Five Easy Steps to Write a Fictional Story

Sometimes you just wanna escape into a world of your own creation, lovingly rereading a personal favorite of yours that you know is jam-packed full of action, love, misery, and...dang, you forgot it's unfinished!

As an amateur writer that is completely self-taught, one of the biggest issues I struggled with for years was stopping and starting a novel, story, personal writing, and more over and over...without completing it. Ever. There's tons of unfinished works that I can remember glancing at with shame, promising myself to revise it at a later date.

Just to never do it. Why? Well, at least for me and I'm sure others can relate, it's because we never properly outline our ideas. It's usually an idea that comes to mind, it sounds utterly fantastic, we decide to jot it down somewhere, and that's it. Eventually you'll lose the passion for it, save it in a document somewhere in your computer and refer back to it for months if not years to come.

But look no further! Here, I'm here to help you develop a proper novel based off of my needs. I know hard it can be to stay on the task at hand, and so this is my attempt at offering a simple solution, in five simple steps!

It'll be much easier to start off with a laptop/computer/anything with a keyboard for overall editing purposes, such as easy to refer back to, to skim through, in case an idea needs to be altered, and so on. But don't worry, there is an easy way to still get ideas down on something physical as long as you are willing to take the time to transfer it online later!

Suggested method:

1. Desktop, laptop, or anything with a keyboard (iPad with keyboard, etc)

If unable:

1. Notebook(s)
2. Pen (pencil can be used, but preferably pen to prevent fading from friction)
3. Whiteout
4. Labels (to label notebooks if multiple used)

All of these can be purchased at any local supply store!

What are you going to say?

This is the most crucial point of any writer's novel, poem, essay, etc. You, the creator, need to know what it is that you want to say. Perhaps it's an entertaining work about witches, or your take of a Holocaust survivor and what they experience after. The world is your oyster!

But! It needs to make sense. Don't talk about a sentient robot in a world where all robots exist and are just as impressive as him. Where's the engagement? The excitement? The need to see the other robots? Now if some could fly, if some were faster and could take them in a race, if some could survive miles undersea, then we have a cast worth watching.

And again, it has to be interesting! We want you to succeed, so help us help you! Even if you want to tell us that your favorite color is brown, make it so interesting that we're captivated as an audience!

Why is your story happening?

Basically, you need to figure out what it is you're trying to tell. Is it a whirlwind of a love story that'll keep your reader on their feet until the end? Could it be a neat pirate themed novel involving space pirates? Or what about a madman trying to create a new universe from the inside of his closet?

See how interesting those are? Your idea does not necessarily need to be original (there's plenty of stories out there about pirates, I promise you), but it does need to catch the eye of whoever you're enticing. Nobody wants to see the same thing over and over again, it's why huge comic companies Retcon their characters over and over and over and over-

This is so important! After figuring out what type of story you want to create, you'll need to figure out the setting and progression of your story. Is it happening in a modern setting? How about the future? Or what about the past? Is it a historical fiction on Earth set during the civil right era? Perhaps it's a fantasy romance that takes place on a fictional planet of your own creation in a timeline that only you know barely understand?

That's the fun about it: there's no proper rules. Whatever you want to decide for settings is completely up to you! Just make sure to stay within your plot (don't invent time travel when your story is about two penguins adopting a baby, for example) and it'll prevent unnecessary plot holes or inconsistent ideas throughout your work.

Oh boy, this is my favorite part.

Creating the characters is such a fun thing to do! You always want to start out with your main character (MC), and have them stand out. Remember the robot that's the same as the others: would you read it is Rudolph was like all of the other reindeer? Where they just went about their days as normal?

No! Because it's not interesting! Who wants to see the main character live a day-to-day basis like that? The vast majority of your audience wants to escape into a world not like their own when it comes to fiction, with hints of reader connection sprinkled in when necessary.

Eith your MC, you need to figure out how you want to structure them first-a good or bad guy? A hero to villain protagonist? A prisoner of war? A student navigating through life?

Either way, once you decide on your MC, you get to work on supporting cast. Any family or friends? Mentors? Enemies? Lovers? The possibilities are endless!

Finally, is there an antagonist to your story? If so, they have to be either the conflict to your story or connected to the conflict somehow. For example, if your story is where a virus is slowly taking over the planet, your antagonist can either be the patient zero (source of virus), or the person who caused it (i.e. doctor that purposely curated virus).

Told you this would be in five steps!

Finally, we bring this to a close. What is your resolution?

As in, what do you want your ending to look like? Is there a happily ever after, or does the bad guy win? Is there more conflict than when your story started? Or did your MC make it out alive with a new partner and possibly a baby on the way? Or did they not make it halfway through the plot and another character took over?

These are all options, and more, that can be the conclusion to your story. With me personally, having an idea of what my ending looks like prevents me from struggling to wrap up any loose storylines that might crop up during writing, as I might have an idea that'll sound good in the first few chapters...but isn't wrapped up by chapter fifty and has no end in sight. See my dilemma?

With this method, I was able to know exactly what my ending looked like, and everything in the middle seemingly made more sense. The plot had a "limit" as to when it would start and stop to make sense in relation to the ending, and therefore I had to stay on topic.

Also...it just gives you an ending to something you might be finished with. That mildly resolved plot point can stay mildly resolved, but with a proper ending that is at least mentioned while not frustrating your readers about not having heard a single word about their favorites for years to come!

You're on your way to your first finished fictional story!

Good work, and proud of you for making it this far! Thank you so much for reading, I hope that this helped you as much as it had helped me!