Hi guys
I need help trying to develop some ideas on writing a good story. Obviously I wouldn't ask you to write down your ideas, just what method you use to get them.
Hi guys
I need help trying to develop some ideas on writing a good story. Obviously I wouldn't ask you to write down your ideas, just what method you use to get them.
Yes, it's a tough question to answer!. I get ideas from everywhere, I even had a dream that gave me the first few sentences of a story. I find once I start writing the ideas develop as part of the story, however sometimes I will sit back and consider all the characters and what I would like them to achieve.
Going out for a walk is a great way to clear the mind. Sometimes thinking about nothing in particular can bring ideas forward.
Let us know what you come up with :-)
I always begin with what interests me (a particular period in time, a city in the world, a class of society, etc.) and then narrow down ideas by asking "What if...?" questions.
I cheat a bit.
Because write historical, I put characters in situations that have already happened. So in theory we know what went on, but not necessarily everything about what led to those eventual outcomes.
Sorry if that sounds complicated. Example - in my WIP I have a not very well known sea battle (compared to Trafalgar) in the middle and a land battle at the end which, again, is not written about much, mainly because it happened around the same time as a more famous one but had an important effect on what happened immediately after the bigger conflict. That means I can drop characters in more easily where they might have affected the known history, if you like.
So I have a middle, an end, and I can write a suitable beginning. Then it's just the in- between bits, because the story's not about events, it's about 'real' people and how they react to what's going on around them. And they must have goals, of course, otherwise the story would go nowhere, and the goals should have little to do with the events because those are just backgrounds to the characters' lives.
The 'in-between' I have is about delivering a letter, and how complex such a simple thing would have been at that time. Simple themes often work best, I reckon, because if I can put myself in a position where I think 'how on earth did they manage that?' then so can a reader. And I do plenty of reading, looking out for real situations which historians argue over, which don't seem to make complete sense in the historical record, or which I can 'steal' for my characters.
If you can find a conclusion to the story you want to write, I should think you could work out your characters' journey to get there.
Sorry - went on a bit :)