Fleshing out a good story.

[Celexei]

I've had a storyline going on and evolving in my head for a few years, and I believe that if I actually put it down on paper, not only would it evolve and become more full, but hell, reaching for a miracle... it might actually be worth reading. My main problem is, I didn't exactly pay as much attention in high school as I should have, and if they covered it...I've forgot how to start fleshing out my ideas. So I pose the question to those creative writers out there, When you have a good story idea, how do you set the ball rolling and kick off the story. If I could just get the first chapter or so down, I know it'd all come together.
Discuss!
Questions and Comments welcome!

Cel

[Warriorbird]

Outline. There's some various guides to "9 Steps" "The Heroic Journey" and other base notions/events to work to build an outline from.

[Celexei]

Is outlining a good thing? I know it keeps everything organized and all, but does it not hamper the free flow of things at times? I'm appreciative for the suggestion, anywhere you could point me towards some links or such containing that sort of information.

[Lookkin]

Originally posted by Celexei
Is outlining a good thing? I know it keeps everything organized and all, but does it not hamper the free flow of things at times?

That’s exactly what happens for my creativity when I try to draw up an outline - nothing. I've found the best results by putting a couple of ideas, or segments, out there to entertain. They may become the middle, end or beginning of my story, but the rule I follow is if I can't draw a smooth transition between two segments, I either kill one or recreate a different story line. My original idea is always up for being restructured and I’m never attached to just one idea – be flexible.

[Ravenstorm]

If you don't want to outline things on paper, ask yourself questions about your main idea that you think need answering. Example:

What exactly did the cat do to deserve being killed?
What did its owner do to deserve his cat being killed?
What kind of piece of shit would kill a cat to get back at its owner?
What happens to the piece of shit once the cat is actually killed?
What traumatic event happened to the piece of shit in the past to create a person who would consider doing that?
Does the piece of shit brag about it?
Once its discovered who killed the cat and why, what happens to the piece of shit?
Does what happened get covered in the newspaper?
Is the piece of shit ridiculed on the internet because he bragged about it?
Does the newspaper article about it even exist outside of his inane ramblings?

Once you start asking yourself all these things, you know what needs to be in the story. The next step is deciding how to include the answers. Flashbacks? A prologue taking place years earlier? Dialogue as the piece of shit talks to his much needed psychiatrist? The possibilities are many.

Raven

[Latrinsorm]

lol @ Raven.

I don't like outlining, which is probably why no story I've ever written really ended. :oops: I guess my best advice is to have a beginning and an ending in mind, and flesh out the middle. Otherwise the story kind of takes on a life of its own and you just write, and write, and write, and write, and write...

Also, I strongly recommend using a (reliable) computer, unless your eyes aren't down with that. It's very nice to be able to write a particular event two or three different ways and tweak slightly without having to rewrite pages of stuff by hand. Spell-check is also nice if you dislike leaving words possibly misspelled like me.

[HarmNone]

Personally, I don't outline. I've never liked to do so. I do, however, like to make a character list and flesh out those characters. It helps me to determine how they might react to situations that might develop during the creation of the story.

Once that's done, I just let my imagination go and begin to live the story in my mind. I'll jot down little things that pique my interest, or things that I think might require further thought as to how they will, or will not, integrate into the story as a whole.

As a consequence, anything I write usually starts as a collection of little stories. These, I then sew together into an ongoing tale...if I'm lucky. ;)

[Warriorbird]

Eh. The main point of an outline is feeling free to break it.

[Jolena]

When I started seriously writing my own fictional story I ran into problems of including too many characters. What I did in that instance is the same as HN offered. I ended up making a list of characters with their personalities, anything in their past that might contribute significantly to the story, a basic storyline including beginning point and ending point, and then I just let my imagination roam as to how things happened from start to finish. there were some characters that knew each other that I wanted to list how they knew each other and had ideas as to what events took place to lead up to that.

[Celexei]

Now to just get a computer so that i'm not having to get everything down on paper with ink...its nice to be able to make corrections to your work, and go back and change things, as well as the fact that I type faster than I could ever possibly write, seems to help the ideas flow a little easier.

[Vesi]

ROFL@Ravenstorm's subject. (his ideas were very good though)

Anyway, I sort of do what HN does, do the list of main and secondary characters and their personalities and sort of go from there. I take a lot from just observing people in general. A notepad at the mall can be a fun thing!

Also, I type everything but then I print it out and go at it with my pen. I'm an edit freak. When I'm done with the entire thing, I go back to Word and type it there because as all of you have seen, my spelling, punctuation and grammar do sucketh. (college English was just too long ago!) Sometimes though, a nice fresh pad of paper and a really cool pen makes writing more appealing. (at least to me) Plus, you can do that anywhere.

Vesi

[ElanthianSiren]

There are really all kinds of schools of thought on how to write your story.

Some write beginning to end. Some outline every chapter. Some use a flash card a chapter and lay them out on floors like a big chain. I don't do any of this. I choose to start with the end and lead to that conclusion. I also write a lot of little notes for myself at the headers of my text doc (that I later erase).

The important thing is to maintain control of your characters; don't let them control you. Write at least 2 pages a day. Some writers shoot for 10, but they maintain that what happens if you don't write a minimum of pages, is you end up getting lax about it and not writing for weeks. It's happened to me, so I believe them :)

Good luck

-M

[ElanthianSiren]

Oh, yah, I also find it helpful to write everything in ink first. I'm not sure why, but the computer/word processing can be intimidating. Paper is familiar; also, I can throw it away when the scene doesn't do what I want it to. I can't trash my computer.

-M

[Killer Kitten]

The way I start a story that's rattling around in my head is to pick a favorite scene, and just write it.

Then I expound upon it, furthering the story, or I provide background, which becomes the part of the story leading up to the scene I started with.

You can even write all of your 'highlight' scenes, then set them up in order and begin the task of segueing from one to another. The funny thing about doing it like this is that often my segue scenes are a lot better than the ones I had highlighted.

Good luck. Writing is work, but it's good work.

[Celexei]

Thank you all for your help, some of these ideas I've worked with before, and some are new to me, now just to find what works for me the best...I liked the idea of knowing the ending and working yourself towards it alot. I would imagine that allows you to stay kinda on topic as long as you reach that conclussion though, it would allow you to go off on whatever ventures you wished in the prior chapters though. Very good ideas guys!