Many people dream of being a writer but not everyone starts writing – and it’s easy to see why.  Despite an avalanche of advice out there - sometimes it’s not clear exactly how or where to start.

The thought of beginning something can be so overwhelming new writers play around with parts of an idea here or a chapter or two there because it’s easier and far less terrifying.  Or they don’t start at all despite the desire to put pen to paper.   

But here’s the thing – whether you want to write a novel or one perfect short story - it’s okay to start small.  Most projects start off as a seed of an idea – and then the writer works away at growing it.  Step by step, line by line, paragraph by paragraph. Everyone’s journey into a story is different. 

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Here are some simple steps you can take to start writing your story. 

Identify what you want to write

This can be overwhelming (I’m a person with ideas across many forms of writing.) So this question will help you. What do you love to read?  Given there are many forms of creative writing – what is the form that excites you the most?  Which genres are you drawn to when you buy a book?  It is helpful if you can start with an idea of the genre and form you’re interested in.

Step 1: Write down the form and genre you want to write.

Start Small

You don’t have to have everything worked out to start – just start with an idea.  And there are a number of ways writers find their way into a story – they might start out with a moment in a plot or a character they have in mind. Others are taken with a real life event in their family or social issue.  Or just want to get down their thoughts. Sometimes a writer will be fired up by an image or a line of dialogue.  Perhaps some issue they’ve read about in a newspaper or something odd they see in the street.  It doesn’t matter what sparks your idea – what matters is to let it sit in your head and let it grow.

Step 2: Write down a list of any existing ideas that you have – even if they’re just fragments.

Find the Idea That Excites You

As discussed above story ideas come to people in all sorts of way. One of my favourite ways to generate fiction ideas is to find a story in a local community paper that interests me and then start asking questions about the main event or character in the story.  Use story prompts to generate ideas or let yourself reimagine a fairy tale or myth. Another exercise I like is to create a title then muse on what the story might be about.  Carry a notebook everywhere to capture thoughts that strike you, dreams you might have or just interesting things you see – this is collecting fragments that you may use in your story.

Step 3: Write down a simple description of your favourite story idea.

Grow Your Idea – By asking the following questions and jotting down the answers…

Who is it about?

What’s interesting about them?

What are their flaws and attributes?

What’s their problem?

What do they want?

Why do they want it?

What will they do to try to get it?

Who is getting in their way of getting what they want and causing them problems?

Why is this person/these people getting in the way?

Where and when is it set?

What’s the social or cultural milieu?

Then close your eyes and let yourself mentally drift around their world.

Step 4: Write down answers to all these questions.

Now that you have a main character or two and a setting…

Play With Your Idea

Step 5: Grab a large piece of paper and start mind-mapping or noting or just doodling what COULD possibly happen in your story.  

This is not hard core plotting you’re just letting your imagination flesh out possible elements in your story.  You’re mining for the potential gold that could come from your story seed. What’s interesting about this idea or situation? You can do this for 20 minutes or all day long – you’re going to have some new content on your sheet by the time you’ve finished.  If you have a sense of what the theme might be meditate on what comes to mind when you think about it – and jot that down. 

Have some fun listing a bunch of potential titles.

Start to Plot Your Story

Step 6: Now it’s time to think about structuring your story into beginning, middle and end. Whether you’re writing a novel, short story, micro-fiction or play - working out where you’re going before you start is a great use of your time.   

And what better place to start than at the beginning?  But here’s a tip – you can actually start wherever you like.  Let’s say you know what happens in the middle of your story – start there! Write that down in the middle of a sheet of paper then think about what happen between the beginning and the middle. Or the middle and the end.  

It might all just look like jottings but hey presto you’re starting to write a story.

Next steps how to flesh out that story idea further and start plotting for real. 

©Kathryn Burnett 2024

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