Writing Lessons • Formatting Outlines and Manuscripts - Mar 7, 2006 • Third-Person Characters - Sep 28, 2004 • Copyrights - Apr 1, 2004 • Chapter Length - Apr 1, 2004 • Parallel Storylines - Oct 14, 2003 • A Conversation on Character - Oct 14, 2003 • Stories with Soul - Oct 13, 2003 • Naming Characters - Mar 5, 2003 • More in Naming Characters - Mar 5, 2003 • Starting a Short Story - 05 Mar 2003 • Writer's Block - 23 Sep 2002 • Classroom Writing Activities - 10 Apr 2002 • Background - How Much is Too Much - 14 Jan 2002 • Thought vs. Action - 19 Apr 2001 • Distractions from Writing - 15 Mar 2001 • Writing Spec Scripts - 15 Mar 2001 • Inventing Aliens - 15 Mar 2001 • Hot and Cold Third-Person - 15 Mar 2001 • Themes - 2 Aug 2000 • Point of View - 2 Aug 2000 • Your Inner Editor - Aug, 2 2000 • Digital Books - Aug, 2 2000 • Novel Length - Aug 2, 2000 • Plotlines and Ideas - Apr 26, 2000 • The "Maguffin" - Apr 26, 2000 • On Plagiarism, Borrowing, Resemblance, and Influence - Dec 20, 1999 • When is Conflict Good? - Oct 05, 1999 • Inventing Stories - Jan 29, 1999 • Do I need an agent? - Jan 29, 1999 • OSC Critique - Nov 17, 1998 • Beginnings - Oct 29, 1998 • Discussion of Dialogue and Style - Aug 14, 1998 • Does a Writing Career Always Mean Novels? - Jul 16, 1998 • On Rhetoric and Style - May 12, 1998

What are some of the questions you ask yourself to start a story?

-- Anonymous

Actually, the first trigger to writing a story (or novel) is to find some detail or even or situation in the real world that makes you wonder - how would someone deal with this? What if this situation were different somehow? You exaggerate or clarify something from the real world and then insert a character into it - or several characters - and try to imagine what their different responses might be.

For instance: Writer comes to high school to give a speech. But the student who is most excited about becoming a writer refuses to go. The other kids - the ones who have read her stories and loved them - are baffled, till one of them says, "She's just jealous. She just doesn't like it that somebody else is more famous as a writer than she is." And the others all agree as if this were true. But ... the student has a completely different reason ... what is it? Why not go?

Notice - the why questions start almost immediately. But the trigger is that initial situation - writer comes to high school one student refuses to go, and it's the student you'd expect to go. That's really the key - a situation where something is not as you would expect it, where there's something out of place or wrong ... and you ask yourself why, and start letting the story develop from there.

-- 05 March 2003