So, you want to try to write something?

Writing is an art that takes a lot of time and patience if one wishes to become successful in the literary arts.  With this tutorial, I hope to help you understand the basics of writing so that you too will be able to write stories that capture the attention of your audience.  Let us begin.

Know what you want to write

Let's start with the basics of coming up with an idea to write for a story.  Now, if one does not know where to start, that is not a big deal.  Even for the newest writer, one can get a random thought that could transform into a brilliant idea in the blink of an eye.  All it takes is inspiration; that spark that makes you, the writer, get up and take a pen and paper or a keyboard and start to write down your ideas.  Where would one look for inspiration though?  That is quite easy actually.  Almost ANYTHING could provide some sort of inspiration, but certain things might be better for a particular writer.  Take a look at anything that really interests you.  It could just be a hobby, something at your job, or even something you take notice while you are on a trip.  Let me give some examples of my muses for various pieces of my work.

-Video games
-Other pieces of writing
-Browsing the web
-Nature

These are just things that interest me though.  Your muses might be a bit different, so be sure to experiment!  Once you get an idea be sure to write it down so not to forget it.  Try to also place some notes with it so that you can clarify what you want to do with your idea.

Plot

Once you have an idea for a story, you can start to design how the story will go as well as how long you intend it to be.  This is where your creativity really comes into play here as literature offers many genres that you can write in.  If you know the story will appeal to a specific audience, then try to write it in the appropriate genre.  Once you know what kind of story you want to write, then you can start making tweaks at various parts of the plot to give a general outline of how the story will progress.  Try to also make use of various literary elements (such as surprise, twists, chance, suspense and much more) to keep your audience's attention and interest in your piece.  You want to try to be as unique as possible with your plot.  If you are writing something that has been done before or is just plain unoriginal, it is likely that you are going to lose the interest of your audience rather quickly.  As you write the story, you may want to change a bit of the plot.  Changing the plot is fine, but be sure to keep note of the change so that you can modify anything that is to occur after that point so that the plot still runs smoothly.

Outlining (characters)

Once you have a story idea set, you can begin outlining the important elements of the tale.  This is a crucial part of the writing process if you want things to keep going without much hassle.  On paper or a computer, start by writing down the characters that will appear in the story.  Now, there is no limit to how many you can have, but I would suggest that you stick to no more than five major characters so that each character would be represented well enough to catch a reader's interest.  Also, this makes it easier to write the story because you will not be worrying about giving a character enough attention in the story.

Outlining (setting)

The setting is one of the most important parts of the story, but it also often tends to be one of the toughest parts to describe while narrating.  Anyway, write out a general description of the area where the story will take place.  If this area is going to be rather massive in size, then it might be a wise tactic to try to map out the design of the region to better help your writing.  You don't have to be an expert at making maps to make a map of the world your story takes place in.  As long as you know how to take the story from one place to another, then a map will be a good tool to assist you.  Also, the time period is also very important if you wish to keep things realistic for the time, but that could depend on the kind of story you wish to write.

Outlining (story)

This step will help make the writing process go much easier.  With any story, it would be wise to outline important points or events in the story in chronological order.  Take the time to make note of what you want to happen and in what order do you want it to occur in.  You can always edit it if you get a thought that you feel might help the story and then edit what is needed afterwards.  This step can just take a few minutes to do, but it can save you a lot of time and trouble for when you write the piece; especially in the case of chapter-based stories.

Writing the story

Now that you have the framework of your story built, you can proceed to write it.  This is where your creativity will truly thrive in.  Take your time as you write out the story, paying attention to important parts as well as areas that you may want to go back to later and improve on.  Write at your own pace for this is not a race to see who the quickest writer in the world is.  Stick to a pace that you are comfortable with.  If it is a large story, take a break once you get to a good stopping point so that you don't get tired and start to lose the quality of your writing.

Write in your own style too and adapt to it.  This will also improve on the uniqueness of your story and make your writing more recognizable.  If possible, try to prevent large paragraphs from becoming massive walls of text that just cause the reader to lose interest.  Separate them at points to make it easier on the reader.

The beginning and ending is usually the easiest parts to write about in the story.  Still, it does not make you invulnerable to error, so pay attention to what you are writing and to also make sure that the piece does not appear to drag on to make it appear bigger.  A larger story does not necessarily mean it will be better.

Narration is important to a good story.  Make sure that you are not extremely vague with your details, especially when it comes to the environment and other features of the story.  However, don't spend too much time on the details or it will interrupt the flow of the story for the reader.  It is good to give the story depth so that the reader could actually attempt to picture themselves in your story, but again, be careful with how much you place it so that it doesn't drag on.

Using proper dialogue will also greatly help your story.  The genre will have an influence in how conversations between your characters will work.  For example, in comedic stories, it is good to use conversations that would make the reader laugh from the humor.  In drama or action tales, a more serious tone is perfect for conversations.  For horror, showing fear in the character's voice will help make the story more thrilling.  Use good descriptions to show how the characters are talking to evoke emotion and give your words life.  Keep all conversations relevant so that you can keep your reader's attention as well make them think about the current situation in the story.

When writing a chapter-based story, such as a novel for example, be sure to remember what occurred in previous chapters to prevent large errors from appearing in the next chapters.  That way, it will prevent your story from veering away from its original path and confuse the reader.

Revising

Proofreading is essential because no matter how good an author is, they will make some mistakes.  Read over your piece to check your spelling and grammar and make sure that your sentences make sense.  Don't rush the revising process, no matter how excited you may be to show the story.  It only takes a few major errors to stop a reader from enjoying your story.  If you are still unsure that you have all your errors corrected, have a friend or family member read over your story so that they can give you their opinion on anything that could be fixed or improved on.

Writer's Block

No matter how good you are, you will go through several cases of this.  In most cases, a break usually helps spark interest in writing again.  However, you could also try searching for that spark again and see if you can get back to writing.  Don't force yourself to write though.  This will only lead to more errors than you intended and you also likely won't have fun writing the story either.


Just remember, writing is about having fun.  If you are not enjoying writing the piece you are working on, then it is much more likely that will make errors.  It is good to make sure that your audience enjoys your work, but you can't appeal to everyone.  So, be sure to see to it that you are enjoying the story that you are writing as well.

With that stated, I hope that you find this tutorial helpful and I wish you well as you try to write your own pieces.  Good luck and have fun as you try to entertain your audience with the great and unique stories that you can possibly come up with!