“I’ve always wanted to write a book,” a friend told me recently. “But where do you start?”

I hear this all the time. Many people have ideas for a book—yet most never get written, because getting started is one of the hardest things to do, ever.

I don’t have all the answers, but one strength I do have is that I’m not afraid to start. Not anymore.

I used to be. In 2013, I moved from a crowded Brooklyn loft to a rural North Carolina island to write my first novel. When I arrived, I spent days tacking paper to my walls and “getting organized.”

I was excited about the story. But the idea of actually writing it felt… like a room without a door. How do I get in?

My grandmother Mimi, who wrote to me every day for years, once sent me a card that said:

Begin anywhere. —John Cage

On my fourth day on the island, I all but held my breath and began to type.

What I wrote wasn’t even a scene, nor was it the beginning of the novel. But that didn’t matter. It got me started.

After that, it was easier to keep going—though every morning I had to begin again. Each was a softer beginning, but a beginning nonetheless. And beginnings are scary.

So begin anywhere. Write the ending first. Write the first thing that comes to mind. Write the word “the” and see what word comes next. Something will.

📖

Begin, anywhere.

There is no right place or right way to begin.

If you’re waiting for that, you might never start.

Begin anywhere in the story.

Begin anywhere in the world.

Even if you’re on vacation or you’re not sure if you’re ready or right now doesn’t
feel momentous enough.

You don’t have to be somewhere different—or be someone different—to write.

Exactly where, who, and how you are is just fine.

Today, I don’t relocate every time I start a new project. I don’t have to. Starting a book can happen any old place—at my kitchen counter in Lima, in the airport, on a plane over Mexico, on my sister’s porch in Atlanta, at my best friend’s house in Denver.

Beginnings can happen everywhere.

If you could use some structure, guidance, and support as you write your memoir or novel, reach out to me below.

I’ll email you to set up a time when we can talk about what you may need to bring your story to life.