How to begin writing a story?

I've tried so hard to write novels but the pieces never fit for me, so I created this folder, and I just write everything down in it, the starts to my stories, ideas for them, names for characters and towns... make your own damn puzzle pieces was my logic!

Just start out with the view point of the main character.. if the book is about a girl running away you need to decided if you want to start with the girl talking about why she is thinking of runniing away, you could start the book with the actuall act of her packing her bags or you can start with something simple, her waking up in the morning doing her daily thing and then later on bring on the pain and reasoning behind her decision...

Best of luck, writing is a gift and when I write I always make a play list of music that helps me feel the emotion I'm trying to display. If your chatacter is going to be sad, play something that really brings it out of you..something down and just despairing... If your character is happy, play something feel good, that always seems to help bring out true emotions in my writings.

I always make it simple for myself. I start with a character in a setting.

She glided across the floor like wind. Everyone looked up at her because she was exotic and interesting to see. She dressed in..... which didn't fit with the surrounding of the dingy diner. She walked up to the counter and smiled once she caught the eye of the cook. He was draw to her like a moth to a flame...

Some of the stuff is cliche but I can change that line later if I choose. I'd probably at this point explain some of the things that were so exotic about her and maybe allow for the cook to be embarrassed by his own appearance in comparison.

The idea is to get a picture in your head and write it down. My characters don't even have names yet. Technically this could have been a section from my character profile. I'll name her when I know her better, same for the cook. For me the name isn't as important because I can write around that detail and come back to it later, filling it in when I know the names. I don't give myself any excuse to stop. I write what I know and around what I don't know. I don't leave large blanks because sometimes trying to fit two sections together never works for me. I don't write from back to front for the same reason and I don't pre-plan too much because then I lose my enthusiasm for the piece.

You can just freestyle, start by writing your ideas down, since this isn't for school it doesn't have to be as structured but it can if you want it to be. When you think you have enough random information now you break it down. You separate characters from plot, and make a list of traits for your characters and a list of events for your plot. You might want to take a while and think about it before starting to write. And then just start writing and things will hopefully come naturally though that's not always the case so just keep working at it. Even if it doesn't sound good, or like you want it to be, continue writing the more you write the more in controll you are over your story.

There are hundreds of ways to write story so you don't have to do it like this, it's just a suggestion, how i do it.

Start any way you can and anywhere you can. One of the problems in learning about story structure in school is that you/we are looking at the finished object, which has been revised, rewritten, and rearranged by the author, possibly over years and then may have been edited by someone else.

So as author, you get parts of the story down as you think of them. The first thing you write may be a description of the room or of a character. It may be a monologue or thought sequence of a character which is basically description but bent by the personality of the character "She had lovely blond curls which I wanted to rip from her head." It may be a portion of dialog between characters or thoughts in reaction to another person's speech. It may be a description of action. It may be an outline of plot or of emotional flow or character development to hang other elements on.

Often you build a chunk of the story in your head* and go write down as much of that chunk and what comes after until you run out of steam. If you consider that the final draft, you are blocked. But if you consider it a first draft, then you work on other parts.

*In the movie "Salieri", we see Mozart writing notes as quickly as possible while the music plays, as in his head. When his wife takes his scores to Salieri to see if they are any good and she says they are the only copies - without mark outs or changes - he is stunned that these came right from the composition in Mozart's head. Much of what is legendary in the movie is just that, but we aren't Mozart anyway and we have to slog through.

Try getting all of you ideas together. I find that a mind map helps

just write down whatever come to you...carry a pen & paper around so when you get a good idea, you can jot it down :)

peices out

xx

Once Upon a time :)

Get a pen, start writing....about something you made up.

"It was a dark and stormy night". There's your first line. Run with it.