| Jan. 12th, 2012 @ 11:10 am How I Write a Story |
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I have been keeping busy lately - doing a lot of working and a lot of reading (four novels in less than three weeks and now fifty pages into a fifth; as a side note: if you want to write it is important to read, and read a lot). It is amazing what you will be able to accomplish if your normally cramped schedule of activities is put on hold because of a temporary injury! I wanted to take a moment to talk about how I write a story, mainly because it is something that I have been asked a lot when I go to conventions and talk on panels. I thought it would be useful to share.
Before I begin, let me preface this with everyone has their own process. I can only talk about what works for me.
For me, stories are about two primary things: a character and a world. It really is a toss-up which comes up first. At this stage of the process, I don't mean the entire world. I mean determining what it is that makes my world unique. Is it that people exist in the modern world who have the ability to change shape? Is it a historically accurate world, but kami actually exist? If it is a standard fantasy world, is their magic? How does it work?
For the character, I want to know everything about him or her. (For simplicity, I am using "he" for the rest of this post, but it can just as easily be "she".) How does he react to stress? What is he like? What do his friends like about him? What is special about him? Once I know how he will handle situations and the way that he behaves, I ask why. Why is he like this? Where did he come from? The character's reactions and behavior need to make sense, need to come from somewhere. He needs to have a history that fits with who he is now; he is not just a collection of random traits. Keep in mind, a lot of this will never go into the story, especially if it is a short story. But it is important for me to know it, because it makes him real.
These two steps take a lot of work and a lot of effort. For short stories, sometimes this can take longer than figuring out the plot of the story. But, I need these pieces before I can figure out what happens. I try to imagine a whole bunch of scenarios this character might find himself in. Which make sense? Which are entertaining? Which ones make my imagination do the equivalent of sitting up straight and leaning forward to see what happens next? And most importantly, which indicate growth or change? To paraphrase something I've heard from multiple authors: if a character doesn't grow, you don't have a story; you just have a sequence of events.
In the earlier side of my career this is where I would start writing. After all, I have a character, a world, and a general idea that I think is interesting and will make a good story. Why not?
Now, I start plotting the story. I take notes about what happens, how my character is going to progress from A to B to C all the way to the end. I need to figure out what is going to happen to him on the way, where he might get betrayed, what other characters might show up, etc. This helps keep the story consistent, lets me fix pacing problems early (it is MUCH easier to fix those in the planning stage rather than after you have written several thousand words), enables me to put in foreshadowing and clues, and makes sure I know where I am going. I used to think that it was more fun to write without planning, because then I was interested to see what happened and used that as motivation to keep writing. But I have found that as a writer my stories are better if I plan and plot them out ahead of time, for so many reasons. I like to think of this as an indication of my growth as a writer.
Once the story is plotted, then I begin the writing. From here on, I power through it trying to get a first draft done as quickly as possible. For me, this is the fastest part. Most of my short stories have been written in one sitting versus spending weeks or longer on the earlier stages. When I know my characters and where they are going, the words have a tendency to fly. After the first draft is complete, it goes out to my beta readers and I take a break from it for a few days, a week, a month, etc. Once I get feedback from my betas, I go back to the story and begin the editing. Most of the editing is removing entire sections that don't work and trimming out a lot of extra words. Finally, after all of this, comes the finished manuscript.
And hopefully, it is as enjoyable to read as it was to create. Who am I kidding? Hopefully it is even MORE fun to read! |
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