Hello!

Reminder: I'd be super grateful if you'd take the Aliventures Spring Survey. I run this each year to help me figure out what topics to blog about (and what other resources would be most useful to you). The survey will stay open until the end of Friday 9th May.

A huge thanks to all those who've responded to the Aliventures survey so far. I'm already seeing some themes coming out of it ... and I wanted to share some thoughts about one of those today.

When asked about their biggest current challenge with writing, a number of people wrote things like:

• "Getting started"
• "I feel like it's so hard to get started"
• "Starting"

This is a very real challenge ... and I think it's one we sometimes don't talk about much as writers. If you're struggling to get started, please know that you're not alone (at least, other Aliventures readers are having the same problem).

I completely understand the fear of starting. I can still remember sitting in front of a blank screen with one of my early attempts at a novel, feeling exactly how I feel when I look out at a fresh blanket of snow – as soon as I take a step forward, I'll spoil it!

The problem with starting is that once you begin, any idea of perfection is gone. As one respondent to the survey put it so well, "I'm so excited about the concept, but as soon as I put pencil to paper I have to accept that it won’t be perfect."

Perhaps that's the point where you feel stuck too. You don't want to begin because it won't be perfect; you might even feel that you won't do justice to your concept or your characters.

Here's something I want you to know about "perfect" (and in fact, you already know this, as a reader).

Stories don't have to be perfect for us to cherish them.

I don't think I've ever read a "perfect" book. I've read dozens of books, though, that I've loved. Books that have made me cry. Books that have made me laugh. Books that have got me through a bad day (or a bad month). Books that I've remembered years or decades later. Books that I am now so thrilled to get to read to my children.

All of those books have had their flaws. Maybe some of the characters seemed a bit stereotyped. Maybe the author had some clunky sentences. Maybe there was a long descriptive bit where I started skimming. Maybe the pacing was a little off in the middle. Maybe some of the dialogue didn't quite ring true.

I loved those books all the same. I was glad that the authors wrote them and didn't hold them back from the world because they weren't "perfect".

And these books were finished, edited, published versions. First drafts can be raw and clumsy and gloriously imperfect ... in fact, I think it's very hard for them to be anything else.

If you're struggling to begin, don't let a fear of the imperfect hold you back. Make a mess. Get it wrong. Break every writing rule you've ever been told. If you're really not happy with what you end up with ... you can always start again. 

Perhaps you've been working on your story idea for weeks, months, or even years, waiting for the "right" moment to begin. If that's the case, it's you I'm talking to today: this is your time. Give it a try. You have nothing to lose ... and everything to gain.

Happy writing,

Ali

P.S. Don't forget the Aliventures survey: https://forms.gle/VD3SAk84FhvnUDSn6

Excuse the ugly link ... it's just a shortened Google Forms link.