Fleshing Out Your Story

Perhaps you’re a beginning writer with a great idea for a story. Or maybe you’re an experienced author and someone has come to you with a story idea and suggested you just whip up the story inspired by that idea. Either way, there’s something writers know that non-writers don’t — the idea is the easy part.

Would you approach a sculptor with a sketch, then gesture to a nearby block of marble and suggest the sculptor merely chip away at the block until it looks like your sketch? Would you hum a...