Writing a Book
Writing fiction can be fun and rewarding, but it can also be frustrating if your motivation and direction fail you. Here are three basic questions to help lay foundations and establish overall sideboards.
1. Whom Are You Writing About? As humans, our stories don’t have to be about humans but our characters have to at least have human qualities. Who is the main character? What are they like? What strengths and (more importantly) flaws do they possess? Why do we care about them?
2. What Happens To The Character(s)? This is the plot of the story. In a good story, the something that happens is almost always bad or at least challenging. Stories are about characters living through adversity. That is how we see our own lives and the world generally. Having a good idea about what will happen is critical to getting started on a story.
3. How Does #2 Above Change The Folks In #1? I once read that a good story is like a good airplane flight. It takes off from one place, flies through the air, and lands somewhere else. It’s good to start out with a strong idea of that somewhere else. It doesn’t have to be geographically different, of course. In many good stories, the characters simply grow up mentally and emotionally. In almost all stories the change is for the better (there are rare exceptions such as The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka). But the important thing is something has become different; you can’t simply do a perfect rewind to the beginning (just like life).
Here endeth the lesson on writing a book.
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