Let’s Write a Story!

Today, let’s talk about how to get started on a story. Treat this post like an exercise. I will have some questions, prompts, advice, and examples about how to start any story. This is a great exercise to write a page in response to this prompt. Writing is a muscle—so let’s work it!

What are the key ingredients to writing a story?

Let’s dive into each one:

• Character

• Setting

• Plot

• Where to begin?

• Character

When you begin a story, your character is the driving force of the plot and main connection to your reader.

• What is your character’s name?

• What do they want?

• Why can’t they get what they want?

• What are they willing to do to get it?

Stories are a jumble of motives, challenges, and tries. Your character has to want something and will try to achieve it. What they do, how they fail, and possibly succeed is your story. These wants are very important. I know people often ask first about a character’s backstory… my opinion on a vivid backstory is, why don’t you start your story in the backstory if it’s so interesting?

*You can still have a backstory, but backstories are important when the are directly relevant to the plot. Never tell them right away either because your reader will wonder why it’s not the part of the story you are telling.

For this exercise, I will create two characters:

Sue Flanigan: 27, she/her, on her honeymoon with her husband Kyle. Sue just wants a relaxing vacation, but her husband is showing some sides of his personality she has never seen before—nor does she like.

Kyle Flanigan: 32, he/him, on his honeymoon with his wife. He is ecstatic and wants to go skiing all day every day. Kyle’s new wife Sue is more finicky than he thought and keeps slowing down his dream-cation plans.

Read more about characters in my “Characters” WWW!

Setting

It’s fun to think about extravagant settings, but they must matter to the plot. There are many who get stuck on world-building and forget to work on their stories, or completely lose their story in all the details. Make sure your plot and characters come first.

Your setting should influence your plot and characters instead of just being there for a pretty background. I’ll explain this with two examples of how you should use a setting, and how you should not use a setting.

Setting: Ski-Lodge in Vermont, USA

Bad setting and plot:

Sue and Kyle Flanigan are on their honeymoon at a Vermont Ski Lodge. It’s beautiful. They have a great time, but they get into an argument and Kyle storms away. While Sue is waiting for Kyle to return (because he said he would come back to fix their relationship) his car breaks down and he is unable to meet her. Their honeymoon is ruined.

Okay. Does anything about this plot give you the feeling of a ski-lodge in Vermont? No? You’re right because these points could happen anywhere. Having a honeymoon, arguing, and the car breaking down can happen in the middle of a desert, in Las Vegas, at their home—anywhere. You need to make your plot and setting connect and interact with each other.

Good setting and plot:

Sue and Kyle go skiing for their honeymoon. The power at the ski-lodge goes out and they get into an argument because Kyle takes all the jackets and blankets for himself to stay warm. Sue leaves. Kyle goes to meet her and apologize at their favorite ski-slope, but an avalanche buries him. They later reconcile at the hospital.

Can a winter storm, winter coats, and an avalanche happen anywhere? Nope—this is a cheesy example of your setting and plot interacting.

Read more about Setting as seen in my “Scary Stories” WWW!

Plot

My previous example of setting includes plot, so I will emphasis a few points.

Go along with what your character wants/ is aiming for. Here, Sue wants her husband to be the caring and protective spouse she thinks he is. She knows she can take care of herself, but she wants him to as well. She also just wants to enjoy their time on vacation.

Your plot doesn’t need to have the biggest-baddest problem, the evilest of bad guys, the most interesting and bravest characters…your characters can be normal. You can make a story out of everyday life. Plus, the worst and the most evil gets cliché very fast.

Read more about cliché villains in my “Scary Stories” WWW!

Where to Begin

Starting a story can be a challenge. As a rule of thumb, you want to start when something is happening. Waking up or siting deep in thought is cliché and boring to your readers. There is nothing pulling us in because literally nothing is happening. You need to start inside your story. Not before it begins.

Let’s return to my silly story with the honeymooning couple Sue and Kyle. Their story can start in multiple places so let’s make a list.

• Start on the wedding day morning?

• Start while walking down the aisle?

• Start when they leave the wedding?

• Start as the plane lands at their honeymoon destination?

You will want to pick moments that have impact, a change, or something going on. I picked a list of moments where something is actively happening around them to have a trajectory of the story. Let’s see what works best.

Starting on the wedding day morning:

Pros: It’s before the big moment, many thoughts leading up to the wedding day and you can zoom into one of the characters.

Cons: A quiet moment because nothing is happening yet. Plus, you will have the entire wedding to go through… the story is about the honeymoon, so this is quite a distance away!

Start with walking down the aisle:

Same arguments as the previous example.

If you think it’s a good moment to show they have a good relationship… you can easily do that in other scenes on their honeymoon.

As they leave the wedding:

This gets us a bit closer to the honeymoon but there is still a lot of downtime, traveling… all of that will sound like exposition, so I recommend starting at a moment where their honeymoon is truly happening.

On the plane:

The characters are where they need to be, nearly at their destination. Planes are chaotic too so it can give you a colorful scene right away and can show how your characters react to the environment around them. I think Kyle needs another drink and Sue is already nitpicking something.

This setting also helps to establish your character’s background. There is a lot to be inferred if they are sitting in economy or in 1st class.

You can also start with these characters at the lodge as well. I personally have a taste for transitional beginnings, I like seeing the characters arrive at their destination… but in a way that can be cliché too if you are not careful.

Your beginning in each setting needs a challenge that sets the mood. I might make it so their luggage is late, or they have a disagreement about something that happened at the wedding (since we know this will be a tumultuous couple.) The characters can also be excited—totally in their honeymoon phase. All the choices you make depend on the characters you wish to create and show to your reader.

Heck, I could write that Sue’s luggage was lost and that can further spurn the argument of Kyle keeping all the warm clothes to himself when the power goes out—always connect things when you can!

Conclusion

Well, those are the points I think about when beginning a story. There are many more things I could say but I think this is a good surface-level start for now. Be sure to read my other installments if you are interested in learning more in-depth about character, setting, and more.

Now, go write something better than poor Sue and Kyle’s story! Good luck!