For a writer, there is nothing more terrifying than a blank page.

It’s a cliche, but that’s because it’s true. It’s scary to start a new project with just the spark of an idea and no clue where you’re going with it. But the blank page must be conquered to see your idea come to life and to flourish as a writer.

So how does one do this? How does one take a spark of an idea and turn it into a first draft?

By writing furiously and unforgivingly. Let me explain.

Wrestle it to the page

When you have an idea, or even a spark of an idea, wrestle that thing to the page.

You don’t have to worry about structure or style at this point, and the ‘delete' button should be the last thing in your mind. You should have trailing sentences, three-word paragraphs that don’t mean anything or make sense, and barely a concept of continuity. All of that comes later.

If you write old school with a pen and paper then there should be ink everywhere. Don’t let the lines on the page restrict you. Cross words out, highlight stuff, aggressively circle things that stand out.

It should be absolute chaos.

It should be fun

I’m not sure if this is true but I have heard that J.K. Rowling had the idea for Harry Potter while traveling on a train. When I heard that story I imagined her taking out a notebook, wide-eyed with a smile on her face and letting her pen take control for a few hours. Imagine having the idea for Harry Potter. It would be incredible to work through and brainstorm.

These days I find a sort of sick pleasure in working through an idea or first draft of anything — short story, blog post, novel, you name it. There’s that dopamine rush of thinking “this is amazing! I’m going to be famous!” and then throwing all these words onto a page to tell a story or creating a world that wasn’t there before and then seeing it come to life as you go. Honestly, there’s no better feeling than using words to create an entire world full of emotion and story out of thin air. It’s the closest thing to real magic I’ve ever experienced.

A first draft should be exciting and fun. It should be a furious exploration of an idea or a concept. The last thing it should be is scary.

Don’t wait to write

I had an idea for a novel more than 18 months ago. I think it’s a great idea, and I have a pretty clear understanding of the outline and the steps I’d need to take to craft it. But I’m absolutely terrified of writing it now because I have such a clear understanding that I’m scared it won’t live up to my imagination.

The mistake I made was not wrestling it to the page immediately and writing through the idea furiously and unforgivingly. I let my brain create an idealized version of it and now it’s going to be a nightmare to actually get out of me.

The longer you wait the scarier it becomes. Don’t make the same mistake as me. If you have an idea get it out as soon as you can. Work through it, brainstorm it, read it out to your cat, throw it against the wall. Whatever you have to do to begin to shape it into something you can work with — do it.