Getting Your Story Written Part 2: Instruction
Now that you have “STARTED WRITING,” you are probably wondering if what you have written even makes sense or is a compelling enough story for anyone to like. Well, let us look into it a little further. If you followed the suggestions from the first part of “Getting Your Story Written,” then you probably should have something similar to the example below…
The idea is not to have a flawlessly written or formatted story right at the start; it is to get the information down in its entirety FIRST, then have it edited and later re-edited to get it into the final story format. Having multiple rough drafts well before the finished product is not uncommon; I prefer and suggest it. Here is what I come up with when I use this “Getting Your Story Written” structure:
WHAT TYPE OF STORY DO I WANT TO WRITE?
Picking your genre is the first step when beginning to write your story. I am going to create a new short story right now with you, on the fly, using these steps. I like a mixture of things, but because of how outside the box I like to think, I can try to do something a little more familiar. So starting with a Genre, how about we pick a “CRIME/ MYSTERY.” It is ok if this is not your ideal subject to write about, you can use whatever genre you like. Here is a suggestion. I would like you to write your own short story like I am now as we go along, and let’s see where we get.
WHAT TYPE OF INFORMATION DO I WANT WRITTEN IN MY STORY?
Creating the main idea and having support ideas that fit the genre is vital in this step. These are the critical points covered and elaborated upon throughout your book. This section can get a little long so, let’s only use a couple of examples for now. But since this is a short story, a lot is not needed. So, let us gather the main idea and support ideas. I think “a murder at a party” sounds interesting.
- Someone gets murdered at a private party, and everyone who is in attendance is a suspect.
- An extensive investigation ensues, and no one is allowed to leave until the culprit is captured.
- It is a retirement party with food and drinks.
- The victim dies by poison… Food or Drink?
Now that we have a solid starting point with a few ideas to cover in the story, we can address characters more easily. Before we move forward, note that I questioned “Food or Drink.” I do this in my brainstorming when I’m on a crossroad and haven’t decided either way yet. I’ll eventually go back to it and make a final decision; I just usually wait on other information first. In this case, “characters” is the key.
WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERS, WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE FOR YOUR WRITTEN STORY?
Understanding your target audience is and creating compelling characters for that audience is our next step. It is easier to find your target audience when you know the necessary information you are providing. Of course, you have a preconceived audience in the beginning; that’s what the genre identifies. The information we have just created, however, either includes or omits specific audience types. We further do so by the characters we choose as well…
Target Audience
- Crime/ Mystery includes Fiction readers
- Crime/ Mystery includes Crime/ Mystery readers
- Retirement party includes senior readers
- Murder at a party includes adult readers
- Retirement party omits children readers
- Retirement party omits the young teen readers
These are just a few examples. If you are writing a self-help book, the content identification works just the same, just different information. Now that we have a better idea of whom we are talking to, we know what types of characters better fit the story. Do understand; the character types further change this dynamic as well…
So selecting a role that fits the demographic we wish to reach is crucial. A Retirement Party for an athlete speaks more to those who like sports because the theme of the story that follows speaks more towards the sporting community. For this story, how about we go with a “Retiring Detective” since this is a crime/ mystery.
Characters
At this point, there is no victim; we are just putting together our character list. We can decide who is a better fit for the victim tag shortly.
- Retiree – Detective Marcus Williams
- Spouse – Debora Williams
- Best Friend – Jason Clarke
- Best Friend’s Wife – Minnie Clarke
- Two co-workers – Slater brothers Mark (Detective partner) and Matt
- Neighbor & Wife – Henry & Nicole Washington
Here I just slapped down a few roles, then names for those roles that you would expect to attend a private retirement party. Since we are creating a short story, this character list suffices. And with this list, I choose “Detective Marcus Williams” as the victim. In my frame of thought, Marcus fits the ideas, “getting poisoned by food or drink, and everyone is a suspect,” the best.
Now that we have the victim, who becomes the protagonist and antagonist? Choosing the specific characters for these roles pushes your story in a particular direction, so do not choose lightly. Spoiler alert!!! This is where we find out who did it. How about we choose, “Detective Mark Slater as the Protagonist,” and “Minnie Clarke as the Antagonist.” These two have been selected entirely at random with no real goal in mind. With a blank slate, I can further create their identities any way that I want, which makes it easier to create a mold for a character than to put a character into a role that may not fit. If I had given the characters personalities or specific identities earlier, you would have to find which Identity would best fit being a protagonist and antagonist as well, which means that you would be limited in your choices when selecting.
Now that we have our type of book, main ideas, characters, and audience…
WHERE AND AT WHAT POINT DO WE WANT OUR STORY TO START?
With all of the information we have gathered, selecting a starting point becomes a little easier. Well, let’s start by looking at what we already have. “Private Party,” we can host it at Marcus’ estate, in a room he had built on to his home to have different gatherings and parties. Let’s make the story begin in the evening with the “guests(characters)” already gathered, and the party already started. It is an excellent time to have a gathering with an imminent catastrophic incident to come.
Moving this story forward to keep it short, everyone is sitting at a single long table eating and conversing with “Marcus” at the head. I have now decided that Marcus dies by “poison in his food.” Marcus is making a toast but dies before finishing his toast, which is why it was easy for me to decide on poison in the food. Having a captivating setting and starting point is critical to story building because it sets the tone to all that follows. It drives your flashbacks, backstories, foreshadowing, and initial interests all at once if you hit the right perspective.
With all that we’ve brainstormed and written so far, I guess it is now time for us to…
START WRITING!!!
The table is full of laughter, delight, and intrigue at the passing of stories of Marcus and how he has affected their lives and their relationships with him. Nothing but good-natured tales came from his Partner Mark Slater and his brother Matt Slater as they provided detailed accounts of their work experiences, while laughable horror stories came from the neighbor Henry and his wife, Nicole Washington about their first encounters as neighbors and now friends.
Debora, Marcus’s wife, chuckles over the awkwardness of his youth when they first began dating as she explains brokenly through sips of red wine and snorts of laughter. Marcus and Debora’s best friends Jason and Minnie Clarke tag team on how they met the couple years ago on date night. Jason joked about how Minnie always pushed for them to become closer friends with Marcus and Debora since they didn’t have many decent ones. While Minnie expressed that Jason was so lonely and was just too stubborn to admit it.
Marcus however, was starting to feel a little tired of sorts. He deeply enjoyed the company and compliments but the night was no longer young, the room was getting ever hot, and he couldn’t seem to finish his second plate. His drinks no longer quenched his thirst and the desire to sleep began to invade his consciousness. To fight off going to sleep at a party in front of company, Marcus attempts to close out the night with a toast. He so then stands, tapping on his glass with his fork to gain the attention of the room.
Marcus places down his fork and raises his glass, “My friends, I thank you for coming over to share this intimate evening with me in celebrating My retirement from the police force. To have shared so many wonderful moments with you in my life, I couldn’t think of a better way to close out an evening like this.”
Marcus’s eyes begin to get blurry as he speaks. Still holding his glass up in the air, Marcus reaches up to rub his eyes with his free hand. The table erupts with sympathetic awes, as all believe he is becoming emotional. Debora reaches up and rubs his side in support.
“It’s ok baby,” Debora says, trying to urge Marcus to continue.
However, Marcus is now finding it hard to even focus on anything and is finding it increasingly harder to speak.
“I appreciate you all,” Marcus starts again. “And… And… I, oh man… I… Help me.” He says as he collapses.
Marcus falls forward hitting the table then wildly tumbles to the floor. His breathing becomes erratic, and then he starts convulsing as everyone rushes over to his aid. Mark believes that Marcus is having a seizure so he rolls him on his side. Marcus’s convulsions suddenly stop but Mark is quickly alarmed because Marcus is now unresponsive. Mark Immediately begin CPR as Jason dials 911 from his cell phone.
REVIEW
Let’s stop right here for now. We, in a short time, have created the beginnings of a compelling short story. Did yours turn out similar? Let us recap. In this story, we have included all created characters, Marcus’ death, and two of the four main ideas we’ve created, which totals approximately five hundred words written. All are stemming from a few beginning steps that help to give us content and direction. So if we continue to follow this format, we should now have more questions and ideas for this story, and then we are to repeat our steps. When repeating the steps, you may find that some answers may change a bit. Like you may want to get a little fancy and make the story a Crime/ Suspense/ Thriller if desired, which changes the audience a little.
In this story, we need to add to the main idea of why Minnie Clarke killed Marcus Williams. Maybe they were having an affair, and she didn’t like that he ended it after retiring to be home with his wife more. That would make the genre drama as well now, which would also add to your audience. It would even speak to the motive and the character backgrounds, which is needed to push your story and narrative even further.
Character development is a significant part of a story, so each main character should have a detailed background and past. Support characters can be less complicated but not less important. How much of a character’s background you decided to put into the main story is entirely up to you, but it is a driving point on the character’s actions, behaviors, speech, and motives.
Do not worry about editing all grammatical errors or story structure as I have not either in the short story we have just created. They are what gets done when the story is complete. It would also slow your progress if too much focus is on grammar, but basic grammar is still a necessity. Writing in this format is one of many ways someone can write an incredible work of art; moreover, it is an excellent blueprint for a beginner or someone struggling to get started. As you can see, there are still loads to discuss when it comes to writing a story, but to get started writing, you should be well on your way using these steps.
If you find that you would like to have more help in getting your story written, Ty Bear Books Publishing can help.