The New Intimacy

#Eden Lit Club Meeting- Getting Started - March 11, 2013 at 4 pm EDT

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Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Our topic this month is all about getting started. We will discuss how to go from an amorphous idea and a blank piece of paper, or computer screen, to the beginning of a literary work. So bring your ideas, concerns, questions and let's discuss how the heck to get started on that masterpiece we all have living inside of us.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and then starting on the first one.”
~Mark Twain
03/05/2013
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Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
We can discuss how to come up with a great idea or how to take an overwhelmingly large idea and narrow the focus. It should be a great discussion!
03/05/2013
Contributor: Ansley Ansley
Quote:
Originally posted by Airen Wolf
We can discuss how to come up with a great idea or how to take an overwhelmingly large idea and narrow the focus. It should be a great discussion!
I'm looking forward to it!
03/05/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says, “You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, giftless. I’m not your agent and I’m not your mommy. I’m a white piece of paper, you wanna dance with me?” And I really, really don’t.
Aaron Sorkin

I can't tell you how often the paper says such mean things to me. So I start writing just to show the little bad mouthing piece of garbage who's boss!
03/05/2013
Contributor: Ansley Ansley
Quote:
Originally posted by Airen Wolf
I love writing but hate starting. The page is awfully white and it says, “You may have fooled some of the people some of the time but those days are over, giftless. I’m not your agent and I’m not your mommy. I’m a white piece of paper, you wanna ... more
Ditto!!!!! I've thrown away more pieces of paper than I've managed to keep. It's incredibly daunting.
03/06/2013
Contributor: ScarletFox ScarletFox
Hopefully I shall be there! I actually have a Monday to myself for once!
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Writing is easy: All you do is sit staring at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.
~Gene Fowler

Ain't that the truth??
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Twenty minute countdown!
03/11/2013
Contributor: Ansley Ansley
15....
03/11/2013
Contributor: Ansley Ansley
And here we are!
03/11/2013
Contributor: SneakersAndPearls SneakersAndPearls
Present!...Sorta.
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Welcome to the March 2013 Meeting of the Eden Lit club!

This meeting we'll be taking our busting creative block just a bit farther and discuss how to actually get started. We all know how daunting it can be to sit at a blank piece of paper or computer screen and FINALLY start to write.
Presumably you have taken the time to write down your character's biographies, you've plotted your general idea and you taken some time to think about your initial setting. Now what?

Do you have some ideas to share about writing that first sentence? Some observations and what not?
03/11/2013
Contributor: SneakersAndPearls SneakersAndPearls
Quote:
Originally posted by Airen Wolf
Welcome to the March 2013 Meeting of the Eden Lit club!

This meeting we'll be taking our busting creative block just a bit farther and discuss how to actually get started. We all know how daunting it can be to sit at a blank piece of paper ... more
Make a list of them. Make a whole bunch. Your first sentence is your hook and you need to make it as crazy or interesting as you can.

(I may have started writing fiction again...)
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Weird...
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Quote:
Originally posted by Airen Wolf
Weird...
It double posted my welcome....LOL
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Quote:
Originally posted by SneakersAndPearls
Make a list of them. Make a whole bunch. Your first sentence is your hook and you need to make it as crazy or interesting as you can.

(I may have started writing fiction again...)
I agree! Often I will start in a whole other area before starting the beginning of a story. I tend to write in blocks and then rearrange things as I need them to be.
03/11/2013
Contributor: Ansley Ansley
Quote:
Originally posted by Airen Wolf
It double posted my welcome....LOL
I noticed that...it's an issue with refresh.

Stand by.
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Sometimes I will even start with a cliche sentence and then intentionally use the second sentence because it is usually perfect. Sort of like calling Monday by another name so that is doesn't suck as bad LOL
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
What goes through your mind when you sit down to put all the pieces together, so to speak?
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
What goes through your mind when you sit down to put all the pieces together, so to speak?
03/11/2013
Contributor: SneakersAndPearls SneakersAndPearls
It was a dark and stormy night when the purple gorilla first came to town...
03/11/2013
Contributor: SneakersAndPearls SneakersAndPearls
Quote:
Originally posted by Airen Wolf
What goes through your mind when you sit down to put all the pieces together, so to speak?
Dialog. And lots of it. Sometimes descriptions, especially if I just read someone that does it really well.
03/11/2013
Contributor: Ansley Ansley
Quote:
Originally posted by SneakersAndPearls
It was a dark and stormy night when the purple gorilla first came to town...
Blech
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Quote:
Originally posted by SneakersAndPearls
It was a dark and stormy night when the purple gorilla first came to town...
Exactly! I started one series that actually was published with: "God I hope this doesn't suck!"
03/11/2013
Contributor: SneakersAndPearls SneakersAndPearls
Quote:
Originally posted by Ansley
Blech
Ha!
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Quote:
Originally posted by SneakersAndPearls
Dialog. And lots of it. Sometimes descriptions, especially if I just read someone that does it really well.
LOL YOU write like I do then. You write what ever other writer says is the hard part first. I will even write dialogue and descriptions on sticky notes and paste them to a large piece of cardboard so i can move them around or remove them as they are used.
03/11/2013
Contributor: SneakersAndPearls SneakersAndPearls
Quote:
Originally posted by Airen Wolf
LOL YOU write like I do then. You write what ever other writer says is the hard part first. I will even write dialogue and descriptions on sticky notes and paste them to a large piece of cardboard so i can move them around or remove them as they are ... more
Dialog is actually what comes easily to me. It's the other crap I struggle with.
03/11/2013
Contributor: Airen Wolf Airen Wolf
(EF Review Program Mentor)
Quote:
Originally posted by SneakersAndPearls
Dialog is actually what comes easily to me. It's the other crap I struggle with.
I spend a lot of time listening to how people speak, what words they stress and how they actually express with body language what words can't say. I find that this lends realism and takes that stilted feel out of the writing. I wrote an eden lit lesson on this subject this week: Setting the Scene It really helps to do the exercises especially when you feel creatively blocked.
03/11/2013
Contributor: Rayne Millaray Rayne Millaray
Quote:
Originally posted by Airen Wolf
Welcome to the March 2013 Meeting of the Eden Lit club!

This meeting we'll be taking our busting creative block just a bit farther and discuss how to actually get started. We all know how daunting it can be to sit at a blank piece of paper ... more
Hey y'all! Sorry I'm late. Lost track of time. :/

See, I don't do that! Character building and such. My stories almost always start with a conversation. I learn who the characters are as they speak.

Getting started, for me, usually looks more like mental masturbation. Just random babble till I settle into a groove and have that "light bulb" moment.
03/11/2013
Contributor: SneakersAndPearls SneakersAndPearls
Quote:
Originally posted by Airen Wolf
I spend a lot of time listening to how people speak, what words they stress and how they actually express with body language what words can't say. I find that this lends realism and takes that stilted feel out of the writing. I wrote an eden lit ... more
Neat! Thanks for the link.
03/11/2013