A "tiny start" for hard writing days

Some days, the hardest part of writing is the very first word, especially if you're dealing with grief or heavy, difficult things in your life.

I made a small tool to give us a boost on those tough days. Tap the button below and it'll hand you one tiny, doable start - no story, no chapter, not even a paragraph required. Begin as small as you like.

Why starting small can help

When you stare at a blank page, your brain sees the whole mountain - the whole story, the whole chapter - and freezes (mine does it all the time these days!). A tiny start shrinks that mountain to a single step. You're not writing a book today, you're writing one sentence about something small. And once that sentence exists, the next one comes a little easier.

A few tiny starts to try

If you'd rather not tap the button, here are a few to get you going:

• Write the title of a book that doesn't exist yet.

• List three foods that should never touch on a plate.

• Describe what Monday would be like if it were a person.

• Write one sentence where something ordinary turns out to be secretly magic.

None of them is a story, but they're all tiny entry points so you can start climbing that mountain when the time is right.

And on the really hard days

Some days even a tiny start is too much, and that's okay. The button has a "Too much today?" option for exactly those moments. Tap it for a a small reminder that resting, reading, and looking after yourself count too. If the words have stopped because life got heavy, read When the Words Won't Come first; this tool is its companion. And when you're ready for more ideas, Sneaky Writing Tricks Nobody Tells You has eight of them.