creative writing - Where do I start?

Let’s say I’ve created an outline, have explored my characters properly, and have properly broken down each scene to an appropriate level of detail. I know the story, I know the pacing, and I know where I’m gonna got add conflict and emotion.

I’m ready to put pen to page.

Where should I start writing?

Should I start with the opening scene to explore the story as I go along? Should I start with the end so I know exactly where I’m trying to get to? Or should I start somewhere in the middle so I can explore a little further before plunging into the big chapters?

Answer

As everybody else says, all options are viable. You can start from a scene that's bright in your mind and write to it and from it, you can throw scenes on paper and then connect them, you can start from the end and then write towards it. For every writer, a different approach works. So, listen to advice, but above all be guided by your own instinct, by what feels write to you.

For myself, I start at the beginning. Here's why.

I am not a complete discovery writer: I sort of know where I'm going. But I'm not a neat plotter and outliner either. I plan some waypoints along the road to the end, and then I let the story sort of take me there. As I go, I discover that scenes I've sort of planned happen in a different way than what I originally had in mind, because the original plan no longer works with the way the characters have developed. Other scenes move within the story, and yet others stay on the cutting board of my mind, not because they don't work, but because they slow the overall pacing. And yet others show up unbidden, born from the story's demand. I sort of go gleaning for my story. And that's not something that I could do from the middle.

Another reason to work from the beginning, for me, is pacing. As I write, I can see where the story is getting too slow, and I need to chop a scene to speed things up. Or I can see that it's moving too fast, I need to slow down, develop some aspect a bit more for it to make sense later in the tale. You can take care of those issues in a different stage of the writing process, but this is what works for me.

However, @Secespitus is right - don't get bogged down writing the perfect start. In fact, don't get bogged down writing the perfect anything. Write a version, a draft, and move on. Come back and edit it later. Compare this to the work of a painter: if one sets out to draw a tree, it makes little sense to spend hours on the shading of a single leaf, when the bole and the branches are not yet so much as hinted yet.