Freewriting (隨筆)

#2015-0415 (11:35 p.m. - 11:55 p.m.)

It's going to be 12:00 midnight. I have only 20 minutes or so for my freewriting. But I don't want to spend these final minutes in writing freely. Instead, I'll take some notes that I think are very useful for my creative writing. -- Oh, yes, I've just received an email from "Creative Writing Now," which contains the key points as follows:

1) Remember, you don't have to write your story in order. You don't have to write a perfect beginning before you can move on to the rest of the story.

In fact, it's often easier to come up with a great story beginning AFTER you've written the rest of your rough draft, because you'll have a clearer idea of what the story's really about and where the beginning will lead.

So don't let the problem of the story beginning hold you back. You can dive right into your story and worry about the beginning later.

2) You don't have to start a story with an "introduction." Often, the best story beginnings take the reader right into the middle of the scene.

The reader doesn't need to have all of the background information ahead of time. In fact, if you start the story by filling in background information, the reader's likely to lose interest.

Provide enough clues to orient your readers so that they can follow what's happening. It's okay if there are some unanswered questions in the reader's mind for a while. That can provoke curiosity and increase the reader's interest.

Here are some other strategies for capturing the reader's interest:

-- Start with a problem or conflict. This could be a small problem; for example, your character can't find her car keys. Even a small problem gives your character something to do and crates activity and momentum right away.

-- Start with dialogue. Dialogue draws readers into the scene. It also helps you, the writer, resist the temptation to summarize or explain the story instead of "showing" it in real time.

-- Start at an exciting point in the story. The police show up on your character's doorstep. Or your character's husband confesses that he has another wife and family living across the city. Or your character lies rigid with terror in bed as the closet door slowly opens....

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