To All Aspiring Fiction Writers For Book Chapters

A little help for you, if you’re not so sure about how to get started…let me hold your hand…

So you’ve read about Illumination Book Chapters, and you’re a teeny bit tempted to have a go at writing a story, but you’re not sure where to start.

That’s how all writers start out, believe it or not. None of us is truly certain. We have ideas, but that’s all they are in the beginning.

Writers are constant doubters. They doubt whether they have painted well enough, for that’s what they do. They paint characters, and setting, they paint conflict and resolution…they are artists in their own right.

You can be one too!

Because you have lived for a significant number of years on this planet, you’ve experienced highs and lows, hurts and insecurities, loss and gain, sinking, or swimming, I’m sure there are zillions of stories in that pretty little head of yours.

All you have to do is brainstorm them, write everything down, and you will have a bucket load of ideas to consider.

Still, bucket loads or not, you might still be grappling with where and how to start.

So…what about a little outline, a skeletal structure …will that help build you some confidence?

If you haven’t ever written fiction, it may be just what you need, a basic outline and suddenly your mind will be ablaze with ideas.

You’ll be off and away at the races!

Sounds easy, doesn’t it, yet that’s where many people come unstuck. They have no idea how their story is going to pan out, so how on earth can they write an outline?

Let me tell you, there isn’t a writer, as far as I know, who has not been in your shoes, and they’ve just walked away. End of story…

So I’m lying…

No writer worth their salt ever walks away. Oh they store things in the too-hard-basket, at times, but they go back from time to time, and have a look, and sometimes when they are out and about, ideas pop into their heads, and they think, I can do this! I’ve got it!

They pop the ideas into their smart phone and race home…

I am, once again, lying…

But when they do get home, they check their notes, garner all their courage, structure a better outline, and start yet again.

Because that’s what writers do. Writers can, and do change their minds.

Does knowing that free you up to at least try?

Listen up! Would you believe that there is a very simplistic outline that supports almost all stories? It’s hard to believe, but it’s true nonetheless!

Let’s start with a love story, just because so many life stories have, at their core, love!

Love spans all generations, and all age-groups.

Imagine…

Imagine you’re young and naive, and for the first time ever, you’re in love. This is a whole new experience for you. Never in your life have you enjoyed this distinct euphoria. You feel more special than anyone else in the whole wide world. Nobody has ever felt as you do!

That one single human loves YOU, above all others, with energy and soul, and with an intensity that defies description, leaves you feeling breathless…and blessed.

Yet believe it or not, you’re not exactly an original species.

So many of us have all been in love for the very first time. We’ve experienced the highs of the first kiss, (mine seems such a long time ago), and the incredible lows when things fall apart.

But for you, well yours is different. You KNOW that life will never be the same again.

And that is true. You are forever changed by that first kiss.

The truth is, love and rejection are everyday occurrences, and yet, simple as they are, they are the hallmarks of a zillion tales.

Some become best-sellers!

Others take wings as epic movies.

Some are used in schools to become lessons on how to behave.

How can that be? We can’t all tell the same story, can we?

Well, the fact is, from a bare-bones perspective, we can, and we do. The framework however disguised, is there, but because we are all very, very different people, because we each take varying perspectives, our stories turn out as incredibly unique.

That’s because the way I see a story, is very different to the way you, and many others might see it.

Believe it or not, the same old stories transcend time, and that is because some writers just know how to spit and polish tales so well that they have the whole world believing that this story has never been told before, that their story is totally mind-blowing, and will be unforgettable, that theirs is the one to read, or watch, over and over again.

So, does this mean writing is easy?

If only! Sadly, in everything worthwhile, there is work.

There again, think about it this way. If your task is just to hoodwink people into believing your story has never ever been told, you don’t have to work as hard as you may think.

All you have to do, is find your own unique brand of spit and polish, and hey presto, you have a blockbuster!

So then, you can sit back and reap the rewards, the royalties of your one-time effort to write.

You, will be, rich!

Ha! It’s a great thought. And, though I still subscribe to the spit and polish bit, bear this in mind. This a product that:

• you can’t buy
• you can’t borrow
• you can’t ingest
• doesn’t appear out of thin air
• is expensive, expensive in that you have to work hard to take it beyond the ordinary, and…
• you have to create it all from that pretty little head of yours

This effectively means, once you know how to do it, you’ve got ideas on tap! From one basic structure you can keep on making stories. Your bucket will be overflowing.

So write! Go on! You can do it!

No answer, was the bold reply!

Okay, let’s see if I can inspire you further.

I’m about to map out the bare bones of a love story, just for you. I know! I’m still banging on about LOVE!

But I’ll bet if I were to ask you to think of half a dozen stories that have love at their core, you’d have a list a mile long, however old, or young you are.

So just to help you along, here are a few:

• A Cinderella Story
• The Duff, where even if you are not BEAUTIFUL, you can still find your Prince Charming (sigh!)
• The Edge of Seventeen
• Digger King Mini Excavators

So, if you know these ones, it should be easy for you to personally move onto your love story…your first love story, where two protagonists meet for the first time, and the whole world changes because of the strength of their mutual bonding.

This outline is one of these. It is easy to steal, to bend and stretch, to manipulate, and spill blood over.

Good so far?

You can cope?

Will you embrace the challenge?

All you have to do us to put in the hard yards, to take the skeletal format, and give it wings.

Let’s call this layering.

It’s a bit like putting more clothes on when the weather turns cold. They keep you warm and cozy and you feel the better for wearing them.

Character:

Characters are what makes story! They can perform many roles…moving things along, hindering it, upsetting the apple cart…so many functions!

Your characters need to be clothed. They need to wear some jewels, (things that highlight their personality, and whatever else it takes to make them come to life,) to be spellbinding, and for your audience to want more.

Your protagonists are going to be very different people, and it’s your job to make them so, by adding information that makes them so unique, people thirst for more.

Environment:

Bear in mind the environment that your two characters grew up in.

Were they rich, or poor?

Confident, or not?

Lonely, or with lots of friends?

These are what will determine how your characters will be seen by others.

Of course you could add many aspects to all of this, but these are often the basics of a good love story...situation, sadness, turning event, and subsequent happiness!

Do we have a romance emanating from this?

Not quite yet. We have to add a massive cornerstone, or our ‘house’ (story) will fall down.

Setting:

Where will your story take place? When will it take place — a long time ago, just the other day, in the future?

Plot:

This relates to a problem that has to be resolved in a story. The basics are:

• introduction
• action
• climax
• falling action…help needed
• making up…the resolution

Conflict:

If you want your story to be memorable, there has to be conflict, some kind of challenge. It’s life! Conflict is what hooks a reader in. Without conflict, no story exists.

Now think of the love stories I listed above.

Write down the conflict in each.

Theme:

Is there a moral to this story? Is there a message you want your reader to take away? What would stick in your reader’s mind that might change their thinking for a time, if not forever?

This may not seem easy to do. That’s because it often is not, but the thing is this. If you can set up a strong framework, the rest, filling in story, will work for you.

By the way, I don’t expect a full-blown story from this article. All I want you to do is try the framework. My next article will be all about making up incredible characters. It won’t be hard. You have a whole host of them in that pretty little head of yours.

Until next time…