Starting a story

These two chapters will talk about two things that seem identical, but are quite different. This chapter is about where to get ideas (if you don’t already have one). The next one is how you’d actually use that idea to turn it into a story.

Where to get ideas

The idea for a story can come from anywhere. You might think of a cool scene for the end of a story … so now you have to figure out the beginning. You might think of a cool character, or a cool progression for that character, and now you need a plot.

This is perfectly normal. Good, even. If all your ideas came from the same place, they’d probably be cliché and lacking diversity.

For some, ideas seem to come naturally. Others think this happens to me as well, every time I tell them about the 5 new story ideas I came up with last week. This is not true. It’s a process, a habit, and some people just (subconsciously) refined it.

Every story is about something extraordinary.

You read the newspaper, and its filled with articles about something weird or surprising happening. Something out of the ordinary. That’s why it’s in the newspaper in the first place! If this thing happened regularly, and nothing went wrong the last time it happened, they would not report it.

Make it a habit to look for the extraordinary things. In the news, in your daily life, in the people around you. Write them down whenever you notice them, or you will surely forget.

My ideas come from this habit, not from “talent” or some magical idea factory. Most creatives I know will tell you the same thing. When creative people watch a movie, they come away with three ideas for new projects. They’ve noticed some small detail that seems odd or interesting, and their brain jumped on that to develop it into something.

Remark

I once read about somebody who’d worked in the news industry their whole life. Even with the major changes in technology and media … nothing really changed. They still sold really well and were read by many. They said: “NEWS, all people want NEWS! Humans crave news!” So yes, following the news every day is a great place to start.

In many writing structures, the first chapters of a story are called the “status quo”. Because something can only be extraordinary, if you have a clear baseline about what is ordinary. As such, the first chapter usually describes a typical day in the life of your protagonist, in the world you imagined.

In older books, this status quo can go on for quite a while. This allows very rich worldbuilding and character work, but makes the book rather slow and hard to get into.

Modern audiences generally don’t have the patience for this. They expect the extraordinary event to happen at the end of chapter 1. (Which will turn the life of your hero upside down and change everything from now on.) That’s basically a given: each story starts with somebody who used to lead an ordinary life, but is then forced to move away from that.

Why does this work?

Well, remember the three Elements of Storywhy. The core reasons why we tell stories.

Progress: this extraordinary thing was not achieved suddenly. For example, running a marathon is not something you just “decide to do one day” and you do it. You build up to it. Every extraordinary event has a long sequence of events leading up to it, which becomes a nice progression in a story.
Meaning: achieving such a thing is either inspiring (look at this person with one leg who still managed to run a marathon!) or a moral lesson (look what happens if you pretend to be a doctor for 15 years and then get caught!) Because the event is extraordinary, it carries more weight and more meaning.
Fun: extraordinary events lead to many jokes (through exaggeration, contrast, playing with expectations) and funny or interesting situations in general. Moreover, some events are extraordinary because nobody knows how they could have happened: there’s your mystery.

Example

I once read an article about how certain copies of famous works from a few decades ago, were actually forgeries by a master forger. It led to the shocking realization that many of the famous works might not be real, or that our attribution of many famous discoveries might be incorrect. And that this single man had his dirty fingerprints over all of it and made a lucrative business out of it.

That is INTERESTING, right? How does one go from “not being a forger” to “forging the greatest works of his time, successfully”? What happens when people find out later? This seems like an extraordinary person and worthy of a story.

Example

I read a news article about how the court decided that the leader of its country was corrupt and should be imprisoned. (Can’t remember which country it was, but it was in or around Asia.) Magically, the leader disappeared and left the country at that exact moment.

This is INTERESTING, right? A leader convicted by their own country. Exactly the thing that shouldn’t happen if you’re corrupt and can bribe your way through that. Then this person flees on the day of the decision. What country takes them in? Do they ever reveal themselves anymore? What if this was an error and the person now wants to prove they should still be in power? Extraordinary people and events, worthy of a story.

How do I know my idea is good enough?

Many people get stuck in this phase, trying to come up with better and better ideas. They only want to start a story once they have the best idea ever!

In a response, many authors say “ideas don’t matter”. They propose it’s all about the execution. Ideas are free: it takes three seconds to get one, and it’s not “good” or “bad” until you implement the idea.

In my experience … it’s a bit of both.

A mediocre idea can be great if executed well, while a great idea can be bad if executed poorly.

Execution will always be the more important element, so don’t get hung up on finding the perfect idea before you ever start writing.

However, ideas do matter a little. A bad idea will make your life harder the whole way through. A good idea is easier to turn into an amazing story.

What I told you above, is how you judge ideas. Pick an idea that is about something extraordinary. Pick an idea that makes you think “that is INTERESTING, right?” You will get better at this over time, as you write more stories and refine more ideas.

In conclusion: don’t get too hung up on finding the best idea first. Just pick the thing that seems most extraordinary and trust that execution is more important.

Refining ideas

The examples and ideas above will lead to interesting nuggets. That is not the same as a complete idea on which you can act. This is especially true if the idea is about a cool end to the story, or merely about a character and not plot.

Now you do the only sensible thing: you combine many tiny nuggets into one big, tasty nugget.

If you constantly write down tiny new ideas, you’ll quickly end up with a list of ideas. I like to grow that list until I feel like I have all my story pieces, then start writing. Some writers start even earlier, some do much more research than that.

In general, you have plotters and pantsers (named for “writing by the seat of their pants”). The first category likes to plan everything beforehand, and then simply execute that plan. The second category only imagines a nice start and makes up the story as they go along. Some writers call them architects and gardeners. The first creates the blueprint and then builds the house, the second plants a seed and then helps it grow.

I am probably 20/80 pantser. I suggest you try both ways and see what type of writer you are. In general, though, nobody is entirely one or the other. The most common tactic is a mix, in which authors decide a good start to their story and some major moments, and then go with the flow.

Example

J.K. Rowling plotted the Harry Potter series in general terms. There are images online of a big table with notes that she created before starting on a book. However, as she also confirmed, all the details and minor plot points are undecided until it becomes time to write them.

Example

Prolific author Brandon Sanderson has stated that he outlines his books, but “discovery writes” his characters. In other words, he knows the major plot points at every step of the way. The challenge for him is how to write the characters in a believable way such that they end up at those positions.

See next chapter about providing that good “start” to a story. See the course on Plot about the different types of writers and more details on plotting.

Restrictions breed creativity

Now, your list of different ideas might not fit together, at first glance. But that’s the challenge. That’s where creativity comes from.

Force yourself to combine the different ideas.

It might take a while to come up with a solution for it. Maybe the solution won’t come until you’re already halfway the book.

But if you take on this challenge, you’ll find that your ideas become more creative and unique. Your stories become more interesting, because you’re combining things that no other book ever combined. And to do so, you probably had to think a while and find that perfect solution. Additionally, you did so in an organic way, following your intuition and your sense of story. Novels that have been completely plotted beforehand often read like it: with weird transitions and illogical character actions.

Example

Remember the Brandon Sanderson example from earlier. He purposely leaves his characters undecided until he starts writing, which is a challenge for him. He knows they need to be at some important location halfway the book, and they have to have a reason to fight near the end. Now he has to invent personalities and character traits to make those ideas happen.

Taking notes

In any case, learn how to take notes and how to write everything down. Like, everything. You might think the idea isn’t good enough. You might think you’ll remember it. It doesn’t matter: write it down, so you can stop worrying about that entirely!

You’ll be surprised how that “tiny terrible idea” from two weeks ago, is suddenly the best scene ever halfway your project. You’ll be surprised how quickly you forget even the most important elements of a project. Our memory is far from perfect, do not trust it.

In the end, each project should have multiple files containing the details. One for the characters, one for the world, one for leftover ideas which you haven’t used yet, etcetera.

Yes, spending time on these documents is time not spent on writing the novel. But it’s also certainly not time wasted. As you write more books, you get a better feeling about how much research/refining you want to do before it’s time to start.

Remark

I’ve done this for years, which means I have all these neat documents for my ideas. I could pick any one of them tomorrow, and immediately start writing the book. That’s how precise and helpful the notes are. Documentation, or note-taking, is just another skill a writer should learn.