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[Strife26]

Does anyone have any advice for the begining of a creative writing project? Heck if I don't have more trouble writing that first paragraph than anything else in my life.

I think that it's because of my Speechy type training, where it's standard to start a speech with a quote or story which is related, but disparate (because the speech contains several points, none of which should be fully covered in the intro). Doesn't seem to work well for anything other than persuasive speaking though.

[Armok]

Write the awesome parts you are inspired about first. Then don't write anything else.

[Biag]

The first paragraph is easy; just accept that it might be terrible and exposition the hell out of it. You can always go back and edit it later, but right now, getting something that looks like words down is more important than brilliance.

[Strife26]

Thoughts on starting with the line:

The dark dreamscape stretch to infinity.

?

[RedKing]

Armok's right. Don't start with the beginning. Start with whatever scene you have most in your mind. Could be the climax, could be a poignant bit of character development, could be a long, winding exposition.

Just like with a jigsaw puzzle, you don't always start with the upper left corner, you start with whatever pieces you can match up easily to begin with, and work from there. Sometimes you wind up with unconnected finished patches and have to work out how they fit together. Same with writing.

[Lovechild]

I tend to start with the last line. I suddenly get a cool sentence in my head and think "HOLY SHIT THAT IS AN AWESOME LINE I MUST WRITE A STORY TO PUT IN FRONT OF IT."