How do I get started writing?

Over the past 16 years or so I, as many others, have been plagued with the question, "how do I start writing?" Well, I have read many, many other writers answers to this question. This is mine. I have to come up with an idea. Now, to others this may be easy, with me it is not always. I keep a list of several ideas, hobbies, new knowledge and things I want to research more when I have time. Keep this list current and handy gives me some topics when the mind becomes blank. I can not tell you how many times in the past I have sat with my word processing blank page open for hours.

I some times dream about what I want to write, sometimes when alone (rare with two young children and a husband around it is) I can think. I usually do this when I am on the deck with a cigarette and coffee in hand or in the bathroom. Believe it or not!

When I come up with a storyline or idea then I have to put it on paper. I try to write it when it is fresh. If I can not, then I try to grab a scrap paper to put down ideas on how I want it to go. This too can be difficult if it comes while I am working, I am a nursing assistant and I can get an idea when my resident is on the toilet. This comes quite interesting. I have been known to pull off my nonlatex gloves and jot ideas on my resident group list on the back. My nurses are used to seeing this, and I have been teased about it. Luckily, I work with several writers and they all do it.

When I can write it down, I write until I have no more at that time. This could be a paragraph or 10 pages. Whatever I have in my mind at that moment. Writing is always on my mind, I can not help it, it is a sickness, I guess.

What happens next you ask? Then I work on it and work on it slowly. It starts to consume my sleeping and waking moments until it is finished. This causes quite an irritant for my husband. He wants me to think about bills, his up and coming appointment or other things. I can not. I must finish this... this is something I HAVE to do. I spent almost 4 years not writing. This was because a severe upheaval in my personal life in which my mind was not able to push aside what had happened to me and my children. My mind was not quiet enough to concentrate on anything, however, now things have settled down - I have a driven need to write. I actually started to get depressed not writing. This is my way of dealing with everyday life. Now, I am not saying that every writer feels this way, nor do I think that every writer does everything the same way. It is an individual thing.

When I am writing a book, I dream the scenes in my book. I toy with character discriptions, character's throughts, and other things as minor as what kind of job they would have, what kind of food, and where they would live.

Sometimes, I meet someone and get an idea for a character. I write something around this character. Born from this experience of meeting an individual. Sometimes, when I can not write, I toy with different characters. I write how they would interact with each other if met, lets say, in a store's check out line.

My book, "The Coffeebean Cafe", was born on a napkin of the Keene Family Buffet, in Keene, NH. I was sitting at a booth and happened to notice a couple having a hush argument. I started writing an idea on a napkin. One year later, the book was published.

The starting writer has to realize that even sitting in the middle of a crowded mall or at break during work alone can be a wealth of experience to start a book, article or short story. I hope this helps a would be writer or a veteran writer in some way. I look forward to read any comments on this hub.