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This will be the first of probably many entries that will directly deal with how to write a story. I'll explain certain ways of writing, certain ways of gaining ideas and creativity and I'll explain why I write the way I do and how. Right now I'm working on a story myself and as soon as the first chapter is done and posted I will make a sort of 'behind the scenes' editorial, for those who would like to know why I chose to write certain scenes the way I did. Until then, I'll start with a few basic things.
1. What to write about.
2. Working out the details.
3. Writing with or without a timeline.
So, let's start with the most important one of all for any writer. You can't write a story if you don't have a story to write about.
What to write about?
Before we do anything we need a subject to write about. You can't just sit down, start writing and see where it goes. Imagine reading a book that was written that way. You'd be subjected to the impulses of the writer, meaning that one second little jimmy is eating a sandwich and the next he's saving the world from invading aliens and... stuff. And that could work out, if you want to reach out to a public that likes aliens that can only be defeated by a sandwich, but that public isn't all that big, trust me.
You need a steady subject, a red wire which the entire story evolves around. Since it's going to be the foundation for your story you will have to put some serious thought into what
you would like to write and read about and when you think you found something think about who will be reading it and if they will like it too. You're always primarily writing for your own pleasure (unless of course you have a contract with a publisher in which case you probably wasting your time reading this) but if you intend to share it with an audience you might want to find something that your audience can also relate with if you want them to enjoy it just as much as you are. Of course you could also just be picky about the audience and post your story about animals on a website dedicated to animals, you can't really go wrong that way but it cuts up your audience quite a bit.
So what should a good subject have if you're going to write a story about it? One would be tempted to say that it should be interesting, but any topic is as interesting as you can make it out to be. With enough imagination and creativity you can even make a football an interesting topic so thats not what you should be bothered with. What you do need to ask yourself is if the subject you chose has enough 'juice' in it to write a decent amount of chapters with. You could choose to write a novel about a sandwich, but the juice in that subject would run dry after about 3 short chapters, unless you're writing a cook book. If you write a story about a war however you could write for hours on end and still have enough juice left over to start your car.
You might ask yourself;
"What exactly makes a subject 'juicy'?".
Well, good question. What makes a subject juicy depends largely on how much plot twists it allows you to make. War for example offers an unlimited amount of plot twists you can think off before you even start writing and more will offer them selfs as you write. A sandwich... well there might be a dilemma over whats
on the sandwich, but that's pretty much the only plot twist you'll find in a sandwich. Also, can you relate to the subject? Can other people relate to the subject? You could be writing for hours on end about how you once made a sandwich in the middle of a war while bombs were going off everywhere but I doubt anyone can relate to that on a serious level besides yourself.
Of course no one story needs to be confined to just one subject, but be careful you don't use to many subjects. You could of course write a story about the sandwich AND the war, but writing a story about a sandwich in a war on a burning ship where a presidential election is being held while the ship is being attacked by a giant wale which was shot by Moby Dick who is enjoying a cup of coffee on his own little boat... while eating a sandwich... might be overdoing it. Limit your story to one or two main subjects and then use secondary chapter by chapter subjects to keep the story interesting.
Last but not least, don't be afraid to ask for feedback on ideas. Post your idea about the sandwich in a war on a message board like Writing Forums or ask friends what they think about the idea or what could be better about the idea. They might come up with good ideas you overlooked, like adding ketchup to the sandwich for the war effect of the sandwich being shot or something.
Working out the details
So you have your subject, now you need to form it into something people will like to read about because this is not going to work:
"There once was this sandwich and he was in a war and he was shot and he got ketchup all over him."
Obviously that's also a very horrifying way of writing, but what I wanted to point out is that we don't know what kind of sandwich we are dealing with, why there is a war and why the sandwich got shot. Details are the most important thing in a story next to a subject because without them a story will be extremely boring. For the next example I'm going to leave Sandwich for a bit, don't worry, he'll be back.
Let's say the man who made the sandwich is called... Bob. You could write:
"This is Bob, Bob was making a sandwich when the sandwich was shot because of the war."
While this leaves room for the readers imagination (which is also something a story needs) this particular piece of text leaves a gap bigger then the Grand Canyon. So lets try adding a few details:
"This is Bob, a chef on board of a warship. He was making a sandwich in the middle of a horrific war which lasted for centuries because of the peoplez fighting the poople. Suddenly a peoplez stepped in the kitchen thing and shot the sandwich, laughing like a maniac."
This already leaves a lot less room for imagination. We now know what Bob is doing in the war and somewhat why there is a war in the first place. It also explains why sandwich got shot and that the people is obviously some kind of idiot, judging by the laughter. What we could do to make it even more detailed is describe what Bob is wearing while making the sandwich, what kind of sandwich he's making and a small description of what the kitchen looks like. After that we could describe how the peoplez entered the kitchen and what he is wearing. Then you could continue to describe what he uses to shoot the sandwich. A gun? A rifle? A bazooka? Maybe a crossbow?
Read over your text on a regular basis as you write. Since you know what the story is about it's easy for you to picture everything like it should be in your head, but someone else reading your story probably isn't a psychic so make sure that all crucial elements in your story are actually there for the reader to pick up. The description of the kitchen is not needed perce, it's something the reader could fill in for himself, the weapon used to shoot the sandwich however is something that absolutely needs to be there. Not because it might be a huge plot element, but mostly because the reader will stop reading and go:
"Well WTF did he get shot with?!!" if he can't find the cause in the first few lines following the shooting. This will in turn ruin the experience and the mood of the story so be sure not to skip any important things in your story.
Details are good, but to many details are bad. For instance we do not need to know Bob isn't wearing underwear while making the sandwich if it isn't a major plot element. And if it is I urge you to go back to the part where I told you how to pick a subject because you obviously didn't read it right.
Leaving room open for the readers imagination is something I personally like to do because it allows the reader to give certain parts of the story their own little label, making the story something they can relate with. For instance you can choose to describe the room in every single detail, including the carpet and the wallpaper. But you could also vaguely describe some items in the room, tell the reader what certain things look like and where they are and stop there. This allows the reader to fill in how the rest of the room looks and will in turn involve the reader without the reader being aware of it.
Also don't put details in the middle of an important scene. This for instance, won't work:
"Carl shouted at Bob for letting sandwich be shot.
'He got shot?! How bad is he?! Did he survive?! Is he still eatable?! Tell me now!!'
Bob looked at Carl and saw he was wearing a red shirt. The shirt had thin white stripes on it which made the entire thing look like a red chess board. Also he was wearing blue pants, which was just SO last year. Behind Carl was a desk, with a computer on it which was playing a nifty screensaver of a ball bouncing of the edges. The ball kept changing color, from blue to red, from red to yellow and from yellow back to blue. It facinated Bob too see this untill he was distracted by the bird in the cage behind the desk.... ...when he was done looking at the brown book case and reading every single title of every single book he looked at Carl.
'No, he's fine.'"
Here I put a F'ing long description in the middle of an important moment. And while it does kind of make Bob look like a total retard, it's not something you should ever do in an important scene. Either do it before or after the moment, but never in the middle.
Using a timeline or not?
By timeline I mean if you will describe the story being set in a specific year, like 1944. While this adds a certain level of detail to the story, it might come back and screw you over later, especially if your story is based on a non-fictional universe. AKA, if you are using the real world as a setting for your story. Unless you decide up front which events in history did and did not happen, you have a risk of it coming back and getting you when you have an idea. For example if you wanted to have a scene where Bob is relaxing on a beach in Normandy on June 6, 1944, then you'd have a problem because he'd be in the middle of a firefight.
While by itself this would not be a very big problem (since you can after all change the date a little), if you made earlier unchangeable references to D-day AND to the date and place Bob would be on the beach then you'd be in for a serious problem. Obviously you'd plan things a bit more careful in a real story and the above scenario is very unlikely to happen, but the basic principle of overlooking certain stuff and getting in trouble for it can. You reduce this risk by eliminating specific dates. Instead of naming the date, you could just use the time the story is set in as a point of reference to go back in time. Example:
Present time is the moment where Bob's ship is being attacked and the sandwich shot. While he's making the sandwich he's thinking about the time where he was relaxing on that beach in Normandy two years ago.
This implies that it happened quite a while ago and that a lot obviously happened in the meantime, but doesn't pinpoint the exact date and thus does not tie it to a specific event. This can help you avoid a lot of trouble in dealing with time paradoxes and stuff like that.
Well, so much for this part of my tips and tricks section. I'll follow it up with another article in the future, probably after I finish the first part of my story. I'm hoping it to be quite a long chapter so it might take some time. But those who are patient will be rewarded. In the mean time, I'd really appreciate it if someone could write a story about Bob and Sandwich. I've come to like them.
Havoc
Writing a story: How to Start
