Would You Like to Learn How to Write a Story?

How to Write A Story

Writing is the most popular craft in the world. Writing has evolved through the century as a popular way to express ideas, feelings and innovation. You can find ways to share your experiences by showing it in your characters.

To write a story you need to figure out what it’s going to be about. From the beginning you need to decide if it’s going to be science fiction, Fantasy, Romance, Horror, Mystery, Comedy or a Western. Sometimes you can mix it up by putting a little bit of everything in it. Then you need to begin by building your main characters, secondary characters, protagonist and antagonist. You also need to create the conflicts because the more conflicts you have the longer the story.  The story can evolve into a novel which is over a hundred pages. Novellas are usually forty to ninety pages.

            You also can begin by clustering ideas on a piece of paper. Clustering is a way of brainstorming ideas and can be done in many ways. For instance you can begin by writing down the word sun and write words that are similar like star, universe, bright, shiny, yellow, fire, red, light bulb, revolution, sliver etc. You can do this with your characters, the setting of the story, and even people you know. Coming up with names can always be a challenge that’s why clustering is a good way to start. You can also take people you know and study the way they look act and talk and make them into your characters. You can always go back and change the hair color, eye color skin tone and vice versa. Clustering is a way to go and it’s highly recommended.

            If you get ideas for the title that’s good if not don’t worry about it. I suggest you at least have a working title. Then you begin writing down notes about where to begin the story. You want to start generating ideas about how the story should go and once you start you want to keep it in a format that’s easy for you. Most writers have their own process of writing, but for me I like to write in scenes of at least 1,500 words and 1,000 words for incidents. The reason I do this is because it makes the story less wordy and challenges the writer to keep the idea complete instead of jumping around like a tire that hasn’t been balance on a car. It’s also strongly suggested that you pick up an editing book called The Element of Styleby Strunk and Whites. This book goes through all the rules of grammar and languages of words.     

            It’s always hard to start the first paragraph or chapter of the story, but once you start it gets easier to continue. You will find inspiration and muse from exercising and listening to music. Creativity comes from the same area  of the second Chakra of creativity and sexual expression, two inches below your navel. Certain music will open up your creativity than others. For example if your writing a love scene for your characters you’ll find it very difficult to concentrate if your listening to Megadeath Slipknot or Ministry. Unless the scene your writing is full of violence or action then more power to you.  Songs that would help would be Enya, Brave Heart Soundtrack and classical music by Mozart. Music is important that I can’t stress it enough. You will find what works for you. You may want to consider building your own soundtrack of songs from various artist to help you get in the mood to write.

            When you decide to edit the story, start by switching your thinking around in the reader’s point of view. After all your inviting them into your world and you need to be clear about your ideas. Begin by reading the story out loud; the louder the better and you’ll catch 90% of the errors. Let your work breath for a day or two and then go back to it and read it out loud again. This is a time consuming effort that must be done and you may decide to make changes in your characters and their attitudes. You may decide a character should cry in this part of the story or expand on the conflict or the battle, if there is one. Editing is nothing more than re-writing the words that you’ve written. If you decide you don’t want to edit you can hire an editor to do the job. They usually charge anywhere from .10 -.15 a word or they may charge $300.00 – $500.00 depending on how long it is.

            Copy Righted work means anything that has the “C” with the circle on it included with the date and All Rights Reserved is protected. Technically anything that is completed by the creator is copy righted, but we live in a world where some people are interested in stealing other people’s work and making a buck. There are many ways to protect your work. You can send your manuscript to the Library of Congress and a check for $200.00 and they’ll send you a little certificate that says your work is copy righted you can also send your manuscript to the state capital and a check for $25.00 and they’ll do the same thing. You can also mail it back to yourself stamped with the date by the post office and copy right it that way(However you may want to talk to a lawyer first because I just learned that most courts won’t accept a poor man’s copy right now, because of abuse).  You can also put a press release in the news paper of your book and what it’s about. The date on the news paper serves as a copy right and after three months if there is no issues from the public the story becomes copy righted and protected. I have learned recently that the Library of Congress made some changes in the last 15 years and the bill is $50.00 instead of $200. for processing. Check with a laywer first about the Poor Man’s Copy Right. Basicly if you can get a signiture from the post office and mail it restricted it could eliminate a lot of loop holes rather than sending it back to your self with no signatures or dates. Cheaters are getting a lot more creative with taking credit for documents and compositions that don’t belong to them. You shouldn’t worry about it, but use common sense and intergrity by protecting your work.  It could be worth millions.

             In conclusion writing will continue to be a popular craft and art. People love to read stories and they need it just like music and paintings. People need to be inspired in their life and it’s our job as writers to give it to them.

How To Write a Story

Ryan Keith Johnson

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