Ready, set, list!

(not finishes today; just starts)

Today, speed-write as many ledes/opening paragraphs of as many stories/books/articles/chapters/whatevers as you possibly can. Don’t worry about writing more than that, just write the start then move to the next story/book/article/chapter. And, keep this file or page handy— anytime you have a glimmer of an idea, write the start of it.

Two ways this helps you:

One: you never have to feel like you don’t have anything to write about. Just visit the list and pick one. Boom. Done.

Two: often, when ideas come to us, we jot them down with placeholder words like “write about the governor’s meeting” or “story about the notebook” or whatever. And then it languishes there until.. until when? Until you “feel” like starting it? Until you “have time”…? (Spoiler: you probably won’t for either of those things.) But, to give yourself a start, you have also given yourself a little mental head-start that now it’s “underway” and now all you gotta do to finish it. It’s subtle but it’s a thing, I promise.

Anyway, let’s get to it. How many can you write? 10? 25? 50? Let’s see. Go!