Seeing Is Beginning

Is this weird?

Whenever I'm about to start writing something -- anything really, a scene, a poem, a greeting card, a blog post -- I need to "see" where the piece is going before I begin.

I'm not a plotter, but I do like to have some kind of plan. I like to be able to look a couple steps down the road. Like there's a little pathway laid out in front of me even if I don't know exactly where it's heading. If I'm writing a scene I need to know where the characters are, what they'll be talking about, and what they'll be doing or trying to do during that section. It might take another turn. The characters might surprise me in some lucky way, but I always start out with that initial little vision of what to do.

So right now I need a new beginning for my WIP and I can't see anything. Not even one inch in front of my face. I have no idea where to begin, what characters should be present, what they should say, or what they should be doing. I'm stuck. It's writer's block... or maybe writer's blindness. It's like there's a fog in my brain.

So, I've decided this. I'm going to just go into this thing blindfolded. I'm going to start a scene and just write. Then I'll start another scene in a totally different place with totally different characters and just write. Then I'll do that again and again and again until I have the beginning I need. The beginning I love.

I can't keep waiting for the beginning to become visible. I have to go find it. It's out there somewhere and if I grope around in the dark long enough, I might just feel it out.

What do you think? How do you do beginnings? How do you start a scene?

-- Lisa