How To: Start Writing

Preparing Your Story

Preparing Your Story

Before you even start writing, you need to prepare. Preparing is possibly the most important step when it comes to writing and without it your story could become unorganised and/or slightly confusing. Preparing may be a hard task (finding information on characters, settings, plots, historic facts, etc...)but it pays off in the end.

Before you even start preparing, you want to know what your book is about. What's the point of planning something that doesn't exist? You should have at least a basic plot idea and maybe a few characters. You also need to know what direction your story is heading in. Your ideas will probably change often but keep any updates stored somewhere, you don't want to forget anything do you now.

When preparing your stories you'll probably want to keep all your ideas in one place. I personally save a folder onto my computer and add onto it when I have any new ideas. On this I usually have sub folders so it's even more organised and easy for me to access.

You may prefer to keep your ideas in folders/binders, and I recommend using coloured dividers so you can find certain information quickly.

If you're wondering how Allison and I write articles together, we use Google Docs so we can make changes at the same time. We have separate docs for different books and use a table of contents for easy access to chapters.

Like we said in our last post, having a schedule is key. It helps you plan what you need to do each day (if you're up to it) and keeps your day-to-day life organised (unless you're like me and tend to have a schedule but doesn't stick to it). This could also been used for what you need to day that day, Allison and I literally just planned our post schedule before I started writing this.

You'll also need to research. You might need to research different types of magic or different types of poisons or different cultures. Whatever it is you will probably end up researching throughout the whole time you write your novel. That maybe just small little questions to how your world would correspond with the way laws work. This can also stop loopholes in your work e.g. if Gandalf could ask the Eagles for help why didn't he ask them to take them straight to Mordor in the first place?

Characters are also a huge preparation step as your plot is the fuel and characters are the oxygen that starts the fire, that is your novel. I personally like to think of how my character behaves and how his personality shows through in his looks. Two examples of this are Peter and Al from the Divergent series. Peters is egotistical and feels the need to show off his strength while Al is honest and shy which is shown through his posture. After this step, I like to imagine what said character looks like. I like to think of actors and if they remind me of my character, my character might end up having some of their features. Try making up questions that link to your plot and answer the questions as if you were the character.

Also try planning each chapter in advance. It may take a while but it's better to have a basic outline than starting a chapter and then going off task. That isn't good. Having chapter plans can help you visualise what happens after certain points and where you might want to include flashbacks or other things. This also gives you a general idea of what your chapter needs to include but you may prefer free writing.

I hope you found this helpful. If you have any requests leave them in our pm and we'll try to write your ideas ASAP. Also leave any creative criticism, as we would love to hear it. It improves your experience and helps us make you happy.

Not all those who wander are lost - J.R.R Tolkein

Liya xx