Galooza
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- Nov 15, 2021
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If there's one question that comes up the most in my view, it's how to start a story or begin writing. I haven't written one yet, but wanted to write my thoughts as to how I want to go about writing a story idea I have before I do. This isn't a be all end all guide for everyone as it contains my own opinions you may not totally agree on, but I think it can help a lot in making the starting process a lot easier.
Start With a Theme
To start with an example, I'm going to use Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (Irregular in Magic High School). If you strip away everything, there's one overarching theme that ties the whole story together, whether the author planned it that way or not, fusing magic and technology. At the time, at least for me, it was a pretty innovative idea I hadn't seen yet and probably why I liked it so much. I don't believe the author started with the theme but to me, building off of that makes coming up with everything easier, if it doesn't even fall into place when you tie everything to that theme somehow. But the question then is, what theme? Let me get into a couple of points to illustrate better:
1) Pick what really resonates with you. I was in ROTC in high school, and one time we were assigned to give a three minute speech. For our topic, we had to pick three from which our teacher would select. Well, red-eyed tree frogs happened to be my favorite animal and I had an idea of how I could turn their history and care instructions into a speech. Okay, I knew what I wanted, but would it get picked out of the three?
2) Don't think of one mundane idea, create a unique one from many. I coincidentally had an idea for a plan on how I could better my odds that my topic would get picked. First, I wrote the vaguest topic that came to mind, music. Next, I chose something slightly more specific but still very general, World War 2. Perhaps you don't know what you want right out of the gate like I did. Well, there's a world-sized bargain bin of mundane ideas like these to make use of. Pick from mundane ideas, are you crazy? Crazy enough to pick from, no. Crazy enough to create from, yes.
3) Be specific. A lot of stories never really get terribly interesting because they don't have a theme that ties everything together or what is there is too vague and mainstream to be interesting. Magic/Cultivation? Eh... Technology? Okay... Mixing the two by making magic a unique form of technology? YES! Of my three topics: Music, World War 2, & Red-eyed tree frogs, which sounds the most interesting (To me)? Because it was specific and mostly unheard of in high school, I got my topic.
Turn that Theme into a Web of Cohesion
The entire premise of this is to create cohesion. To me, that's what separates a random set of events from an actual story. And now that you've created a theme you're hopefully excited to write about, tie everything to it. Potential for dynamic characters you can relate to and a deep and intricately built world goes through the roof. And if you're writing a power fantasy, first and foremost, tie that idea to your power system, then to your world. The popular thing with breakthroughs in cultivation novels are to make them happen to win fights or just happen as they happen. While not bad per se, this is uninspired. Tie the plot to new breakthroughs by having them change the world in ways that chain new events. That will in turn give the stronger magicians/cultivators an actual reason for showing up when they do.
Superficial vs. Genuine Interest
Within the realm of fantasy, there's a sense of wonder many argue can't be kept by establishing rules, etc. While that may be true to a degree, at the end of the day, cutting these rules and guidelines eliminates what's genuinely interesting compared to this superficial sense of wonder. Try to keep it, but don't hurt the story for it.
1) Power Systems. Is a magic system with a million spells all that wondrous if you only see a handful of them? No. Rather it's what those spells can, or better yet, *can't* do that makes the system interesting. So establish a few rules/guidelines to go by, then follow the rabbit hole as far as it goes.
2) Characters. Watching op characters trample people is fun, sure, but the novelty wears off eventually. At the end of the day, it's not what you're going to remember is *good* about a character. Ogres (And people) are like onions, they have layers. When you ask what makes someone weak rather than strong, it gets interesting.
A Good Stock
Now it's time to build a basic series of events. Note that basic is as far you're meant to go for the time being. In order to know the end from the beginning, it's important to decide a final scene early on. It doesn't have to be permanent, likely very little will be when writing time comes. Now, start asking what if questions to connect events. Think through a few very basic outlines, then set it aside and do something else to take your complete focus off of it. So long as you've thought your chain of events through, your mind will filter ideas to give inspiration for a natural sequence of events. Like making a good stock, ideas need time to simmer.
Embrace The Grind
It's a simple fact you can't plan an entire story beforehand, you're going to have to fill in the details from scratch, and it's a grind. Creating anything from scratch is. It's likely you'll hit the wall everyone does and face burn out. This is why I had you start with a theme, particularly one you'd be excited to write about. Never forget that theme and how to connect it to every aspect of the story. Then, when you do face burn out, give the story a break like before. But also like before, you'll rummage through new ideas that'll hopefully reignite that spark. Quitting happens when you're not prepared for the reality of the grind, but if you prepare so as to embrace the grind, you might just come back stronger and create a story that you're excited to write and readers will be excited to read. Good luck!
Start With a Theme
To start with an example, I'm going to use Mahouka Koukou no Rettousei (Irregular in Magic High School). If you strip away everything, there's one overarching theme that ties the whole story together, whether the author planned it that way or not, fusing magic and technology. At the time, at least for me, it was a pretty innovative idea I hadn't seen yet and probably why I liked it so much. I don't believe the author started with the theme but to me, building off of that makes coming up with everything easier, if it doesn't even fall into place when you tie everything to that theme somehow. But the question then is, what theme? Let me get into a couple of points to illustrate better:
1) Pick what really resonates with you. I was in ROTC in high school, and one time we were assigned to give a three minute speech. For our topic, we had to pick three from which our teacher would select. Well, red-eyed tree frogs happened to be my favorite animal and I had an idea of how I could turn their history and care instructions into a speech. Okay, I knew what I wanted, but would it get picked out of the three?
2) Don't think of one mundane idea, create a unique one from many. I coincidentally had an idea for a plan on how I could better my odds that my topic would get picked. First, I wrote the vaguest topic that came to mind, music. Next, I chose something slightly more specific but still very general, World War 2. Perhaps you don't know what you want right out of the gate like I did. Well, there's a world-sized bargain bin of mundane ideas like these to make use of. Pick from mundane ideas, are you crazy? Crazy enough to pick from, no. Crazy enough to create from, yes.
3) Be specific. A lot of stories never really get terribly interesting because they don't have a theme that ties everything together or what is there is too vague and mainstream to be interesting. Magic/Cultivation? Eh... Technology? Okay... Mixing the two by making magic a unique form of technology? YES! Of my three topics: Music, World War 2, & Red-eyed tree frogs, which sounds the most interesting (To me)? Because it was specific and mostly unheard of in high school, I got my topic.
Turn that Theme into a Web of Cohesion
The entire premise of this is to create cohesion. To me, that's what separates a random set of events from an actual story. And now that you've created a theme you're hopefully excited to write about, tie everything to it. Potential for dynamic characters you can relate to and a deep and intricately built world goes through the roof. And if you're writing a power fantasy, first and foremost, tie that idea to your power system, then to your world. The popular thing with breakthroughs in cultivation novels are to make them happen to win fights or just happen as they happen. While not bad per se, this is uninspired. Tie the plot to new breakthroughs by having them change the world in ways that chain new events. That will in turn give the stronger magicians/cultivators an actual reason for showing up when they do.
Superficial vs. Genuine Interest
Within the realm of fantasy, there's a sense of wonder many argue can't be kept by establishing rules, etc. While that may be true to a degree, at the end of the day, cutting these rules and guidelines eliminates what's genuinely interesting compared to this superficial sense of wonder. Try to keep it, but don't hurt the story for it.
1) Power Systems. Is a magic system with a million spells all that wondrous if you only see a handful of them? No. Rather it's what those spells can, or better yet, *can't* do that makes the system interesting. So establish a few rules/guidelines to go by, then follow the rabbit hole as far as it goes.
2) Characters. Watching op characters trample people is fun, sure, but the novelty wears off eventually. At the end of the day, it's not what you're going to remember is *good* about a character. Ogres (And people) are like onions, they have layers. When you ask what makes someone weak rather than strong, it gets interesting.
A Good Stock
Now it's time to build a basic series of events. Note that basic is as far you're meant to go for the time being. In order to know the end from the beginning, it's important to decide a final scene early on. It doesn't have to be permanent, likely very little will be when writing time comes. Now, start asking what if questions to connect events. Think through a few very basic outlines, then set it aside and do something else to take your complete focus off of it. So long as you've thought your chain of events through, your mind will filter ideas to give inspiration for a natural sequence of events. Like making a good stock, ideas need time to simmer.
Embrace The Grind
It's a simple fact you can't plan an entire story beforehand, you're going to have to fill in the details from scratch, and it's a grind. Creating anything from scratch is. It's likely you'll hit the wall everyone does and face burn out. This is why I had you start with a theme, particularly one you'd be excited to write about. Never forget that theme and how to connect it to every aspect of the story. Then, when you do face burn out, give the story a break like before. But also like before, you'll rummage through new ideas that'll hopefully reignite that spark. Quitting happens when you're not prepared for the reality of the grind, but if you prepare so as to embrace the grind, you might just come back stronger and create a story that you're excited to write and readers will be excited to read. Good luck!
