watched for fun or intriguing things that could show up in my book.  She is not me, and her story is not my life.  But she started somewhere real.

Food for Thought:

They say an artist/author doesn't have bad days, only material.  That, I can say with some authority, is a lie.  Authors feel trauma at least as much as everyone else.  But an author has a chance that others may not, and that's to share the trauma with others, give them a window into their pain.  Julia, my main character's, life is not mine, but her pain over the loss of her baby comes from a real place.  See my other blog for that.

Writing doesn't begin with the story nor even the pages and pages of characterization and back story and geography the writer works on be

fore he or she can begin the story.  Writing begins with the net and with life.  Start somewhere real, somewhere meaningful, and/or somewhere quirky, and your reader will come along for the ride.