Writing Craft

How to Start Writing a Book When You Think You Cannot

By El Mehdi Said

For most of my life, I believed writing was a door closed to me. Dyslexia made every sentence feel like a small defeat. I had stories inside me — decades of them — but I was certain they would never reach a reader. If you are standing where I stood, this article is for you.

Do not begin with a genre, a market, or a three-act structure. Begin with one true thing you know — a feeling, a memory, a question that will not leave you alone. My novel The Width of One Wall began with stories I heard as a child about Jewish and Muslim neighbours in old Fez, sharing walls and fountains and grief. That single image carried an entire book.

Write that true thing down in the plainest language you have. Do not edit. Do not judge. The first job is only to get it out of your body and onto the page.