How do I write a story (and maybe can help you with yours) - A stupid guide
Hello, I hope youâll doing fine ^^ This is some kind of crazy-quickly-not-so-quickly-actually-not-quickly-at-all tutorial for you who like to write. I hope to help you (with something, I swear)
So, I was talking to a friend recently and she asked me to help her with her ideas and it came up to me that, perhaps, thereâs a lot of people around the world with the very same issues. Iâm not a writer goddess or anything else, but I have my own way to organize my stories and maybe (just maybe) it could be useful for someone in the future, so I decided to make a tutorial of how I work with my own ideas for you.
I just want to make it clear that every person is different and have a different âcreativity channelâ in their brain, also they work in different ways to achieve their objectives. If this tutorial donât work for you, maybe itâs because you have a different way to organize your own ideas, and thatâs perfectly fine, itâs ok. Iâll be glad if I can help with one or another querry and Iâll be glad if this little tutorial reach the people whoâs facing their worst creative blocks.
Letâs do this, ok? And let me know if it helps ^^
Sounds stupid to say, but thatâs the ulterius truth, first of all: have an idea. It doesnât need to be awesome, or complete, or genius, it just need to make you think that it worth your effort and your time to work on it. It can be just a scene, or a dialogue, or even just a sentence, but thereâs one thing thatâs important in this step: your idea HAVE TO BE stuck on your brain as long as you can possible afford. Do you know that feeling when you just canât take something off of your mind because it gives you chills? Thatâs the thing weâre looking for here. Thatâs what we need in this step.
Now that you have your idea, work on it. Write every single detail that came up to you, write and write and write. Donât organize nothing, just write. We donât want to lose anything, right? So write in somewhere you can find after, in somewhere safe. I use and suggest Google Docs or your email box because I think itâs pretty safe and I can have access in literally anywhere, but if you have your own preference, then use your site/editor as you like ^^
If youâre feeling satisfied with whatever you wrote, then itâs time to start the dirty job: Planning your story.
Now you have your idea, but you donât have a sketch yet, itâs just a messy conglomerate of story material, we need to dilapidated that stuff. I prefer to work with handwriting in this stage, but you donât have to, you  can use your favorite site/editor as well. Iâll show you what I do in my notebook with a ugly paint image just to illustrate (sorry, donât hate me <3 )
The word here is organization. Donât worry with details, think in the universe. I like to make an analogy with a house being built it. Write is just like build a new house, you canât start from the roof, first youâll need to start from the foundation, to make sure itâll wonât fall apart after the end of your building process. Work in a few sentences, just to clarify what happens next and what consequences every event will have in your story.
When you finish this stage, it means you have a sketch to look up when you get lost. Youâll use this sketch a lot during your write process, so keep it close and safe.
As I said before, Iâm gonna show you what works for me, it doesnât mean that itâll work for everyone. Some people prefer to start from the location (or universe), but for me itâs easier to create my characters first and Iâll tell you why.
Everytime I create a story, I spend some time thinking âwhat kind of person would do that? Would want that? Would hate that? Do they believe in that or this kind of thing? Where they live? What they do?â, as soon as I have my answers, I start to think of them and their features. Itâs never the places that gives me my characters, on the contrary, itâs ALWAYS my characters who gives me the places.
I work with two kind of tools for that: Google Docs and a site.
It have a lot of sites around there, but I personally like notebook.ai. Itâs simple and complete for the things I need, you can create characters, universes, locations, itens and even custom pages. Letâs create a character together, right?
01. Thatâs the page youâll look for. You just need to find the CHARACTERS in the left sided menu. Youâll can switch along the features of your character at the right sided menu and, at the end of your process (or along with it, like I prefer), saving your progress.
02. So youâll start to create your character. Youâll notice that every category has a short text to help and guide you if you get lost. All you need to do is to answer the question with the most detailed words that you find. Keep in mind that you need to know exactly who this person is, what do they like, what do they hate, what do they want, what do they fear, what do they believe⌠At the end, youâll notice that you know your character as if your character is one of your best friends (or even your family).
03. Everytime you click in the save button, youâll need to click in the editing button to continue to create your character. Thatâs how your screen will look like when you finish.
As soon as you finish all your characters, youâll have the history of their lives. Youâll know them better than no one else, so letâs start to think about your scenarios.
I donât know how it work for you, but for me, as soon as I know all of my characters, I know what place they belong too. I still donât know how do I do that, I just - somehow - know. If you arenât like that, youâll need to choose what kind of ambient your story will take place to. If thatâs your first story, or if youâre not feeling comfortable to explore new places, choose one that you know. I suggest that you start with your own town ^^ Knowing your scenario makes everything simple.
But if you like to explore the unknown (like myself hehe), I have a tip for you. Itâs something new, nobody knows yet. Itâs something incredible, almost like magic, and it callsâŚ
Yep, you read it. Google. As simple as it can be. Take the âkeep it simpleâ and use as your motto when your work in a new project, thatâs always my advice. Choose some place and Google it, but youâll have to make THE search, do you understand?
Use every resource: Maps, images, news, travel tips, best locations, watch videos of people who actually live there, read about their culture, their beliefs, read about their history, listen their musics, walk through their streets with Google view, choose places where your characters like, want to go, go often, go not so often, google this places to know how it works⌠Search for everything.
The most important thing youâll need to keep in mind is: You need to know this place as like youâre living there for a long time. Youâre not a visitor, youâre a dweller.
Well, now we know what kind of story we want to tell, what events happen along the story line, what kind of people weâre dealing with and what kind of place their using as a home place. All we need to do right now is writing.
At this point youâll find out that you know this people, and you know this place, and you know what kind of thing theyâre willing to do (or not willing to do). At this point youâll find out that your story will not sound like some fictional story you came up with in a creativity moment of your life, no, your story will sound like some history one of your friends told you and you thought it was so good you need to share to the world. So all you have to do is write.
Write, write, write and write.
And if you feel lost at some point, just ask one of your characters, think what do they would do. You already know them, youâll find out one way or another. If youâre starving for another tip, well, I have a good one that I found at Pinterest:
If youâre lost, think about what do your character wants the most, then do the complete opposite.
Thatâs no more time to simplify things, youâll need to make it hard for them, youâll need to make your character think, work hard, fight against the world - alone at some points. I know that you must love your character, and thatâs exactly why you should make it difficult for them. You need to make them grow and learn by commit some mistakes. And if youâre lost again, I have the last tip that works for me.
Whenever I get lost, I look at my sketch of key sentences and create one for the chapter Iâm work, then I make myself the questions:
1. What do I want to happen?
2. What do I need to happen to reach this point? (while Iâm looking at the universal sketch)
3. What do my character want?
4. What should they do that?
5. What kind of reaction are come with that?
6. Why they need to do that?
But, well, you can also make it simple by ask yourself âif I write this right now, will I be able to reach the final of my story without going insane?â
If the answer is ânoâ, then write it.
I do hope that this akward guide help you to reach whatever you want to reach with your story and I would be happy to read yours <3
