The corners

"Just write two crappy pages"

Tim Ferriss

You don’t start a jigsaw puzzle at the top.

You start with the corners. The easy bits.

In a jigsaw, the corners are the most distinguishable as the only pieces with two straight sides. In writing, the corners are “whatever is easiest for you to just start”.

It might be the structure, it might be the intro, it might be what later becomes paragraph 17. It doesn't really matter. You’re just looking for an easy win. The corners.

One of the corners for this guide was the Atomic Author principle. The analogy had already matured in my mind. I felt confident about it and that helped me to start. But what you read today is wildly different from where it started. I’ve had time to find and fill in more of the missing pieces.

When piecing together a jigsaw, the edges are next easiest, identifiable by their single, straight edge. Then, perhaps obvious details like a character or a vivid colour.

The same goes for writing. Just write whatever comes easiest, next. The more small pieces you put together, the more obvious the spaces in between become. Just because a reader starts at the beginning, doesn’t mean a writer has to. The picture will soon emerge.

But, before it’s truly clear, you’ll have to knit it together. And, if you’ve ever done a jigsaw and been left with 288 seemingly identical bits of sky, you’ll know where the hard work lies.

That’s OK though. Good writing is hard. But we can make it easier by starting with the corners, not the sky.

The advice you’ve just read may seem ridiculous.

Me: “Start with the easy bits. Not the hard bits.”
You: “No way!”

But, I’ve seen people sit there, forcing a title.

Or wondering, how they might make it memorable.

Unless those two things were part of your idea’s initial spark, then they’re sky and you’ll figure it out later. The seed of the idea is the easy bit, the corner, so just start with that and see where you go.

The picture will soon emerge.