One Simple Step--What to do when you want to write and you don't have any ideas.

This is an updated version of a post from my blog at martintiller.com

I had dinner with some friends tonight. 

One friend, like many teachers, has always wanted to write a children’s book.  But she says she doesn't have any ideas.

There is the mistake.

Most people who want to write but don’t, make a fundamental mistake.  They wait for the idea first and then they begin writing.  This is wrong.

WRONG!

Louis L’more said: 

 “Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on.” 

In other words, come to the paper (or computer) first, then you write.  Then come the bad ideas, and then later come the good ideas.  

But it is, always, first write.

I've written about this before.  But it is such a myth, that ideas come first, that I keep writing about it.

When I decided to try and write a children’s book, I had no idea where to start.  So I did what any good teacher does.  I gave a writing prompt.  When writing Kevin and the Seven Lions I sat down at the computer and wrote several sentences as writing prompts.

Kevin slept in class.

That was the sentence that started the Kevin series.  That sentence didn’t make the final book, but it started the whole thing.

Here are some of the other sentences I wrote

Bobby rounded third and slid into home plate.

Sally was a shark.

I am still thinking about the shark book. 

The baseball reference above I don’t think has anything to do with Baseball and Aliens.  But just writing down words.  ANY WORDS.  Got the ball rolling.

When you are completely stuck my recommendation, just write a sentence.  Any sentence.  

Put your fingers on the keyboard and let the fingers talk.

Seriously any sentence, and see what happens.

If you are stuck.  Write your sentence.

Trust me on this.

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