Writing when you don’t have a story

In the early stages of a writing project, some very important things may be missing.

There may exist a scene or two, or even characters, but no real story. In this case there may be enough fodder for free writing, but the exercise can be frustrating.

I reasoned, the other day, that this is not unlike pitching rocks up at the top of an abandoned building, all in an effort to hit one specific window, and just barely missing it. And trying again, and again, and again.

So then my writer friend John says to me, that to him, it’s like throwing rocks and taking out all the windows, one at a time.

I made a remark about the qualitative differences between the two methodologies and he said he liked his better.

^{(source: Geof Wilson | Some rights reserved)}

^{(featured image source: Andy Armstrong | Some rights reserved)}