The First Paragraph

The First Paragraph

I started writing my first paragraph last night. Before I got stuck in thought about it. Quite deep thoughts as well. I asked myself what a reader would expect from the first sentence, paragraph, page, and chapter of a book and related that to the start of one of my videos. People need a reason to be interested and an excuse to stay otherwise they're gone before the going gets good.

With this in mind I found myself toying with each sentence, letting it linger in my head before tapping away. It got to a point where I think it was for my benefit more than anyone else's to be honest with you. I had fun with it. Different ways of describing the lay of the land, or a different approach at a character introduction. Whether to start with a memory, or a dream, or an action scene. What I found crazy is that I wasn't satisfied with any of it; I hungered more. My brain was rattling ahead of my fingers developing a character or how a plot could unfold, so fast that it left me in a muddle for that first section.

I'm not quite sure if this is a good or a bad thing. I wasn't at any point frustrated with what was happening, as I said I was enjoying myself, but I didn't get anything on paper. It was all just a repeat or a minor adjustment of the same situation. That must matter though, right? If I'm not somewhat enveloped in what I'm writing how can I expect anyone else to be?

So what did I achieve from the other night? Quite a lot actually. I did get past that first little section and I felt it was a rather good one. I think I've come up with a few strong characters that I can build on over time and write strongly about. There's definitely still a very long way to go however.

I've got the write word processor on my laptop now so I should be able to do some proper writing, instead of just a wordpad document.

I don't need to see the whole staircase in order to take the first step.

-Rue.