How Does a Story Develop?

How do you all come up with the ideas for your novellas or novels? Or even your blogs and articles? I can't help but wonder how the writer's mind works. Don't get me wrong. I definitely don't believe there is one certain way that a writer thinks and quite frankly, that's the beauty of it all, each mind works so differently and yet so many brilliant plots and stories pop up all around us.

In my experience and obviously my mind, stories play themselves out in little motion pictures. It's like a rolling film in there with pause, rewind and fast forward buttons. I'll play the scenes out in my head to see if I can picture them before I decide to put them on the page. This works great for me but I've come to realize that my mind can picture a plethora of things, all of which are not necessarily the best moves in my plots.

So how do we work with these natural tendencies of ours to develop better stories? That is where studying the craft comes into play. With more experience and through the reading of writing books by Donald Maas, Stephen King, Ann Hood, etc., I've learned to challenge the pictures I form in my mind. Instead of steering blindly, I ask questions. For example: would this scene have the greatest impact? Is this something characteristic of my characters? Am I pushing the envelope enough to create the largest amount of tension?

Sound strange to you? Well, maybe you create stories a different way.  For me, it's kind of like controlling my dreams (something else I do quite often). It's as if I enter them and decide what would be the most interesting thing to do next.

What about you all? What do you do to create your stories? Music, other movies, novels? Do you create worlds with words before you even start your novel? Or perhaps you draw pictures or record your voice. The most important takeaway is to do what works for you and what gets your creative juices flowing to their fullest capacity. Good luck and Happy Writing!

Filed under: Toni Kelly, Writer's Life, Writing Topics