Most people I’ve talked to, after they hear that I write stories, begin to ask questions about what I write. If course, they ask other questions too. As I talk to them, it soon seems clear to me, that they believe, that I wake up with an idea in the morning, and the story magically appears as a published book the next day. They think that I must possess some kind of magic that they do not have. It is as if it would be work for them, where it is automatic for me. They don’t see the amount of work that went into the story, before I even start.
It is hard work to figure out what to start with. Once I finally do come up with an idea that satisfies me, then the real work begins. The more clearly I define the story the easier and quicker it is to write it. The story which took the longest for me to write, took me 10 years. The shortest, took me 6 days. The shocking thing about that fact, was that the one with the most number of pages between the two, was the one that took me 6 days to write. It was the one I did the most homework for, before starting. From start to finish, my path was very clear to exactly where I was going to take the story next. There was also no wandering around, which would cause a lot of deletions and rewrites.
The most important part of writing a story, is thinking up a story line or plot, (screenplay writers call this a log line). That is the backbone of any story. Sometimes people will ask me how I come up with my ideas. For me, ideas are too easy. I get them as I watch people. I make it a practice to try to visualize those people out in their daily lives. The ideas explode. In fact, watching any one person will produce a dozen story lines.
It is amazing when we think that people are pretty much the same, the world over. Our stories are very similar. The situations and our particular circumstances may be different, but love, loss, virtues, vices, health challenges, feelings of danger and mortality are much the same for all of us. It has been that way since the beginning of history to the present day. I suspect that those experiences will always be something we can all identify with, no matter whose stories they are. It is because we have all had those feelings to a certain degree.
Good writing, is the art of telling a story in a way that people can feel and see the tale, as if they were participating in it. A good writer has to tell it in a way that they themselves will feel those emotions. If the writer doesn’t feel it, then the reader won’t. If the reader doesn’t, they will not be able to relate to the story and will be bored. If they cannot relate to our characters or what those characters are going through, our audience will not finish reading the story. They will probably not pick up one of our works again.
So when I write, I try to find a basic story that I believe other people will be interested in. Of course it has to interest me too. As a writer, I must become passionate about it, or it will become as laborious to the audience, as it does to me. If it doesn’t excite me, it won’t excite them. Reading books and watching movies to see what others are interested in, is very helpful. Just look to see what is selling well, and you will find what people are interested in.
One fact that a writing class will probably not tell us about, is if we want to sell the story, then we have to write something that others will want to buy. Whether we are writing for book publishers or the movie industry, the cold hard fact is, it is all about the money. Publishers and movie makers really don’t care about how good the story is, but whether or not it will sell. Of course, it won’t sell unless it is an interesting story which will grab the audience and it has to be written well. So as I write, I try to keep that in mind. I have to write something that will appeal to more than just me, while remembering that it has to make money for the publisher or movie maker.
If we are writing for our own vanity, there are many out there, ready to accept our money to put it into print.
After I come up with a story idea, then I figure out a new way to present it. I am hoping to present it in a way that the feelings written are felt more strongly. It is important so the audience has a good connection to our characters.
To write a love story taking place in a small town, is not necessarily a good start. However, if one of the people is blind, now that creates a whole different way of approaching it. Already we have a certain amount of empathy for both characters and we haven’t even started writing.
To write about someone flying in an airplane, sounds boring. However, add a hijacker, or knock off an engine, or cause a leak in the fuel tank while flying over an ocean, and we start taking a better hold on the armrest of our chairs.
There are writers who have a glimmer of an idea and sit down and just start writing. Some people are really good at that, because they have the whole story mapped out in their minds. I used to think that I was good at that. Most of my early work was done this way. It is true, I was able to come up with some pretty impressive writing. At least it was impressive to me. The reader may or may not be that impressed. The problem with that strategy is that most people, (me included), will have a tendency to wander. Our stories become 700-1,000 pages, when we could have told the same story more effectively and more movingly in 300-500 pages. Most publishers won’t even look at a manuscript that is longer than 350 pages anymore.
There are even famous authors who have sold a lot of books, who have obviously just started writing without really knowing where they were going to go with it. It’s bad enough when it is a stand alone story, where there is nothing to measure it against. But if they do it as a series, then they get into trouble. People come to expect certain things from an established character. If the character suddenly changes from what the readers have come to expect, it causes a disconnect. A writer wants his character to grow over time, but if he is a completely different person over night, and we don’t see the changes developing, then as an audience we are turned off. The character is no longer believable. It will taint the whole story.
What would happen if James Bond suddenly became an elementary school teacher and never went back to the spy business? We would all feel betrayed.
We have all gone to movies, or read books where we have experienced that disconnect. The recent movie entitled “The Lone Ranger” is a good example of that. Everyone had expectations of the ranger. They expected him to be the hero. They expected Tonto to be the side kick. The movie lost big, because they didn’t meet the expectations of the audience. That was because people had already become acquainted with the characters. I suspect everyone’s experience and the financial outcome would have been different, if the movie had been entitled “Tonto.”
So, back to the point. Now days, I start by making certain that I know what the story is supposed to be about. Then I decide on a beginning or an opening. Then I decide how I want it to end. Then I mark out the major steps or conflicts along the way to get from the beginning to the end.
I quickly map out a very brief path for my characters to get there. I will also decide what characters I am going to need. I try to develop a bio for them, so I know who they are. I want to make certain that they are the characters I need to advance my story from one end to the other. I need to make certain that they are the ones who will create the emotional investment that will hook the audience.
This whole process can take as little as a day, or as long as a month or two to complete. It depends upon how complicated the story is. It also depends upon how much research I need to do to create a believable background. The better I do this, the more believable my story.
Because I just sat down and started writing without the preparations, I’ve written a few stories that need extensive overhauling. We don’t want to make our main character an expert on roses, but as an author, we don’t know the first thing about roses. We cannot assume that our audience is as ignorant as we are. If we write about the sights and sounds of the flower garden, and start to describe plants or our actions, our ignorance is immediately exposed, making the whole story suspect. Describing an ocean voyage, without ever seeing water, let alone riding on a ship...
There are some things that you can easily get away with, being abducted by aliens is not common, so our audience will not be able to compare that with their experience. Traveling in space has been done, and though we may not have experienced that, others have and have described it. Video has been taken so we could see it. If you pour out a pitcher of water in space, does it soak your feet? Gravity is a problem.
So for now, mapping out my story line, and a brief outline are the steps I’m working on. I’ll get back with you, once I have worked on my plot line, and figured out the kind of story that I want. Then I will start by sharing how I come up with characters.
Until then, may ideas come to you easily.
Jene
