a mea culpa to first-time writers
I recently had it brought home to me that the advice I constantly give struggling writers – just get words on the page, worry about fixing it later – isn’t quite as useful as I’d come to assume. Don’t get me wrong: at the end of the day, it’s still the final word. One writes or one doesn’t.
But. I realized that I completely failed to factor just how opaque and useless this is to someone who genuinely hasn’t ever done it. How maddening it is to be told to just DO when you aren’t clear what ‘do’ means.
Sorry, guys. I’ve been at this a while and lost sight of how vast and hostile a new experience can look before you’ve waded into it.
In an effort to be more help, I penned a fast How To on baby steps.
create a character
Just one: let’s tackle a short story before we move on to Game of Thrones. Don’t overthink it, just snatch the name you wish your parents gave you or your favorite Sportsball player. Boom, you have a protagonist.
To flesh them out, think of the character creation screen on a videogame. Height, build, gender, age, race; do they have a noteworthy scar on their face? Profession (don’t let yourself dwell on the decision, just pick). Where do they live?
Last step before we start our game, give your new friend a few attributes. Really only one or two; this is a short story, and if you create a gloriously detailed backstory, you’re going to be super bummed when you realize you can use .01% of it.
If you aren’t sure what to choose, look to the questions you answered already. You made them average-height but well-built, are they proud of their strength or self-conscious of it? You gave them a job, does it define them? Are they happy about that or does it feel stifling? Every choice you make helps to flesh out your story and create connections you can use, all you have to do is look for them.
square one
You did most of this already: you just need to have a sense before you begin of what your person’s situation is like at the time that the story happens. Again, don’t go into exhaustive detail. Think of it as a board game; you have to put your piece on START before you roll the die. Where are they, why are they there, how do they feel about it, time of day, stick with basics.
inciting incident
Your story is a narrative that follows your character as they walk a path from A to B. We’ve got A ready, but before the journey can begin, there needs to be a push. Something has to happen that forces your character to start walking.
Feel free to reach for something trite that strikes you as unambitious. Please. The point of this is to write your first ever story, not Ulysses.
- Someone knocks at the door.
- The lights go off.
- They get a text from a number they don’t recognize.
- There’s an explosion outside.
- A grimoire falls off a bookshelf on the far side of the room.
The point is, something has changed and your protagonist has to deal with it.
resolution
This is the body of your story. Don’t panic! You already have lots of facts that will help constrain you as you plot this path. Remember that you’re writing a short story: you want to aim for 3000-5000 words, which really limits the scope of the action.
It would be interesting if that leaping grimoire were the prison of an ancient shaman, trying to deliver to your hero a warning that a cabal of warlocks is plotting to resurrect an evil chinchilla laid to rest nine hundred years ago on the far side of the world. But you don’t have time to tell that story. It has to be more modest. Maybe the grimoire was stolen and is asking for help to get home.
Your choices are limited, too, by the qualities you gave your protagonist. You don’t have room for a dramatic character arc; if you made a timid, nonphysical scholar, their only possible reaction to violence is running. Coloring inside the lines will help you limit the parameters so the task stays manageable.
why it will be difficult
Simple as it sounds. The grimoire is written in a language your hero doesn’t know, so they have to negotiate with another tome that asks riddles/ has to be persuaded/ wants a present in exchange. The hero has to pass through a werewolf frat party on the way, with pitfalls comical or life-threatening. It’s raining, and the hero has no umbrella and no real mastery of water-repelling spells. You get the picture. Some speedbump standing between A and B that makes the story worth reading because the reader can’t be sure they know the outcome.
fin
I would leave the stunning twist for your second attempt. A nice, predictable walk from A to B is just fine; that werewolf frat party was plenty exciting. Keep to your wordcount and don’t sweat the ending. It’s common for short stories to end abruptly once the action is complete. No one needs to know where your character is in 10 years. They hand the book over to its owner, turn away, and pull their hood back up with a sigh, FIN.
Time to write!
You’ve got your pieces, the time has come to make a story out of them. Tell us about Protagonist and give us a sense of the setting. A sentence or two; a paragraph. That’s really all you need. We’re already ready for our inciting incident.
All you have to do now is talk us through the action. How does your character feel, what are they sensing? Tell us about the settings they move through, assuming they’re not stationary. If they are, tell us how the setting changes as time passes. Stick to your template from the beginning, and soon, the grimoire will be safely returned to its dwelling.
You did it!
a few final thoughts
There’s a reason no credible author will tell you the precise Right Steps necessary to make great literature: anyone worth listening to understands there’s no such thing. What works differs individual to individual, and it’s only through trial and error that you find, not only your voice, but a workable methodology. You may find the steps above to be hopelessly unstructured, but you may find I’m asking you to make too many choices before you get started.
The point was to set up a simple stencil an aspiring author might use if they’ve had it up to here with assholes like me telling them: Just write something, you learn from experience! I do understand that, when you don’t know where to start, you’d really like more guidance.
I don’t teach creative writing, as I assume you have intuited, but I talk to a lot of writers and would-be writers, and I know how frustrated people get. I would tell you not to lose hope, to keep plugging, to remember that every failure is a learning experience, but advice like that is as useful as the AY in ‘okay’ when you’re struggling and demoralized.
So, give it a try. Play my little game. If nothing else, it will give you someone to curse at other than yourself.
And hey: if you make it through to the end, you have A Story. Not just something to be proud of, but to study and think about while you decide what worked and what didn’t, in your story and your methods.
Bon courage, mes braves!
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