8/12/2019 From Idea to Page in 4 Simple Steps

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From Idea to Page in 4 Simple Steps

Categories: Haven't Written Anything Yet, Writing for Beginners, How to ImproveWriting Skills, How to Write a Horror Story, Writing Horror, How to Write a Mystery, Writing Thrillers, How to Write a Romance Novel, Romance Writing, LiteraryFiction Writing, Memoir Writing & Memoir Examples, Spiritual Writing, Writing for Children & Young Adults, Writing Science Fiction & Fantasy, Writing Short Stories & Essay Writing, Writing Your First Draft Tags: christian writing, craft/technique, description/setting, fantasy, horror, memoir, mystery, nonfiction, paranormal, picture books, poetry, romance, science fiction, script writing, short stories, thriller, western, writing basics, young adult/writing for kids.

February 16, 2010 | N.M. Kelby | Comments: 0FavoriteLoadingAdd to favorites

Nothing is more exciting than the promise of a story in your head, but in orderto get it on the page you need to figure out exactly what you need to do to makeit work. You need to realistically outline and throw out what bogs the readers

down. You need to set up a game plan to hook your readers and keep them reading.Here are some simple steps to help you build the frame that you hang your storyon.

STEP 1. ALWAYS BEGIN WITH YOUR PROTAGONIST. The readers need to discover who thehero is and why they should root for him. Introduce your protagonist, either directly or indirectly, within the first 300 words.

STEP 2. ESTABLISH TIME AND PLACE. Your readers should know exactly where they are. If they are wondering, they lose focus and may stop reading. They have to trust that you are in control of the story. Nobody likes to be left alone in the dark.

STEP 3. ANNOUNCE THE STAKES. Great prose will go a long wayabout 2,500 words, more or less. After that, even the most literary readers want to know why theyre reading. Just a simple sentence can do the trick. At the end of the first section of The Things They Carried, Tim OBrien writes of the letters that Jimmy Cross received from a girl back home named Martha. He mentions that theyre signed Love, Martha,but acknowledges that using the word loveis a custom and not anything more. Atthe end of this section, OBrien writes, Slowly, a bit distracted, he would get upand move among his men, checking the perimeter, then at full dark he would return to his hole and watch the night and wonder if Martha was a virgin.

Right there, the author lets us know whats really on the mindand at the heart of the storyof this young man who is so very far away from home.

STEP 4. ORGANIZE. Once you have your story structured around the beginning youveset in place, look at all the bits of writing youve done and all the notes youve taken and ask yourself one simple question: Where the heck was I going with this?If you dont know, or if where youre going now doesnt match where you were going whenyou set out, focus on better defining those areas before you go any further.