007 · Writing Prompts for Getting Started
Begin, learn, teach...
Though every step toward a desire counts, the first step is special. A first step, by definition, involves heading somewhere different. And no matter what we’re writing, writing it has the potential to change things. So experiencing a degree of performance pressure, getting stuck in the pause before initiating movement and change, is understandable. Beginnings are momentous.
Creativity is a type of learning process where the teacher and pupil are located in the same individual. —(often attributed to) Arthur Koestler
A trick about beginnings is to be a beginner. Rather than beginning to write from a place of already knowing everything you’ll be writing about, try beginning to write as a student, learning as you go.
When entered willingly, the space where learning and teaching coexist in the same person has the power to pull creativity out of thin air. Begin simply, by noticing what you don’t know (“I don’t know how to organize my thoughts” or “I don’t know where this will lead”), then experiment, trying out different things to teach yourself what you need to know. Learn as you go. Teach as you learn.
Begin, learn, teach. Begin, learn, teach. Begin, learn, teach.
This method of creating has been around since Grog burnt himself then taught Glug how to make a fire without burning himself. It’s been around for so long because it works.
Here are a few prompts to help with beginning to write and create as a student:
What sparked your desire to write this?
Why do you care about this?
Who do you want to care about this?
What questions are you beginning with?
List three things you know about this.
List three things you don’t know about this but wish you did.
What evidence is there that you know something about this?
If you assume wisdom comes through you, what does it want to say?
If a bright-eyed, eager student sat beside you, what would you want to tell them?
How have you learned about this topic you want to write about?
What do you hope will change because of your writing?
What do you imagine the last step, finishing, will feel like?
Previously published on Grace Kerina website in 2022.
About the Photo | Drumbeg Path
Drumbeg Provincial Park, Gabriola Island, Canada, 2010
I have approximately a gazillion1 photos of paths on Gabriola Island. Enticing paths are everywhere on the sparsely populated island, the weather is conducive to spending a lot of time outdoors2 if, like me, you crave the calming effects of natural environments, and the entire island is dreamily gorgeous in pretty much all seasons.
How could you resist getting started on a journey (write / create) when you find a path (question / topic / angle) that makes you curious enough to want to learn more? Keep searching—even into weird areas, backlands, and the edges of known worlds. You’ll know when you connect. Your steps will speed up. Changing seasons, rain, fading daylight won’t matter.
More than eleventy-thousand Americans suffer from math innumeracy.