Questions

include the place, date, description, and conflict
- ng92@sbcglobal.net

Have you ever wanted to write fantasy, but perhaps did not know where to begin? Then this is the article for you. By the time you finish reading, you will know enough to write your first fantasy story.

Writing fantasy is making an impractical idea into a reality in the mind of your reader. It is using your imagination to find its deepest creative power. It is the ability to visualize things and places you have never seen. What a vast and exciting realm that opens!

Begin by freeing your mind of everything that is real and tangible. Escape this world of gravity and float beyond the ties of places and time. What do you see? Purple beings with six snouts and wings? A planet completely engulfed in water with underworld cities? An atmosphere where the inhabitants breathe gas and explode when they reach maturity? Fantasy is the place of no bounds, no limits - the place where anything is possible.

When you get your first vision of a new world or new life, go to the next step. What characters are in this world? What problems do they encounter? How will they solve the problems?

Remember that your characters must be three-dimensional, even in fantasy. You must have a physical description in mind. How do they typically act and what is out of the ordinary for them?

How do they communicate? How do they move from place to place? Do they fly? Slither? Swim? Waddle? Can they function on their own, or are they dependent on something else for life? Are your characters supposed to be royalty? Are they prisoners? Are they heading up a revolution? How intelligent are they? Do you want to involve some kind of magic? Is it a story of good versus evil? You must know all of this before you can advance your plot.

Take the time to write down fifty things about each of two main characters and the world they live in. What do the inhabitants eat? What things are unacceptable in their world? What is their vocation?

Now decide what your overall story is about - not just the middle conflict scene. The middle climactic scene is called the plot. The meaning in the overall story is the theme, so what will your theme be? Slithering lizards battling dinosaurs over human prey? Colliding worlds that give birth to a new planet?

When you have answered all of these questions to your own satisfaction, begin writing the middle conflict scene of the story. Next, write the ending. (You need not connect them just yet.) By that time you will know what needs to be in the beginning of the story to round it out fully. Develop that last. And finally, connect the three scenes.

This is called the DeBowen system of developing a story and it’s very easy. If you will write your story in this order, everything will fall into place naturally, and that which you have only imagined will become a reality.


- Deborah Owen

In creative writing we just recieved an assignment. It is due tomorrow and I need some good ideas. It has to be a short fiction story, with of course a conflict and a few characters. IDEAS?THANKS!
If you give an idea please include how the story ends-the outcome/conclusion..and remember it should only be a few pages
- valda

I need to write a short story for school and I have absolutley nothing to write. I am probably the worst writer ever. It has to have a conflict in it. Ideas would be greatley appreciated.
- aLeXa

Romance? Thriller? Constant, focussed conflict?

An autobiography, a monologue perhaps? Or just a story?

My personal favourites are streams of consciousness like The Catcher in the Rye; I was always writing them for English assignments when I was younger.
I was curious because I want to get into writing again, and would love to know what others enjoy to read, especially in short pieces of creative writing.
- yummy mummy

In November I am taking part in the nanowrimo challenge to write a book/novel in 1 month

i need a plot for this and i was wondering if you guys could help me

someone i know said that a book must follow at least one of these plots

1. Conflict
2. Mystery
3. Lack - (Something missing)

I want a plot that incorporates all of these

preferably something romance related

please make your answer in the format

Start -
Middle -
End -

Thanks so much guys and i cant wait to see your answers

Bye x
i was ot aware that this was cheating in the contest…..i didnt even know nanowrimo was a contest

sorrrryyyy =)

please still help
- Sam C

Have you ever read a magnificently written short story and said, “Wow, I wish I could write that way!”  You can, and it may not be as difficult a challenge as you think.  Creativity may be an inherited talent but creative writing can be learned.  You don’t need to be a creative genius to pen a good story.  You simply need to learn the construction of a story and then gather the motivation to write it down.  (And the courage not to throw away the paper or delete the file) 

Most experts suggest that you concentrate on writing short stories before you take on full novel-length works.  This is because short stories tend to be less complicated than novels.  Novels can encompass an entire lifetime of a character, or several lifetimes, as well as multiple points of views and numerous perspectives.  This can overwhelm a first-time author.  Thus, if you limit yourself to writing a short story you are focusing on writing one episode in a characters life.  There is no limit to what the term “episode” means—it may be a day in the life of one character or several weeks in which the same subject is discussed among numerous characters.  However, a short story will usually only focus on one incident and have a singular plot or setting. 

You can use more than one character, but the more characters you add the more information you will be cramming into this short episode.  If you have read any information on the structure of creative writing, then you may know by now that most professionally written stories consists of some basic dramatic elements: 

Exposition (introduction to the story where information about setting and situation is conveyed)

Complication (there must be some conflict that causes a strong reaction in the protagonist)

Rising Action & Crisis (suspense builds until the protagonist reaches a pivotal moment)

Climax (the highest point of action results)

Resolution (the conflict is resolved and the moral is made clear)

Now keep in mind that because you are working with a shorter piece you may have to abbreviate some standard patterns in your writing.  If you are writing a short piece then you may not have enough room to include paragraphs of exposition.  You may have to decrease the attention given to appearance, situation or setting. 

In fact, many short stories follow an entirely different structure than a novel.  The introductions are abrupt and use powerful words that capture attention quickly.  The story may not begin “at the beginning” but start in the middle of the action, so as to advance the plot at a faster pace.  However, the most important elements will still be present.  You must make sure that your story has conflict, and that complication builds up to a peak of suspense, which ends in a climactic confrontation.  Resolution then ends the story, giving the reader something to think about. 

If you feel that your story is lacking something, then reanalyze your structure.  What is happening to the protagonist internally or externally?  Who or what is the antagonist, the character or thing that affects the main character?  Think of a short story as a condensed novel, one that only has a few pages to make an all-important point.


- Curtis Foster

Have you ever read a magnificently written short story and said, “Wow, I wish I could write that way!”  You can, and it may not be as difficult a challenge as you think.  Creativity may be an inherited talent but creative writing can be learned.  You don’t need to be a creative genius to pen a good story.  You simply need to learn the construction of a story and then gather the motivation to write it down.  (And the courage not to throw away the paper or delete the file) 

Most experts suggest that you concentrate on writing short stories before you take on full novel-length works.  This is because short stories tend to be less complicated than novels.  Novels can encompass an entire lifetime of a character, or several lifetimes, as well as multiple points of views and numerous perspectives.  This can overwhelm a first-time author.  Thus, if you limit yourself to writing a short story you are focusing on writing one episode in a characters life.  There is no limit to what the term “episode” means—it may be a day in the life of one character or several weeks in which the same subject is discussed among numerous characters.  However, a short story will usually only focus on one incident and have a singular plot or setting. 

You can use more than one character, but the more characters you add the more information you will be cramming into this short episode.  If you have read any information on the structure of creative writing, then you may know by now that most professionally written stories consists of some basic dramatic elements: 

Exposition (introduction to the story where information about setting and situation is conveyed)

Complication (there must be some conflict that causes a strong reaction in the protagonist)

Rising Action & Crisis (suspense builds until the protagonist reaches a pivotal moment)

Climax (the highest point of action results)

Resolution (the conflict is resolved and the moral is made clear)

Now keep in mind that because you are working with a shorter piece you may have to abbreviate some standard patterns in your writing.  If you are writing a short piece then you may not have enough room to include paragraphs of exposition.  You may have to decrease the attention given to appearance, situation or setting. 

In fact, many short stories follow an entirely different structure than a novel.  The introductions are abrupt and use powerful words that capture attention quickly.  The story may not begin “at the beginning” but start in the middle of the action, so as to advance the plot at a faster pace.  However, the most important elements will still be present.  You must make sure that your story has conflict, and that complication builds up to a peak of suspense, which ends in a climactic confrontation.  Resolution then ends the story, giving the reader something to think about. 

If you feel that your story is lacking something, then reanalyze your structure.  What is happening to the protagonist internally or externally?  Who or what is the antagonist, the character or thing that affects the main character?  Think of a short story as a condensed novel, one that only has a few pages to make an all-important point.


- Curtis Foster

How to write a novel the easy way? Can it be done?

Absolutely. Learning how to write a novel doesn’t have to be complicated. When you follow a step by step process, you can take the complexity of how to write a novel and “dumb it down” to such a simple system that it becomes almost like paint by numbers.

Easy novel writing is a series of connections. You know, like “the foot bone’s connected to the ankle bone.”

In the case of novel writing, your connections look like this (feel free to add the “Dry Bones” tune to this list as you read it if you know it):

IDEA is connected to

QUESTIONS, which are connected to

CONFLICT, which is connected to

STORY QUESTION, which is connected to

THEME, which is connected to

PLOT, which is connected to

CHARACTERS, which are connected to

MOTIVATION, which is connected to

CHARACTER SKETCHES, which are connected to

SETTINGS, which are connected to

SETTING SKETCHES, which are connected to

RESEARCH LISTS, which are connected to

RESEARCH, which are connected to

SCENE CARDS, which are connected to

SCENE CARD FILE, which is connected to

PACING, which is connected to

QUERY, which is connected to

SYNOPSIS, which is connected to

FIRST PAGES, which are connected to

DRAFT, which is connected to

REWRITE, which is connected to

SUBMISSION, which is connected to

SALE!

Whew! Seem like a lot. Well, it is a lot. But that doesn’t mean it’s complicated.

Let’s break it down:

1. IDEA. Your novel idea is the basic concept. For example, the idea for my novel, Alternate Beauty, was that an obese woman finds herself in an alternate universe where fat is beautiful. This is kind of intriguing, but it’s certainly not enough for a novel. So you have to start asking

2. QUESTIONS. To flesh out an idea, you need to start asking questions. Your seed question needs to be “What if”. For instance, what if the woman who was in the alternate universe began losing weight. You throw out a bunch of answers to the what if question, and then you pick one that tickles your fancy and ask another what if question. It goes like this: Once the woman begins losing weight, she ends up as unhappy in the new universe as she was in the old. So what if she got fed up with being unhappy. Etc. etc.

As you work through what if questions, you throw in “Why” questions. Why does the woman lose weight? Why is she unhappy?

Keep stringing these questions together and you’ll begin to find your

3. CONFLICT. Conflict comes from a character wanting to get something and being blocked in some way from getting what he or she wants. A good novel makes characters’ lives miserable before everything turns out in the end (either good or bad). You weave your questions together in a way that reveals your character’s desires and what obstacles preventing him or her from achieving those desires. It’s the conflict that keeps your reader guessing when you keep creating

4. STORY QUESTIONS. Story questions are the secrets you keep from the reader so the reader has questions in his or her mind. You layer the conflict, one upon the other, so the reader has to keep reading to satisfy his or her curiosity. All the story questions, when answered at the end of the novel reflect the

5. THEME. The theme is the central message of the novel-the statement you want to make about the human condition. The theme is the unifying element of everything you put in your

6. PLOT. Plot is the story-the culmination of conflict and story question. It’s not just what happens in the novel but why what happens is compelling. Plot is compelling when it’s driven by life-like

7. CHARACTERS. Characters are the people in your story. Think of them as the train that carries your plot along. Characters only carry along a plot in a compelling way when they have clear

8. MOTIVATION. Motivation is the psychological and experiential explanation for why your characters do what they do. Once you have a central motivation for each main character, you can easily create

9. CHARACTER SKETCHES. Character sketches are your character’s bios. These include everything from physical characteristics to history to personality to favorite color. Great characters are rich with detail and they live in equally rich

10. SETTINGS. Settings are the place of your novel. You can create settings that your reader can easily visualize when you create

11. SETTING SKETCHES. Setting sketches are the who, what, where, why, and how of your settings. They consist of diagrams, pictures, and other specific information to make settings unique and interesting. You get this information and every other fact you need to support the story of your novel from your

12. RESEARCH. Research will answer all the detail questions, and if you do it right you’ll have a good balance of enough information and not too much to bog down the story. Once you’ve done your research you can create

13. SCENE CARDS. Scene cards are index cards that contain outlines of every scene in your novel. Scene is a specific chunk of the story, one that is its own closed loop. Every good scene has a purpose and it leads to the next good scene. This is how you create a

14. SCENE CARD FILE. The scene card file is where you put all your scene cards. Since each scene has its own card, you can easily rearrange scenes as needed to create perfect

15. PACING. Pacing is the rhythm of the novel. You take the reader for a thrill-ride, and then you slow things down. Speed up, slow down. The story questions you created when you plotted is what helps create the speed flow. When you have your novel paced well in the scene cards you’re ready to write a

16. QUERY. The query is the one to two page letter needed to submit to an agent or editor. When you write it before you draft your book, it embeds your theme and central plot in your mind. It also helps you write the

17. SYNOPSIS. A synopsis is a narrative outline of the novel, told in a compelling way but placing all essential information in a concise package of only 10 to 30 pages or so. If you can put your story in this space, you’ll find it incredibly easy to then take the skeleton of the story, fill it in with the meat of your scene cards and write a magnificent first

18. DRAFT. The draft of your story is the natural result of all the connections that have come before. It’s simply sitting at the computer and using all the elements you’ve created to spill the story onto the page. Once it’s there, you can

19. REWRITE to polish the words to pristine perfection. Then you’re ready for

20. SUBMISSION. Submission is easy when you’ve done all the other work. You already have a query, synopsis, and polished manuscript. So you just need to hit Writer’s Market and find a list of agents or editors to whom to send your query. When the agent or editor asks for more, you’ll send the synopsis and eventually the draft, and one day you’ll get the call telling you that you’ve made a

21. SALE. This is when you scream and jump around and go out and buy your favorite meal and then be annoyingly perky for weeks on end.

And just like that, you’ve created a novel readers will love. All because you followed a paint-by-numbers system for how to write a novel.


- Andrea Rains Waggener

I need to write a short story about a time where i was angry, I guess she just wants a story with conflict. How can I start it?
- Sarah