Let's write a simple short story, step-by-step...

[lonewolfwanderer]

Hello Chroniclers...

What are the steps you take as a writer, to go from a basic story idea, to getting it published? How do you take that somewhat hazy image of the idea for a story, clear the mist so you can begin writing, and then get the first draft completed?

I won't lie... I'm struggling to understand the process of writing a story; of how to get a basic, hazy idea into a full fledged story, and it's hindering my "desire" to write the story.

So I would like to create this thread, with the idea that i work with the more experienced and successful writers to create a collaborated short story from scratch, baby step by baby step. The idea is so that I, and other new writers, can see first hand, and gain a basic understanding of the process of writing a story, in step-by-step format. How would you guide your child to a completed story if they asked you to help them? That is the basic idea.

Rights to the story (or stories) created here-in will be held by their respective authors and SFF Chronicles (please suggest a better phrase for this???)

So lets start with step 1:

What is the first step to writing a novel?

 

[goldhawk]

Rights to the story (or stories) created here-in will be held by their respective authors and SFF Chronicles (please suggest a better phrase for this???)

CC BY-SA-NC 3.0

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I get an idea and some characters. I write a few chapters. I realise I need more. I go back and fill in. I worldbuild to a small extent (if it's a not of this world story) and then I force myself to the end of a first draft, stopping to plot and review as I go.

I hone scene by scene and get beta feedback and incorporate that. I finish a second better draft. I usually beg another couple of betas. Then I hone again. And again. And get editorial feedback and hone again. And again.

In short, first drafts are cack. Keep pushing through, get feedback, polish. When it's something that makes sense, is polished, and betas like, send.

And, yes, I do tell my kids - particularly my teen, who can write her mam into a cocked hat already - to do all this.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

@goldhawk Thank you That is wayyyyy better.

@Jo Zebedee Sweet!! So,

Step 1:
Let's come up with a simple idea: Man discovers secret.

Is that simple enough? How would you write your ideas? Would you put a bit more detail into it, or keep it as a short phrase like the above?

Step 2:
Let's create some characters.

What is an initial process to create a character? Name, age and one main, defining characteristic? Or do you go into extensive detail with your characters? How do you create your characters?

 

[LittleStar]

My process is very similar to Jo's, though for most projects only goes to a far less advanced 1st draft point a of yet. I get an idea for setting, character of plot and build from there, search out the story hidden in one of them. I usually think about it for a good while before taking to paper, and io I can rush through the 'bones' draft in a month or two or more depending on commitments.

For me your step one is a little too vague and would need a hook to get me thinking about. I need something like:

Man discovers secret that space is an illusion, and is literally a blanket with pinholes pricked in it.


Step two:
who is this man? Astronomer is the obvious choice, amateur or professional who has just been inducted into the secret society that knows about this space lie.
How does he feel about the lie? This is where the thinking about it comes in, because here I begin to find the story behind the idea. What is he going to do about it? Presumably he doesn't like it and wants to expose it, this seems to create the biggest amount of story from the plot hook.

Everything else kind of fits around that stuff for me, name is whatever my fingers write (for drafts or until I think of. Abetted one) Characteristics, apart from being against the lie and morality that comes with that, usually are inserted without my knowing about it, one of those things that character seem to do by themsleves.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Characters are formed by the story, mostly.

Haunted canal boat - long term bargees, who all like a cuppa (new bargees like wine...)
Pregnant woman and her husband - somewhere close to 20s-mid thirties...

From there I write them and a voice usually mysteriously emerges. I have no control over that process. That's the alchemy. It's also a little worrying, where they all exist in my mind.

 

[The Judge]

For my SFs I'd had vague ideas of a -- usually peripatetic -- judge and her minder for years, in various different SF and fantasy guises, and they gradually coalesced into a specific world and relationship, and I had ideas for well over a hundred scenes for several different books, and from their past, present and future, before I ever wrote a single word.

For my renaissance Italy fantasy I read a review of a book about mapmaking and suddenly a first line burst into my mind -- "Father was a mapmaker. So they killed him" -- so then I had to try and figure out who he was, and why mapmaking was a perilous pursuit, and who the narrator was. I jotted down pages of ideas for characters and protagonists etc before I started writing, and did lots of reading around, but in the event many of those ideas were heavily revised, including setting and period, and things changed a lot more after I got about 30,000 words in and I began to see the story, though even then I had no idea how it would play out until I'd finished writing it.

For my current fantasy I had the idea of a scene between two characters, wrote it, and just carried on writing. No planning or anything.

So as you can see, my Step One is never exactly the same. What I've never done, though, not with these nor any other stories I've started over the years nor in any of my Challenge entries, is start with a concept like "Man discovers secret". That might be because I'm not an ideas person -- I'm more a practical person than a theorist -- but I also wonder if it's a more difficult place to start, because it's so open, and whether that might be part of the problem for you.

I also wonder if you're overthinking the issue. You've got your idea and panicking at the thought of having to write 100,000 words and freezing because you don't know how to do it. But that's like being asked out on a date and getting worked up because you don't know anything about marriage and raising children! Just go on the date and see where it leads, and take it as it comes. So just write, and write as much as possible, and perhaps don't even think about writing a complete novel at this point, just write scenes and odd bits and later put them together.

You've only taken part on a couple of the 75 Word Writing Challenges, I think, so another good way of getting on would be to look at doing more of them, and in particular doing the 300s. Have a look at the images in past 300 Worders and write stories for each of them. That will get you into the habit of thinking about beginnings, middles and ends, and how to show character. Then start scaling up -- instead of a 300 worder, turn the story into one of 1,000 words -- that means more background, more description, more characterisation. Then scale up again, with more characters, more depth, and perhaps the beginning of subplots.

Meanwhile, perhaps instead of a collaborative project, which can be difficult to pull off as people have conflicting views on how characters should develop or what should happen, why don't you start to write something here, and we can point out how we would do it at each stage?

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

@The Judge Your post is pretty much a sum-up of what is happening. I see this large amount that i know i must write, but i have no idea how to get there, which stresses me out to the point i don't enjoy the writing. The idea of this thread is to take myself step by step to creating a basic outline, then working to change my approach to reaching that large amount of words, so i can actually enjoy the process of writing and exploring my story.

Meanwhile, perhaps instead of a collaborative project, which can be difficult to pull off as people have conflicting views on how characters should develop or what should happen, why don't you start to write something here, and we can point out how we would do it at each stage?

That is exactly what i want to do... So okay, I'll begin it here then:

First step: Would be to have an idea, right?

My idea: Man discovers secret.

As has been mentioned, the Idea is a little too open ended, or vague. What would be a better way to write it so it is less vague, and why?

 

[Nick B]

To be honest I don't think there is a 'step by step' way to write, it would be formulaic and generaly formulaic stories are stagnant and boring.
Every writer will probably have a dozen stories about how their ideas came to life. Sometimes the character will be first, sometimes the conflict, sometimes the world, sometimes the antagonist. See what I mean? Literaly anything could be the trigger for a story.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

Specific - what man, what secret.

 

[lonewolfwanderer]

To be honest I don't think there is a 'step by step' way to write, it would be formulaic and generaly formulaic stories are stagnant and boring.
Every writer will probably have a dozen stories about how their ideas came to life. Sometimes the character will be first, sometimes the conflict, sometimes the world, sometimes the antagonist. See what I mean? Literaly anything could be the trigger for a story.

The idea is to get myself past the hurdle of "OH crap, i got 100k words to write, how am i going to get there" to "Hmm, i wonder what happens next in the story, let's write and find out." But for me to do that I still need a goal, a direction. And an Idea... Then see how others get that basic idea into a workable format, and try it myself. If it works, i'll keep it, if not, i'll keep looking until I find something that does work...

I have to go back to work, so will have to continue this later

 

[The Judge]

First step: Would be to have an idea, right?

My idea: Man discovers secret.

As has been mentioned, the Idea is a little too open ended, or vague. What would be a better way to write it so it is less vague, and why?

But you see, that isn't how I begin. To a question like that, all I can suggest is you ask yourself the obvious "What secret?" which means having to decide now what you are going to write about. But to me, that is backwards.

If you want to go down that route, then "What secret?" would be followed by "What kind of secrets are there?" So it could be a military or political secret, or a family secret, or a business secret, which means you have to choose which of those fits with what you want to write, then refine it further into eg what kind of family secret -- a murderer in the family, a bigamist, illegitimacy -- and your choice might then show the setting. An illegitimate baby in a 17th century aristocratic household is going to have a different dynamic to one in 20th century one-child-only China, or on a 21st centruy London sink estate, or a 25th century space colony with highly controlled reproduction. Alongside that you have to think about who holds the secret, and how does your man discover it and where does the problem arise. At each stage ask yourself who and why.

I really think, though, that you are hamstringing yourself here, by thinking you have to write long novels from one idea. I'd really recommend you leave that mindset behind, and instead just set out to write a shortish story on something that tickles your fancy and let it expand if it wants.

 

[HareBrain]

The idea is to get myself past the hurdle of "OH crap, i got 100k words to write, how am i going to get there" to "Hmm, i wonder what happens next in the story, let's write and find out." But for me to do that I still need a goal, a direction. And an Idea.

I don't think you do. You want those things, but you don't need them. If some madman were holding a gun to your head and demanding that you start a story or he'd kill you, you'd write something, yes?

Tom took the back off his broken TV. Holy crap, he thought as he beheld the horror that confronted him.

"Well?" says the gunman. "What horror? Keep going."

And you would, with something. Probably it would be rubbish, but it might spark a fresh idea, and maybe that's the one you'll use. You want your subconscious to answer your question, "What secret?" before you even set fingertip to key, but you're not giving it the stimulation and food it needs to get off its arse and work it out.

Writing should be play, especially at the beginning. If you need to know, at the outset, with your first project, that your idea justifies 100,000 words and months of your time, you make it terrifying work and you'll never get going. You have to throw your troops at the fortress and be prepared for a slaughter to have any hope of getting inside. Only an experienced general knows where the secret passages are. (I've probably used up my metaphor quota for the day now.)

 

[Venusian Broon]

Hi Lonewolf,

The problem with what your trying to set up, from my perspective, is what are we trying to write here?

If this was for the 75 word challenge, then the idea is fine and dandy. We would go off and ponder and play about with images and thoughts and then come back with a little story.

As a idea for a short or anything longer...no this doesn't work with me. It has to be specific and having 'intense' meaning to me. It could be an image of characters, a philosophical idea or something like TJ's sentence. Then I could expand on it.

Moving on from that, how I'd expand such an idea, unfortunately is tied into whatever the creative impulse was. (Basically I concur with Quellist.) It might be I need to flesh out a character, and in doing so a plot suggests itself. Or a number of plot points might coalesce into a story and suggest characters. Or a world might cause both of the above to spring into existence. Or an idea taken to its logical extreme might suggest an exciting and interesting story. Or....

Right I'll stop there. I could probably go on a long time with lots of different routes. Which are the best ones, you might ask. Well really it's down to the writer - you go with what works. And if you haven't got a clue then the thing to do is just go out and try lots of different ways and see what suits you. I think a good way to try out writing ideas and methods is to write short stores with very strict word counts - I'd suggest 2000 words as a limit for a complete story - just to see where you get.

Another thing to think about as part of this process is also asking why you are writing this in the first place - what are you trying to say to the reader? Saying to yourself 'Oh gawd I have to write 100k words' seems a bit nonsensical to me. I can write 100k words easy (and throw them up onto blogs and Chrons with gay abandon).

Oh and as for collaboration - I've never done it so it would be just as much of a learning experience for me as is for you - and it's not how I work so I don't know if I could really add anything of value!

*

To me the creative process works the same way that you grow copper sulphate crystals (c'mon didn't everyone do that as a kid?). You have a solution saturated with copper sulphate and you dip in a string with a seed crystal. The solution then feeds the growth of the seed and before you know it you have a huge lump of 'blue'. Same with me and big stories, you start with a seed that somehow you dip into the saturated (occasionally) fertile solution that is my mind and before I know it. whole lumps of plot, character and imaginary worlds just pop into existence. For me right now, there's just not much of a seed in the idea 'Man discovers secret' or nothing is wanting to rush to form a lovely 'story crystal', I'm afraid.

So my first piece of advice would be to always flood your mind with ideas, concepts, stories and other peoples work. Read fiction and non-fiction, the papers and the side of cornflake packets. Question as much as you can, think everything through. Empathise and try and see the world from other people's eyes. Have a good long look at the world around you and explore it with your mind. When your brain is brimming you'd be surprised at what seeds trigger marvellous ideas.

My RWiP (Re-write in Progress, with a few poor Betas at the mo') is a monster 180k and I don't mind saying came from me watching the lamentable The Butterfly Effect and Ashton Kutcher. I thought 'Surely I can write a better time travel SF story than that crap.' In a blink of the eye three quarters of the plot and various 'cut scenes' of characters just inserted itself into my brain. How that happened I can't tell you - I was struck dumb for an hour or so as I thought it through, amazed at how easy it all seemed to come.

Quite how I got from The Butterfly Effect to a full scale Space Opera I don't know...one must not question their muse too closely I feel. I think she doesn't like the attention and I hate to get the silent treatment from her

 

[goldhawk]

That is exactly what i want to do... So okay, I'll begin it here then:

First step: Would be to have an idea, right?

My idea: Man discovers secret.

As has been mentioned, the Idea is a little too open ended, or vague. What would be a better way to write it so it is less vague, and why?

How does the secret affect his life? If there's no connection, there's no story.

PS: To expand: how does the secret affect the man's self image? The deeper it strikes at his core, the more powerful the story.

 

[Toby Frost]

Apologies for what is going to be a very long post.

For me – and I naturally write longer fiction – it begins with a mental image, often from a picture, that has jarred my mind in some way. These images are often historical or come from historical sources: I’ve written a novel almost about a single picture before, because it seemed so striking. Then there’s usually the realisation that there’s some idea in this that I want to talk about – not necessarily anything very highbrow – like “I want to write a book about revenge”. Then I’ll tend to brood over it until I’ve found the way in which I want to write this story. What that means, often, is that the end result is different to the original plan, and often more complex. The revenge drama becomes a story about someone deciding not to take revenge and about their reasons, or something like that.

Then the characters come in. They usually occupy some angle in their society that makes them interesting in themselves, sometimes so that they can represent a particular viewpoint. Often, they are as different as I can make them. The four main characters in the Smith books were designed so that, no matter what combination they were in, they could have an argument, despite being friends, which generates plot and jokes. In the serious fantasy story I’m writing at present, the characters are as different as I can make them so that we can see as much of their society as possible. Also, by being so different, they will come up with different ideas which will push the story along in a variety of ways.

So the characters create the story to an extent. But I’m wary not to let the characters move off on story arcs that are too predictable. “Baddie realises error of his ways after meeting victim”, “Young man avenges mentor/father”, “Excluded person proves doubtors wrong and is welcomed” – all of these plots write themselves too easily, and so have to be approached with caution. This is one of the reasons that I’m wary when people say that their characters can’t be controlled.


In this situation, because this is a short story, I’d say that the concept has to be particularly punchy. So “Man discovers secret” wouldn’t be enough. “Man discovers secret that is fundamental to him” is more punchy. It takes us right to the heart of the story’s world – namely, the man’s life. The man could discover that his wife is a robot, that he’s been locked out of his spaceship, that the dead have risen, but none of these really hits me enough. They all make me think, “So?”. It’s not personal enough, somehow. How about “Man discovers that his friends, who are retreating from the same disaster, have been hiding food from him”? That’s powerful. This guy finds out that his friends have betrayed him. That’s going to shake him up a lot.

In this story, the characters will be built up around the central guy, out of necessity. They might reflect aspects of him. So, he will be the “control” in this experiment, and they’ll all be more than him in some way. More intelligent, more stupid, more greedy, and so on. But they’ll all need a good reason for conspiring against him. Maybe he’s some kind of officer. Maybe the hero represents a system his men all despise, no matter how different they are to each other. So, the system is being rejected by all the citizens. Suddenly this is looking like quite a “big” story.

So here is my story: X is a loyal political officer who drives his men on to fight bravely. The army is forced to retreat in bad conditions. X discovers that his beloved soldiers have conspired to exclude him from extra rations which they have been sharing out. He confronts them, and realises that he, and the system he represents, are hated by the men. While he considers that he has brought them glory, they see him as a bringer of death. X is enraged, and then despairing. He walks off to die, thinking that they are better off without him. He reflects that the men will not understand that he always wanted the best for them, even if he was wrong to prefer glory to survival.

I’m not saying that this is a particularly brilliant concept – it’s probably been done loads of times and better than I would. But the story has come together by fleshing out a simple idea. “Man discovers secret” becomes “Man discovers secret that is vital to his principles and his survival” and then “Man that is vital to his principles and his survival, and deals with the terrible consequences”.

 

[Jo Zebedee]

I think there really is something in 'let's not try to write something big from this'. Apart from my first book(s) which have been knocking around my brain for years, all the rest of mine have come from something like the challenges (secret santa is good, too - I got a couple of nice shorts from them).

I've written every challenge since Oct '11. (I got kicked out of one, but I still wrote it.) So, that's what...? about 43 75 words and 14/15 300 worders. From those, I have had 3 full length novel ideas and one short (which was actually the voice only so doesn't entirely count). So that's 3 out of 80. Someone smart can work out that percentage. Here's the ones that became something:

Two boys set up by a crime lord and innocent, became Inish - switched to a Belfast setting, the crime lord became a paramilitary leader, the boys became teenagers.

A girl on a beach sees a boat that's not of this world - that became Waters with a girl who's either a changeling, sees fairies, or is mad. Or something more sinister...

A storm mage saying goodbye to his daughter and bravely facing his fate - that became the current wip and actually uses the child character as a woman.

So, um, don't set yourself up as a this-is-what-I-must-do. Set it up with a see what happens attitude. For each of those 3 I have one in the trunk, in stasis, or never going to be finished.

 

[psychotick]

Hi,

Well I work differently to most of you guys so far. My stories always start with a scene. Sometimes an idea and a scene. So for The Man Who Wasn't Ander's Voss I had an idea about a star trek transporter type malfunction and the duplicates paradox, and a scene which was simply a man arriving in the world and screaming. That was literally all I had.

From there I began by writing the scene and as I wrote it, expanding on it by asking and answering some questions. Who is this man? Why is he screaming? And of course linking the answer to these questions with the paradox. That in turn gave me some answers - specifically that he's screaming because he has just been born from the death of another man - Anders Voss - and no one living should have knowledge of what its like to die.

After that the rest of the story emerged from more questions raised by the one's I answered and wrote. Why did the man step into a transporter if he knew it was going to kill him and create a duplicate? Did he know? Was he tricked? etc etc.

That's my entire creative process. It's crap, I know. But it's pure pantster and it works for me. Of course it means I can never set out to write a short story - or a novel. I never know how long a books going to be. I don't know what the plot even is until I'm a long way into the book. And everything else like characters and world build get fleshed out along the way.

Cheers, Greg.

 

[ratsy]

Hey Lonewolf. I think you are over complicating it...or under-complicating it.

You need a bit more than the idea: Man discovers secret. Even if you don't want the audience to know what it is, you should have that in your head before you write it. Then think of a character and what you are trying to accomplish. I will do a start...using the idea of a down and out man who is looking for a place to sleep. I know what i want this scene to end like but i dont know how i will get there until i write it.


The streetlights cast their orange glow on the ground as Daniel walked across the street. The constant humming of their overworked ballasts was giving him a migraine he was sure wouldn't subside until he found the bottom of the bottle he currently had tucked under his arm. He saw a lump in the entrance of the alley, covered by a sleeping bag. He'd been around long enough to know it was better to walk past the sleeping form than to wake it.

Daniel's stomach growled when he approached the back end of a Chinese food joint. His hopes rose when he saw a stack of take-out boxes in the basket of a delivery bike, but as he approached, the driver jumped out of the door and hopped on. With a glare towards Daniel, he peddled off, the smell of chow mein trailed behind him. Another miss in a series of unfortunate events. He was getting very used to it.

He decided that food was his second best option right then so he sauntered over to the brick wall and slid down until his butt hit the pavement. With a shaky hand he twisted the cap off the bottle; the sweet smell of the brown liquor filled his nostrils. He tilted it and as he closed his eyes, anticipating the taste, he spotted something across the alleyway. It shone a silvery glow in the dim night. Against all of his better judgement, he set the bottle down and got to his feet. The object stopped glowing as he reached for it. It looked like a coin, but not a coin he'd even laid his eyes on before. When he touched it, brilliant light sparked all around him. With a feeling of vertigo, he felt like he was spinning as the glow encapsulated him.

The coin dimmed again, and he fell to the ground, only now he felt soft grass comfort his fall. He was no longer in the alley. Trees surrounded him; birds sang all around him. He looked up to the bright sky and saw three suns glaring down at him. He got to his feet and searched for the thing that was most important to him. The bottle. It was gone. As he stumbled around the beautiful oasis he'd been transported to, he cried in anguish at his missing companion.


So that is how I do it. I take an idea, and roll with it. Now we have a character in portaled away to another land. He is a homeless alcoholic. That adds tension and conflict right there...how does he survive, can he change? WIll he be helped? Can he make it home? Does he want to go back?

I just did this with nothing but a spark of an idea and now i have countless ways i can go with this story, and right now if I was going to write this I dont know how it would play out. The story would work itself out and my character will take me there.

not sure if that helps but it is the way I do it

 

[J Riff]

A secret could be dangerous, or profitable, or something else, could go any which way.
I think maybe a key point is when you can suddenly see the ending. Maybe this happens quickly, or not until 50K wds. But I'll wager half the stuff written starts out without a clear conclusion in mind. That way there is excitement and mystery bubbling away in one's concise writer's brain. What's going to happen? Keeps it exciting to write, and therefore probably exciting to read.