WRITING TIPS FOR THE ASPIRING AUTHOR: HOW TO START A STORY

I thought it would be fun to share writing tips with my blogs for those of you aspiring authors out there! I plan to also share how to spray book edges and what to do once you've completed your manuscript, but for now, allow me to introduce this series: WRITING YOUR FIRST BOOK.

Ok, so many of you may have a dream and vision for your book or maybe a phenomenal idea for a book but don't know how to bring it to life. That's where this blog series comes in. As an Indie author, I'd love to share any insights and writing tips I have to help you hone your craft.

THIS WEEK WE'LL DISCUSS HOW TO PLOT/OUTLINE AND HOW TO START YOUR STORY:

I have been doing INSTAGRAM LIVES with some author friends and one recently really highlighted the differences in crafting a story. She had said she will outline everything--every single chapter is outlined. Me? No way. I'm very much a fly by the seat of your pants kind of girl. 

So how do I start and know what to write? Truthfully, I don't. I mean, I do to some extent, but so much of it is a surprise to me too. I will start a book with a ROUGH outline. I know where I start, the basics of the word and plot, and I know where I plan on the book ending. But everything else? At best I have a vague idea. 

Let's take it back a half-step. What does an outline look like for novels? If you ask ten different authors this question, chances are you'll get ten different answers. For me, my outlines are basic. My chapters rarely go where I think they will and the chapters that surprise me the most are often my favorites later on. This said, I don't waste time outlining something that will likely not happen. Instead, I focus on the plot by asking: what do I want to achieve? Where is this story going to end? How will my characters grow? Once I know or at least have a good idea of how I want to end it, I begin plotting my plot points. 

To do this, I'll break my outline into thirds and divide it by character POV. At that point, I use rough bullet points for what I want to accomplish in plot and character progression for each third of the book, with the last third almost always leading up to the grand finale. I think of these thirds as follows: 

• The first part is the initial setup--world building is established and characters are introduced. The initial problem is also introduced and things begin to get complicated.

• The second part is the meat of the story. This is where my characters will face their big issues, grow, and learn of new challenges. It's this part of the story where we'll see the hero's journey really take off, where plot points progress and twists occur. Then, I set up for the finale.

• The final third is all focused on getting my characters to the finish line. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of drama and twists. Everything in the story has led up to this point, to the grand crescendo, and this keeps things incredibly interesting. More often than not, my readers can't put the book down once they hit this third of the book.

And that's the basics of how I plot out my book. The best advice I can give is to brainstorm your story ahead of time, whether that's in your head, a word doc, notes on your phone, voice memos, or texts to yourself (I'll use a medley of all of these). Just get the ideas out and start to build your world and story in your head. Once you have the meat of it figured out and know where you want it to end and how this will likely happen, start your rough outline. Divide it into thirds and bullet point it by POV. Don't forget to include more bullet points with internal struggles for the characters and document the growth you want to see--no one loves a stagnant character. 

Once I've done this, I just start to write. I'll go into a chapter sometimes having no idea exactly what's going to happen, a vague idea of what I want to accomplish and more often than not completely surprised by the ending. It's like the moment I just let go and allow my creative person to flow, it just comes to me and the dots connect beautifully.

just write it and go for it.

It's always important to me that my writing is smooth and often the way I accomplish that is to simply let it flow as I write it and connect point 'A' to 'B' to 'C' on a journey, like a river. I visualize the scene in my head and then just allow it to translate to the pages as I try to capture as much of the detail that I see in my head to the page so the reader can also participate in the story like I do. I think of this as 'river writing'. I want my story to flow and feel organic and the best way I can accomplish this is to let it flow, like an unblocked river, and document what I see and hear and feel as best I can.

And that's it. That's my whole strategy boiled down to nuts and bolts. I allow my creative genius to simply flow and have her way with the story and it's always such a fun journey. The last two chapters I wrote surprised me in the BEST ways and helped solve an issue I was having with getting from point 'A' to point 'B'. 

So what's my tip for outlines and how to start a story in the simplest words? Allow your creative genius to simply flow and have fun with it. Brainstorm, outline, bullet point, and flow. 

My method may not work for you, or it may be perfect. More than likely, it may provide a springboard for you to jump from and allow you to make it your own. Either way, the more knowledge we have the more power we have. I'll be sharing more tips on how to create a compelling word, sensory writing, character building, story structure, and much more in future blogs. If you ever have something you'd like to know more about, please let me know!

XOXO,

Rebecca