How to start writing:
Unless you are very experienced, just sitting and banging away at your computer is like jumping into your car and simply driving without a destination and a map. I know of several experienced, successful Authors that make notes and build the skeleton of their story before they finally sit down and write.
When I write professionally (which does not include my Lit postings) I use a method I call "The hunter and gatherer Method."
Basically, I make several lists which help me hunt and gather ideas.
To reiterate, a dramatic story with a classical structure is about
"A
protagonist
who
tries to get
something
which he/she
desperately needs
that is
very difficult to get
and
succeeds/ fails.
" This will now be referred to as our lead sentence.
Obviously, people decide to write a story for several different reasons. It could be you read something in the paper, about a person or people who did this and that, or you have experiences or fantasies you want to share, or you are asked to write a story on a particular subject (for money, if you are lucky). It is enough if you have a rough idea of what you want to write about.
Your first step is to choose the story you want to write:
Choosing your story:
Any story which involves more than one person can be told from several different perspectives and angles. You can have several characters who play an important role in a story, but in order to make it dramatic, you have to tell the story of only one of them. That one character is the one you chose to be your protagonist. Several factors play a role in choosing your story and your protagonist.
You might choose the character whose perspective you know best, or the one you think your target audience can identify or sympathize with most.
I will use a concrete example: Lets say you would like to tell the story of a housewife who cheats on her husband with her gardener. There are at least three different angles here. You can tell the story from the wife's angle, or the husband's or the gardener's.
The wife's angle is that of a woman who cheats on her husband and betrays him. The husband's is that of a man who is betrayed by his wife. The gardener's is that of a man who seduces another man's woman.
Now, we will go deeper into the possible angles. Remember, we want to put our story in the form of the lead sentence, which is
"A
protagonist
tries to get
something
which he/she
desperately needs
that is
very difficult to get
and
succeeds/ fails.
"
The Housewife's Stories:
If we want to make the housewife our protagonist, we must look for angles where she actively wants something that is hard to get. If she just wants the gardener's big cock and gets it, just like that, and the husband comes home and immediately says, "Oh, it really turns me on to see you with another man," such a story has no tension and suspense. However, we could try the following angles....
-She could be a woman who is greatly tempted into having sex or an affair with her sexy gardener, but she abhors infidelity and wants to be faithful and loyal to her husband.
-Or the gardener could have some kind of power over her and is trying to force her into having sex or an affair against her will.
-or she could be a woman who wants to seduce her handsome, young gardener, but he does not want her, for some reason.
-or she could be having a secret affair with her gardener and wants to keep this a secret from her husband, who is getting suspicious, and would destroy her if he found out.
-Or she could be having a fling with her gardener, with no intention of getting divorced, but the gardener now he wants her to break up with her husband and is putting pressure on her.
The Husband's Angle:
If we want the husband as our protagonist, what angle could we use so that he actively wants something which is difficult to get?
-He could suspect that the gardener is after his wife, and he wants to make sure that the guy does not get her. Therefore, he is a man fighting to keep his woman.
-Or, he could suspect that his wife might be cheating, and wants to find out the truth, in other words, he wants to set a trap to catch the cheating wife and gardener.
-Or he could be a man who wants to test his wife's fidelity and hires and pays a young, attractive gardener to try and seduce her.
-or he could discover that his wife is cheating and tries to get revenge on both.
Note: In all examples, he actively wants something. He doesn't just suddenly find out his wife is cheating and that's it.
The Gardener's Stories:
If we take the gardener as our protagonist, what angle can we take where he is actively trying to get something?
-He could be a young man trying to seduce an attractive, married woman who does not want to cheat.
-Or he could be a man who has fallen in love with a married woman and wants to convince her to leave her husband for him.
-Or he could be trying to keep his affair with her secret from her husband, who is getting suspicious and would destroy him if he found out.
-or he could be a young man who is being forced into sex or an affair by a rich, powerful, elder woman against his will, and is trying to get out of it but she wont let him go.
Choosing your Protagonist:
If you are new to writing, I would suggest you tell the story from the perspective of a character you understand and know best (your gender, social status, age, race and so forth).
It is not advisable to make your protagonist a type of person that you do not know or understand. Lets say you are a man who has no idea how housewives think, then do not try to tell her story, unless you are prepared to invest lots of time in research, or you might earn one of those comments one often reads, like, "Author is obviously a man who has no idea how women think."
Then do what I did above. Make a list of the possible angles and stories you can tell from your protagonist's point of view. Choose the one you find most interesting, and then start developing it.
NOTE: If say, you want to tell the wife's story, but you would also like to give your readers an insight into the feelings and actions of the husband and the gardener, you then incorporate these into your story as sub plots. However, that comes after you have developed your main story, and we will look at that later.
Step by Step Plot Development:
For the purpose of this exercise, I will take the housewife as my protagonist. And from her possible stories, I will take the first as my story.
I will put this in the form of our lead sentence,
"A
protagonist
tries to get
something
which he/she
desperately needs
that is
very difficult to get
and
succeeds/ fails.
"
Therefore, my story is about "A housewife who wants to be faithful to her husband, but she is greatly tempted by her gardener, and fails."
Therefore, in my story, my protagonist, the housewife will try to resist the temptation of her gardener and end up giving in to him.
The reader does not have to know all this from the first page, but I as an Author, must know all these things before I start writing. Contrary to what some Authors like to believe, a writer does not write and let the story take him somewhere. If you do so, you will end up waffling and meandering about aimlessly. You have to be in control of your story. You take the story where you want it to go, not the other way around.
Now, I will start developing my story.
THE BEGINNING (ACT 1):
I will now establish the setting of my story, the main character/protagonist, her need and why it is difficult to get. In other words, THE WHO, THE WHAT and THE WHY.
THE WHO:
What kind of a person could she be?
-Name?
-Age?
-Physical attributes (I would suggest the type of woman that you find attractive. It is easy to sell the type of woman you find attractive. Though most writers always opt for this, It is so boring to always read about tall, slim blond women with big tits)
Character? (make a list of several different types of female characters that you know, but don't make it too detailed as yet)
-is she a typical housewife?
-or a sophisticated, rich lady?
-a spoilt, selfish snob?
-a learned lady?
-is she confident, vocal, bossy.
-shy, demure
-optimistic, good natured..
-morose, pessimistic
-how long has she been married?
-does she have children?
THE SETTING:
Where does she live? What is the social attitude towards infidelity amongst the people that she is around? (Note: towards infidelity, because that is the theme of my story, not towards Michael Jordan or the war in Iraqi. If our story were about a gay or lesbian relationship, we would want to know how homosexuality is viewed in her social circles. If it were about an IR relationship, we would want to know about the racism or lack thereof in her social circles)
-does she have swingers for friends
-does she live in a society of holly rollers who would like to stone cheats?
-does she live in a big city?
-or a small town where everybody knows everybody and everything done in the dark quickly comes to light, especially cheating?
-does she have curious neighbors who are always observing her?
Her MOTIVATION. THE WHY:
Now, I have to establish why she has a need to stay faithful to her husband? Think of all the reasons she could have for not wanting to cheat on her husband and list them.
-does she love him very much and cannot imagine having sex with any other man?
-is she afraid that if she cheats, she can break up her family, which is the most important thing for her?
