How to begin crafting your story

So many people tell me “I’ve wanted to write a book, but I’m just not sure where to start. I have ideas but I don’t really know what to do with them.”

Or, another popular one is “I’ve been trying to write a book for years but I’ve just never finished it. I’m not sure if it’s any good.” It greatly hurts and disappoints me when I hear this because you never know if this person’s story could be the next Narnia, or another story equally iconic. No one expected the Duffer brothers to come out with Stranger Things when they did, or for Stan Lee (God rest his soul) to make a hero named off of an arachnid in the 60’s, but most of the world is glad both things happened. If they’d stopped in the idea stage and just said it wasn’t worth the trouble or they weren’t sure how to go about it, you can imagine how different things would be.

 There are a thousand things to consider when writing a book, but there is a fairly simple and even enjoyable way to go about starting it. If your thoughts and methods are focused, and you have a clear cut means of beginning to begin a book you’ll find it much easier to actually script, write, and finish a book that you and others will genuinely enjoy and even love.  We’ll go through simple step process that will work for you whether you have a vague idea in the wind or a detailed image in your mind.

 Have a reason to write it: Think about when you share stories with people, they’re usually the interesting, funny; romantic or ridiculous things that happen to us because we know those are the most intriguing. If something completely unmoving and ordinary happened in your day, you probably wouldn’t remember it let alone share it. The same concept applies to writing. If you’re going to tell a story, you need to know what makes it special, miraculous, funny, tragic, etc., If I ask you, “why did you write this?” you as the creator should know the answer.

Did you write your story to inspire, entertain or strengthen readers?

What personal experience or emotion made you choose the characters and setting that you did in your book?

Was there a tragic or profound revelation that you’ve had and wish to share with the world?

Did you watch an amazing film that inspired you to create a similar story that would be its equal?

Did you read a book that fell massively short and made you want to craft your own masterpiece that bears none of the same flaws?

What about your story (even if it’s barely in the idea stage) do you love enough to commit hundreds of hours to writing it?

What do you want your work to say to readers and why?

The list of questions goes on and on. Joss Whedon created Buffy the Vampire slayer because in horror films the attractive blonde was always the eye candy who got killed first. Whedon wanted to write a story where attractive blonde is the one who kills the monsters instead of being the swooning bystander. Jane Austen wrote romantic satire to criticize the culture and roles of women in her day. If you have a story, what is it that makes you want to craft it onto the page for the world? Knowing this will not only help you stay committed to your story, but it will help you find and polish the golden moments in it if you know what made it worthwhile in the first place.

 Write it all down: I know this sounds obvious but trust me, many people don’t do it. If you have an image, an idea, or even a snap shot in your mind of a scene that you want to see happen but have no idea where it would go—write it down. Catalogue it, record it on your phone or type it into your Notes app if you’re not a pen and paper kind of person. Stephanie Meyer started Twilight because of a dream she had with a boy and a girl talking in the forest. If you don’t grab those ideas or images when they come to you a great scene or a pivotal moment in your story could be lost. Even if you jot down scene where a girl and a guy are arguing over some kind of betrayal, it helps to put it somewhere so you can keep adding to the idea later. Details of how each character looks, what their relationship is, and what started the argument will come. But it’s key that you mark every note or idea you have so that you’re not running blind. Taylor Swift’s song writing process is like that. She has a line or a refrain and she marks it down allowing the rest of the lyrics and music to be tied in after as she continues to get more inspiration.

Create Character Bios: Character biographies are something I would highly encourage. Think about building a machine. You need tools and it would be very helpful to know what they do and how to use them. I feel the same way about knowing your characters before you begin crafting a book. Now granted, you won’t completely know your characters till you’ve written most of the book and you see how they react in certain scenarios, but it helps a TON if you have a basic understanding of who they are, and where they’re coming from before you start writing. If I’m going to write a protagonist and put them on a journey, I need to know how they and all the characters around them will behave in the setting I’m creating for them. That’s an entire study in itself, but when crafting character bios I think mostly of these specific questions:

What does the character believe?

What has happened in the characters life to create that belief? In other words, what kind of background are they coming from and how has that affected the way they view the world?

What purpose do they serve in the book? Are they a friend of the main character, an antagonist, an anti-hero, love interest, and how are they relevant to the plot?

All of this can change and progress as your writing, but it helps you not into your plotting stage blind if you have an idea of who serves what purpose in the book.

Create an Outline: This might seem like jumping the gun so early into your crafting stage, but it’s really not. After you’ve thought about why you want to make your story, and you’ve written down all your ideas (specific scenes, character ideas, names and motivations etc.), now you can begin crafting a plot. It doesn’t have to give every detail, but you should think about what the basic journey of the protagonist is, what stands in their way, and how the other characters contribute to different plot devices in the story. When you’ve thought about the kind of journey you want your protagonist on, then you can fill in scenes that you want to see them have on the way. As you craft their scenes, you can fill in where you want your other character appearances to be and how they help in moving the plot along.

If you aren’t ready to make a detailed outline, you can begin with something as simple as a blow by blow of what needs to happen. For example, an outline for The Lightning Thief could be as simple as:

1.      Percy Jackson gets kicked out of his school after a monster attacks him; nobody believes what he saw after he tells them.

2.      His family life is rough and he has an abusive stepdad, he’s taking care of his mom when he and his friend end up running away to camp half blood, they fight a monster at the gate.

3.      Percy loses his mother at the gate. At the camp Percy meets a girl named Annabeth, he finds out that he’s a demi-god and they play a camp game capture the flag where he finds out about his powers. 

A lot happens in between these events. But if you aren’t ready to fill in all the details and dialogue yet, it’s better to at least have a rough game plan of the direction you want the plot to go. Tons more could be said on all of these points, but this is the basic idea of how to get started once you’ve chosen the novel you plan to build. Now, you’re ready to start crafting your story.

Have any questions about how or where to start your story? Leave it in the comment section and we can brainstorm together :)

-Jubilee