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I have never written anything but would like to write at least one story. I have tied to start a least 7 good ideas with various beginnings but always change a few details. My mind is willing but the body of my stories are held back for the next step. All stories have at least 3000 words and I have not even begun to write the story.The longest is 17000 words and still I have not even started on the body of the story. I can never decide how to plan my next step to get to the end. The ideas are there but as soon as as I have them a few weeks later someone else has already written it, so decide not to go any feather . Any suggestions on how to lay out a good story to write? so that I can at least do one.
I need coaching.
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Writing a story
Seems like you have the idea, but not how to structure it. There are steps to handle the lack of structure. You can write out the whole summary first, then from there, map out the outline of the story. Once you've done that, it's time to elaborate. After you elaborate, you can separate the plot points into chapters that you loosely follow. Sometimes, some chapters may be longer than expected and you end up having to split them into parts, but that's fine, even published authors make mistakes like that. For Felicia's Second Life, I first thought up a summary, then separate it into arcs, then from each arc, I separate the plot points. These plot points are what I follow when writing the chapters. But this only works for very big projects. Felicia's Second Life is aimed to be 300+ chapters.
In my case, I generally know only the beginning and the end of my stories. Everything in between has to be thought up in my sleep. Sometimes, a story will completely stall because you have no idea how the story will go after a certain chapter. If that's so, just put them aside until you find a way to continue it. It's fine, your readers may ask you when you're going to continue, but Bigcloset audience is pretty gentle, so you won't be abused for not continuing a story.
Sometimes, you end up writing a story similar to what someone else had already written. If so, that's fine too. Stories may start similar, but they eventually diverge enough to have their separate distinct identity. My Half-Lilin stories were accused of being copies of Maggie Finson's Heaven & Hell, despite the similarity being only succubus and Lilith. Felicia's Second Life was also compared to Penny Lane's Somewhere Else Entirely, which I don't have a problem with, since I like SEE, but similar does not mean the same.
If you don't know the body of the story, it most usually means you haven't thought up a summary of it. Just make a summary and a few additional details and everything will go smoothly. 17,000 words is a lot, though. Maybe you'd want to post them anyway? I would offer to read it and point out what you can work with, but unfortunately I don't have much time to work on someone else's work, since I'm preparing for publication and due to my day job.
If you need some help with directions of the story or lacking ideas to proceed, then shoot me a mail. My imagination is boundless.
What stories did you find to be similar to yours?
I had the same problem at first.
I'd recommend writing short stories first, aim for 4 to 10K words. This forces you to be concise, and get everything in place within a limited time. So you start on the body within the first page and have to add in characterization and other things at the same time. Great practice.
As you get better you can expand it.
Try Freewriting
Try freewriting for a certain amount of time -- say ten minutes a day. When you're able to do that, you can up the length of time, up the number of times every day, or other changes. If you find yourself getting addicted to writing -- well, I'd say that's a positive outcome.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)
If you...
know how your story starts and ends, you might try a plotting technique called Backplotting.
This is where you start at the end of your story and do plot points backwards until you get to your beginning. Ask yourself what has to happen to set up the end of my story, and keep going backwards from there. It really helps if you're familiar with act structures. If available, see if you can find a copy of Anson Dibell's Plot. It's an excellent book on plots and plotting.
~And so it goes...
endings
Would you start a journey without knowing your destination? You have to picture your goal, otherwise you can't plot a course that will get you there.
There's a scene in the JK Rowling movie where she's showing her sister the work she's done, trying to convince her that she is a writer. She tells her sister the piece she's reading is the final chapter. The sister asks, "Of the book?" JK answers, "No, of the seventh book." She had a goal (that final scene) she knew would take seven books to journey to.
Having a great idea is only part of the battle. A story is more than an idea. It's a telling of how that idea came to be, the conflicts that arise because of it, and how they're resolved. It's a telling of how the various characters handled all of those situations,and how they interacted with each other while doing so. The best stories are never about the idea - they're about how the characters dealt with the idea.
A great story, like a great joke, depends on the delivery. The funniest joke, if told in a flat voice, with no timing or inflection, will fall flat. Timing is important or events will not have proper impact. Characters must have their own "voice" if they're to be beliveable. Dialogue must be realistic and not contrived.
Lastly, spelling and grammer are important. Even a well-told tale is hard to read if filled with such errors.
While there are many ways to write, I would suggest doing a rough draft first. This means just getting the whole thing out, without regard for how well it's done. Then go back over it and start editing. This is the hard part. Concentrate on timing, characterization, and delivery first. Once you're happy with that, do a spelling/grammer cleanup pass. If that kind of thing is a weak point for you, ask some one to proof/edit it for you.
Learn from others. If you read a story that falls flat, try to figure out what they did wrong and avoid that. If you read something that really comes alive, determine how the author did that and use it.
These are things that have worked for me. Perhaps they will be of use to you.
- vessica b
All good advice, but ...
All of the advice given here is good. Except that it works for some people and not for others.
I tend to start a story with a situation and characters and go from there. I don't think about what I write, I try to feel about what I write and only write what feels right. Scenes kind of pop into my head, usually but not always ones that follow from the previous scene. I'm often surprised by what I've written when I re-read it. I don't usually have a defined end point (The Pastor was an exception.)
But then, I've never aspired to be a Writer. I write as a way of getting in touch with myself or to work out something that's going on with me. I write stories that I want to read and that have meaning for me (even if I don't know what that meaning is.) One that I'm working on I started explicitly as therapy and I don't ever expect to show it to anybody except maybe my therapist.
My advice (for what advice is worth) is: don't write just to write. Find a story (a situation, a character, an event, even a feeling) that speaks to you, that you would want to write and read and read again and again, even if no one else in the universe will ever see it, and then put it into words that make you happy. Write for yourself.
Oh, and don't try to rush it. Like good wine, a good story benefits from being written down and left in the cellar for a while. When you bring it out and re-read it with fresh eyes, you'll see what you need to add or edit or rewrite or delete.
All of this is good, and your
All of this is good, and your caveat applies here as well: "Except that it works for some people and not for others."
The rest of your final paragraph is, I believe, completely correct. The first sentence, "Oh, and don't try to rush it", might be misinterpreted if one skims too much and reads only (say) the first sentence. While a draft of a story does benefit from being left alone for a few weeks once its written, I think that one should push oneself to actually write and get something down. I've noticed about myself that creativity needs to be exercised.
It's also okay to have an endpoint or not as one wishes. It's also okay to change your mind about the endpoint (if you have one), if the story doesn't want to go there.
-- Daphne Xu (a page of contents)