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How I do it:
A acquaintance asked me, "how do you write a story?"
I'm not sure what she meant to ask, so I mumbled, "Oh, I
just sit down and put the words in my word processor until it's
done." She got miffed and went away.
After I thought about it, I realized an answer like that would have miffed me too. I probably should have asked her a few questions to get to something I could answer. It's possible she was curious about how I get ideas for stories. Perhaps she wondered about the procedure for writing. I can answer both of those, but I doubt my friend would have stayed around long enough for the complete answer. The answers are not one liners.
Getting ideas for stories is rather simple. They are all around me, in the people I meet and the people I see. I can sit in a restaurant and watch a person at a nearby table. I watch their eyes and their gestures, their animation or lack thereof. With that, a fictional history begins to build up around that person. A story is in the making. I can see a couple walking and talking and the same thing happens.
The story is not really about the people I see or know. What happens is their behavior stirs up thoughts in me which come out of my own knowledge and experience. I am a lucky person in that I can find something to like in almost everyone I meet. I associate with as many different kinds of people as I can. I have known just about ever different kind of person there is. I can identify with most of them. The exception I make is in the sociopath/psychopath. I cannot identify with these people. The reason is simple. They terrify me.
There are also stories which I know about people I know. Sometimes people will tell me stories. Sometimes the stories they tell me are true. Sometimes not. It does not matter. All of these can be built upon and fictionalized.
After deciding to write a particular story, the next question to answer is, how long will it be? Is this a short story, a novel, or something between? The number of characters, their importance, the incidents, the places, the issues, and the time span involved, all impact this decision. It comes down to a decision by me of how much material is in the story and how important the theme is to me.
So much for ideas. Now, how do I build the story? I do have a procedure or routine which is right for me. This does not mean it will be right for some other writer. Writing, especially fiction, is a creative process. There is no one right way. Nonetheless, this is what I do.
First, I think about the story for a while without doing anything. If I have some thoughts that could get lost, I record them on a standard micro cassette. Later, I can transcribe this to a notes file. The cassette recorder, by the way, is my constant companion. I never leave home without it. In fact, I have a spare recorder, just in case.
When I am ready, I will create a directory with sub directories on my data drive for this story. I know Mrs. Gates' little boy Billy, wants us to call them folders now, but I'm from the old school. To me they are still directories. The master directory will be named for the working title of the story. The sub directories will be a standard set. Notes, text, people, places, things, concepts, and graphics.
By this time, I am able to write a one page synopsis of the story. I put that in the notes directory. As I go along I will expand this page into a fairly detailed story of the book. Sometimes, I will call it an outline but it's still very rough. The strength of this document is that I can broaden it as thoughts and ideas come to me and as I transcribe ideas from my recorder.
Here is a very important part. Each day, before I retire, I back up all my work to a removable drive and take it with me. I take my backup with me wherever I go. Someone could steal my computer. Other bad things could happen, but I will not lose my work.
Now that I know the story, I must get to know the people in the story. I begin to write a detailed description of each person in the story. I note their physical attributes, their habits, their speech patterns , and their idiosyncracies. The degree of detail depends on their importance in the story.
Somewhere in this process, the main characters will start to acquire a life of their own. Often, I will be surprised at some of the thoughts and attributes these characters acquire and reveal to me. They become in a very real way, separate people and I begin to like them. Sometimes, I even love them. My thought is, If this did not happen, I would not be able to write. Perhaps, to write well, one must be a bit crazy.
Now, I have a cast and a story. The next step is to completely describe all of the places, things and any special concepts which control the story. This is a time for research. For me, a story is spoiled if it contains technically incorrect details. As an example, when the great George C. Scott redid "A Christmas Carol" for TV, an asinine, hack television writer did something really stupid. He Americanized the story and Substituted a frigging turkey for the goose. He put a turkey in a place where a turkey could not possibly have been. For me, even Scott's great acting could not overcome that stupid flaw. I cannot watch that tape without getting angry.
Now everything is in place and I begin to write the first chapter, or the prologue if one is necessary to set the scene. After the first chapter, I may write the second chapter and a few more. The point is to bring most of the key characters into focus. I must know them well. Now I have a beginning and I know how the story starts. It's time to find out where the story is going. How is it going to end? There is only one way to know for sure. I must write the end of the story. So I do. This may or may not be a detailed ending. I must simply have enough detail so that my characters know where they are going.
Now, I go back and reread the front to make sure the beginning and end agree. Somewhere around this time, if it's a good story, the characters will take it over. That's when I make a lot of typos. I can't type fast enough to get down what these good friends I have acquired are doing. They are just driving very hard to the conclusion of the story. It's all I can do to keep up. This is the time of exhausting 14 to 16 hour days. It's also a time when some of these folks will surprise me with nuances of character I didn't even know about. That's how real and separate from me they will become.
Once the whole story is down, it's time to get help from Mrs. Gaffer. I make two copies of the book. She reads one and I read the other. Between us, we take out most of the dumb mistakes. The typos, logic errors and poor prose. I get help from other folks too. I am amazed at the amount of help I get considering my nature. I make it very difficult for people to help me because I am very grouchy and defensive. My story is just like my newborn baby. I get really upset when someone implies that it's not perfect in every way.
Once Mrs. Gaffer is satisfied with the story, it's ready for
the professionals. These are people who have trained themselves
to proofread and correct manuscripts. They correct for syntax
errors, logic errors, and bad prose. After this process, and not
before, the story is ready for the publisher. It's really dumb
to take an uncorrected manuscript to a publisher. I don't do it
anymore.
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