How To Write A Story
The Protagonist of your story is the main character. It’s the person you will spend the most time with, the person who’s story you’re following. When you set out to write their story, you need to ask yourself why. Why this character, why now? If you don’t have an answer to those questions, your Protagonist won’t really matter, so your story won’t really matter either.
The best stories take characters on a journey. They are changed and shaped by the events in your story and come out the other end as different people. This is emotional journey is known as your character’s arc. Usually a Protagonist will arc towards greater strength, learning from their errors, and an Antagonist will arc to greater evil.
When you’re writing your story, it’s a good idea to write from the perspective of one of the characters. It allows your story to feel more real and personal to your readers, and they will connect to your character as they share their experiences. However, sometimes you’ll want to hop perspectives to see the story through different eyes.
When you’re reading about a romance between two characters, assuming they’re adults, sex is a likely outcome. Letting your audience into that incredibly personal experience can be very rewarding. However, a badly written sex scene is just awkward and uncomfortable.
When you’re watching a film or a play, the setting of your story is immediately apparent. It’s created by set designers for the story to move through and around. However, when you’re writing a book, it’s your job as the writer to fill in that scenery.
One of the most important things to consider when you’re writing a story is the relationship between your Protagonist and your audience. If your audience don’t care about what happens to your Protagonist, they won’t care what happens in your story.
When your audience comes to your story, whether reading or watching, they won’t necessarily know what your story is about. They might have a blurb or a synopsis, but often that doesn’t tell them very much. I’m going to talk you through how to tell them quickly, and why it matters.
When you come up with an initial idea for a story, it can be very exciting. Perhaps you’ve invented a world, or thought of a character you want to write about. It fills you with creative urge and you’re dying to start pouring your story out. But then you sit down to write… I’m going to talk you through the process of brainstorming that initial story nugget idea so you can turn one small idea into the plan for a story.
When it comes to constructing a villain in your story, you need to put as much care and time into that character as you do the hero. No matter how interesting your hero is, and how exciting the conflict is, a boring villain will make your story boring. I’ll be exploring how to make sure your villain is an interesting character.
When you first start writing your story, and you’re introducing your characters, it can be easy to feel stalled. There will be lots of world to explore and lots of people to meet, so you may find you have lots to write about, but nothing’s actually happening.