How to Make a Story: Start With What You've Got

“I'd love to write a book, but I wouldn't know where to start.”

Here's the good news.

You don't need to know the whole story before you start writing it.

You don't need a title.

You don't need twenty characters.

You don't need forty chapters planned out on a spreadsheet.

You don't even need to know how it ends yet.

What you need is something that interests you enough to explore it.

That might be an idea. A person. A place. A memory. Something that happened to you. Something you wish had happened. Something you're frightened might happen.

Or simply:

What if...?

That's enough to begin.

First, Find the Bit That Interests You

Forget about writing a book for a moment. What is the thing you actually want to write about?

Perhaps you have an idea for an entire story. Great.

But perhaps all you have is an image of an abandoned house. Or a character who keeps appearing in your imagination. Perhaps you've always wanted to write about something that happened in your family. Maybe you've thought of a crime but don't know who committed it.

You might even have an ending and absolutely nothing that comes before it.

All of those are valid starting points.

Write down what you know. Don't worry about making it sound impressive. Nobody else needs to read it.

Start Asking Questions

This is one of the simplest ways to turn an idea into a story.

Interrogate it.

If you've imagined a person, ask: Who are they? What do they want? What are they afraid of? What happened before we met them? What would make their ordinary life suddenly change?

If you've imagined a place, ask: Who lives there? What happened there? Why does this particular place matter? Who doesn't want somebody else going there?

If you've started with an event, ask: Why did it happen? Who was affected? What happened afterwards? What would have happened if one small detail had been different?

You don't have to answer every question. You're looking for the questions that make your brain go:

Oh... hang on.

Those are usually worth following.

Find Out What Your Character Wants

Characters don't necessarily need enormous ambitions. They need a reason to do something.

One character might want to solve a murder. Another might simply want their family back together. Someone might want to escape, find somebody, hide something, discover the truth, protect another person, be left alone, prove everybody wrong or get home.

Once you know what somebody wants, you can ask the question that creates an enormous number of stories:

What's stopping them from getting it?

There's your conflict.

Give Something a Consequence

Suppose your character fails. What happens?

If the answer is nothing much, the story may need stronger stakes. That doesn't mean the world has to explode. Personal consequences can be far more powerful.

They could lose a relationship, discover something about themselves they didn't want to know, lose their home, let somebody down, have a secret exposed, miss their only opportunity—or simply have to live with a decision they made.

The reader needs a reason to care whether your character succeeds.

You Don't Need to Know Everything About Your Characters

Character sheets can be useful. But don't feel you need to know somebody's favourite sandwich before you're permitted to write Chapter One.

Concentrate first on the things that affect the story: what this person wants, what they believe, what they fear, what they are good at, where they are vulnerable and what they won't do.

And perhaps the most interesting question:

What could happen that would make them do the thing they swore they would never do?

You can discover the rest while you're writing. Real people reveal themselves gradually. Characters can too.

Now Think About Change

Something should be different at the end from the beginning. It might be the character, their circumstances, a relationship, what they know, what they believe or the world around them.

Ask yourself: Why are we following this particular part of this person's life?

Why does the story begin here rather than three years earlier?

Usually it's because something is about to change. That change gives you somewhere to begin.

What Happens Next?

This question sounds almost ridiculously simple. It's also one of the most useful questions in writing.

Don't try to solve the entire novel every time you sit down. Ask: Given what has just happened, what could happen next?

Then: What would my character actually do? What consequences would that create? What new problem might appear?

Does the next event happen because of what came before it?

Stories usually feel stronger when events cause other events rather than simply happening one after another. Your character makes a decision. That decision creates a consequence. The consequence forces another decision. And the story moves.

When You're Stuck, Don't Immediately Add Something New

This is an easy trap. The story slows down, so suddenly there's another murder, another character, another secret organisation and possibly an unexplained helicopter.

Before adding more, look backwards. Is there something you've already introduced that hasn't been explored? Has somebody made a decision that should have consequences? Is there a question you raised earlier that hasn't been answered? Could something your character did five chapters ago finally come back to bite them?

Often the next part of your story is already hiding in what you've written.

You Are Allowed to Change Your Mind

Perhaps you planned for one character to be the villain and halfway through writing realised somebody else would be far more interesting. Change it.

Perhaps you've written ten chapters and realised Chapter One should actually be Chapter Three. Move it.

Perhaps the ending you planned no longer fits the people your characters have become. Write another one.

A first draft isn't a contract. It's where you're discovering the story.

What About the Ending?

You can plan your ending before you begin. You can discover it halfway through. You can write three endings and choose one later. There isn't one correct method.

But when you're getting closer, go back to the questions your story started asking. What did the character want? Did they get it? What did it cost them? What changed? What has been answered? What deliberately hasn't?

And most importantly:

Does this ending belong to the story I've actually written, rather than the story I thought I was going to write?

Sometimes those are two very different things.

There Is No Correct Way to Make a Story

Some writers plan everything. Some start writing and discover the story as they go. Most probably fall somewhere between the two.

Use whatever helps you. Ignore whatever doesn't.

The aim isn't to follow somebody else's formula perfectly. It's to find enough of a path that you want to discover what happens next.

Start with what you've got. Ask questions. Follow the interesting answers. Let your characters make decisions. Give those decisions consequences. And keep going.

Eventually you may look back and realise that the little idea you started with has become something much bigger.

And if what you've created ends up as scraps of paper, notebooks, scenes in the wrong order and several files called things like FINAL, FINAL2 and DEFINITELYFINAL...

That's all right too.

Bring us the muddle.