It’s very easy sometimes to fall into predictable patterns with our writing. We start something new initiated, perhaps, from a free-writing exercise and we just see where the pen leads us. This is, of course, what free-writing is all about: writing without inhibition, self-censorship or concern for trifling first-draft issues such as layout and spelling, which can be dealt with later. Our aim with a free-write is to get words on the page. Making them good words can come later.
But also think about what you like to read. Most of us, whether consciously or not, start to build expectations about where a story is going from the very first page, the first paragraph or even the first line. This happens while you are writing too – you start to speculate, and the most obvious ideas tend to come first. When you read, do you like to be able to predict the course of a story, or do you like to be taken somewhere unexpected? For most of us, it’s the latter, so maybe sometimes first thoughts aren’t best.
