Getting started when you’re at a standstill
( By Ruth O’Looney, TV Producer/Director)

It’s not always easy starting to write, whether it’s an article, a proposal or any sort of document. Many of us, when we have an assignment know broadly what we want to say, we may have already worked out the main points of our argument and have that killer line for the conclusion.
But it’s the actual act of putting pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) that is often the hardest part. How do you start? What will you say and how will you say it? It’s often the most frustrating part of any writing assignment. You sit and stare at a blank document on your monitor and despite your best efforts you just don’t know where to begin.
For several years, I wrote a voiceover script for a television programme. The programme was driven by a narrator whose job it was to explain what was happening in the programme for the viewers – who were the participants, what was their dilemma etc. The first line of the voiceover changed every week and it was always the hardest line to write. It had to be catchy, erudite, witty (if possible) and, most importantly, capable of being delivered in ten seconds. Try as I might, I could never write that line straight off. I would sit and stare at the screen waiting for catchy, erudite and witty inspiration and it just never came. I spent more time trying to figure out why I found this line so hard than it took to make the programme. Eventually, I realised that my problem was that I just found it hard to start writing. This line was at the beginning of the script so it was the first thing I used to try and write. Like trying to start a car on a winter’s morning, my writing brain seemed to find it tough to get going from a cold beginning. Not much of a light bulb moment I’ll grant you but it was (ironically) a start.
In an effort to resolve my starting problem, I looked at the other parts of the script. There were some elements that were very straightforward – rules had to be explained to the viewers and scores delivered at the end of the show. This was all straightforward information that could be written easily so I used these elements to get going. If a line of voiceover was proving difficult to write, I moved on to another piece and finished that before returning to the more difficult part. I soon realised that by working on the relatively easy parts of the script first, I could get my head around the task at hand without spending hours staring at a blank page. By time I had returned to the beginning my writing brain had warmed up and I was ready for the start.

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