Develop a story – All About Writing

Develop a story idea

So you know what you want to write, but perhaps you don’t know where to begin?

There are lots of places you can start … and it doesn’t have to be at the beginning!

Try some of the ideas below to kick start your story.

Start anywhere! It doesn’t matter whether it’s the beginning, middle or end. All authors edit their stories, change things around, remove and add new chapters, or paragraphs. Start your story where it feels right, and worry about where it fits in later.

Think about your characters, what would they do? Where are they going? What are they doing?

What sort of writer are you? Finding out may help you decide how to write your story.

Think about the voice of your story. Once you have your voice, you might find it easier to start writing.

Imagine you’ve already written your story and you find a copy in your bookstore … what would the blurb on the back of your book? Writing the blurb first can help you work out where to start writing.

A man called Edward De Bono came up with the concept of Lateral Thinking. Here are a couple of ways of using lateral thinking to approach your story from a different direction:

– Reversal – if you’re stuck writing your story, force things into reverse. Is your character being chased? Turn the story around so he’s doing the chasing! Is your character scared? Change events so she’s brave instead!

– Randomise – Put something completely unexpected into your story.