I used to get stuck on the first line of a story until I tried a trick from a 1998 writing book.

3 comments

3 Comments

Oh man, that blank page is the worst. Totally get that. I read something similar once about just writing a terrible first sentence on purpose, like "It was a dark and stormy night and the guy was sad," just to get past the block. Honestly, it works way better than staring at the cursor. That little permission to be bad at the start gets everything moving.

wesleyjohnson3mo ago

My writing teacher called that a vomit draft.

shane_ross26d ago

That "vomit draft" thing is spot on. I've done the same with writing a terrible opening line just to get moving, and it honestly works like a charm. Once that first awful sentence is out there, the rest just kind of flows.