Kia Garriques

During Christmas, most of us amuse ourselves with the festive food, amazing sales and wonderful presents. This year, why not make a start on your writing career and start penning the start of a beautiful literary piece?

Writing can seem like a very daunting prospect, especially if it’s not something you would usually consider doing but the brilliant thing about writing is that you are allowed to write about whatever you want in whatever style you want. The actual process of refining an idea and developing it is something that isn’t often taught so here are a few tips to get you started.

The Idea

If you already have a great plot or character in mind then you can start thinking about developing your idea otherwise it’s time to start thinking.

You know you want to write something but you’re not sure what, it has to be exciting and different but you’re still clueless as to what to write. Everyone who enjoys writing gets like that, you just have to go with it and think of news ways to harness your creativity.

A lot of writers will say to get yourself a notebook and write down absolutely everything that you think or see, no matter how trivial it may seem. If you see a man with a bird tattooed on to his neck he could be a great character or if you come across a beautiful beach that could be a perfect start to your story write them down as soon as possible because you never know what they might spark off in your brain. Phrases that people say are also really good to jot down.

Development

Once you have the basis of your idea you can start to go crazy with it. Think of all the possible directions the story could go in from the ridiculous and awful to the ones you think could work and then write them down. Write profiles for characters, good and bad, unrealistic and realistic and even if you don’t use them this time they could be needed for another story another day. The key to a story is writing down all of your thoughts because it can be very easy to forget something that could give your story the edge it needs.

Refining

Now you have to be ruthless and pick out the bits of your imagination that you think will create the world you want and leave out the bits that won’t. This can be difficult as we can grow attached to characters and plots but if they don’t work, leave them out.

Then write a step outline of how your story is going to play out, it may seem like a lot of planning but at least your writing is less likely to go off on an unwanted tangent.

Write

Follow your outline and let the story burst on to the page! This will probably be the longest part of the process but it’s definitely the most rewarding.

Edit

In order to get the best possible story it’s vital to read through everything you’ve written and edit the parts that don’t quite work. It’s not a sign of failure and if you don’t do it you will have something that you’re never going to be completely happy with.

 

Now that you’ve got a few tips to get you started there is nothing stopping you from writing the next best seller!

And when you’re done, reward yourself with that last mince pie….