Writing 101 | Lesson 1 | Getting Started

There are quite a few way of which to go about starting a story. I have narrowed it down to the two I’ve found to work the best. Regardless of the fact that they are two separate plans of attack, they’ll lead you down the same road.

The first of the two is probably the most exciting part of writing for most people. In fact, it’s where the majority of writers begin. That is character creation. More often than not, writers are struck with the idea for a single character who is too out of place for anything else they’ve started. This forces them to think up new ideas, and unless you have complete and total determination, you won’t go much further than creating the character. You have to be in this 100%. Once you have the character completely thought out, you must develop a plot around him or her.

This takes us into the second approach. Perhaps you were struck with the idea for a story. Just a simple idea such as “A man discovers his true fate and must go on a series of adventures to fulfill the prophecy which foretold of him,” is enough to start with. That, however, isn’t a fully developed plot. You have to build on it, because no one wants to read a story that takes them on a wild ride with no purpose. Also, building a plot prevents the writer from falling into plot holes along the way. Those are nasty little things that no one wants to come across. It’s aggravating for the writer to have to fix, and if he or she decides to leave them be, it shows laziness. No one will read the work of a lazy writer.

If you have any questions about this or other topics, feel free to leave a comment. I’ll reply when I can or turn it into a lesson.
Look out for “Writing 101 | Lesson 2 | Character Creation.”

-Annie