How False are False Starts?
We have all found ourselves staring at a blank page, beginning, beginning again, maybe even beginning once more. Sometimes we write the same line over and over. Sometimes we write ‘nonsense.’ I hear writers in my workshop name these beginnings as ‘false starts,’ as if they are throwaway lines that they dismiss as wasted or ‘going nowhere.’ Or they believe that this writing is in the way of what they really want to say. If we are privileged to hear these writings, it’s often evident that there is nothing false about them. The beginning writing is saying something. One possibility is that this first writing is like toes seeking the bottom of a lake, touching down and seeking traction. It guides the writer to deeper waters. It is needed for getting in touch with what is true for the writer in that moment. The second possibility is that this first writing is more emotional content that elbows its way forward, needing to have its say before the sequential and more standard way of creating a scene can be formed. Often writers call this ‘rambling.’ This kind of visceral expression is powerful and raw, and can startle a writer. The surprise and the direct feeling/words connection can make a writer disbelieve in its validity. But both types of ‘false starts’ are anything but false. They are essential avenues of getting us into our expressive selves, and they as necessary and honest as the steps up to your front door.
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