Getting Your Ideas Onto Paper

By: Lindsey Perlman

Do you ever just stare blankly into space and then realize an hour later that you still haven’t made any progress? Have you ever sat down to write a story and ended up with a partially chewed pencil and a blank page? Because I have as well and you are definitely not alone on this one.  

Many of our ideas come from our own inspiration and things we have experienced in the past. The most common problem is being unable to transfer those ideas and inspirations on to the paper in front of you. Sometimes you have so many things going on in your mind that they get mixed up among one another. This is a very normal problem, not just for new writers but also for any writer. There are many ways in order to get past the point of “writer’s block” and getting those ideas down on paper.

The thing that I find helps me the most is before you sit down and write an entire story; write down any ideas that you have on a piece of paper, whether it is a word or a sentence. By the time you are ready to write a story, you have all of your ideas laid out and you can go from there; it is very difficult to remember and keep all of those ideas organized in your head. Also, never believe that once you start a project that you immediately have to finish it. The greatest stories and books were not written in one day, they take weeks, months and even years to be perfected.

One thing that I learned from taking creative writing this semester is that you do not have to start from the beginning of the story. It is often more efficient to start different sections at different times and then put them together and make them flow smoothly. Evidently when writing, there is no science to writing a good story. Do what works for you because everyone is different and everyone gets inspired and writes at his or her own pace.

With anything in life, we often try to put ourselves down when we don’t feel motivated right away. For example, every time I attempt to continue a painting that I had given up on, I start telling myself that I’m too tired and I will do it another day. This continues on and on until I just forget about it. The same thing happens when writing but once you push yourself and write a few things down, once you get on that “roll”, the ideas will start to come out. If they don’t immediately come and you are really just blocked, take a step back and then come back to it, but never give up on it.

People are often afraid to start something because they do not know how to make their point understandable to the reader, but if you just put it down and then try to work it out on paper, it will benefit you much more than trying to work out the kinks in your head. Editing your work and getting it edited and read by others is the most important thing to do. Never be afraid to get constructive criticism because those who take the time to help perfect your work will make you a better writer.