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Hi y’all!
I’ve got a question for you:
In what order do you write your stories?
Figure out the plot then start writing it? Or is there another step?
As some of you may know, my WIP is a children’s book about my great-grandpa’s story in the Armenian genocide. Grandpa was just here so we sat down, pulled out the manuscripts great-grandpa left about his story, and figured out the plot. It was haaaarrdd – we had to sort through 5 years of action plus a backstory but it was so rewarding! I sat down to start writing out the story last night when it occurred to me that maybe there’s another step in between figuring out the plot and writing it? And then what do you do afterwards? Edit it? Or is there another step? I like to know what I’m doing when I tackle a big project like this. 😁😁Thanks for all your help guys! – Kina
@Kina-Lamb well, that’s pretty sound as far as I can see. 🙂 The only step I might add between the two is figuring out the theme, but I’ve not done non-fiction before, so I can’t say for certain how majorly that would figure in.
In your place, I would just ask myself, What lesson does this story teach me? To have courage? To persevere? To be kind and longsuffering? That God always keeps His promises?
That will give you a purpose and focal-point from which to work as you balance the different parts of the story when you begin.
Hello, @kina-lamb! I don’t know if this is much help, but this is something that I like to do sometimes:
One thing that you could do is organize the overall plot like this:
- Exposition
- Conflict
- Rise of conflict 1
- Rise of conflict 2
- Rise of conflict 3 etc…
- Climax
- Denoument
I don’t know if that would help with the kind of story you’re writing, but I like to use it to organize my plot line. But then again, I write fiction…
Hmmmmmm…
You know, I was taking notes like this on my KPA! I would jot down notes on the computer about the plot, but I would also have other separate files for other things like….
- Characters (Outward appearance, personalities, strengths and weaknesses, etc.)
- Archetypes & symbols (light & dark, etc.)
- The setting (places he lived, and where he fought, etc.)
- And the story itself, of course!
But I have also found that you can’t put too much effort into making notes, because then your mind switches into “perfection mode” (or at least mine did), and you become afraid to start the story. Once you have plenty of notes, and once you’ve organized them however it works for you, you can start the story, and then the puzzle pieces (slowly, but surely) start coming together.
That’s the advice I have. Somebody who actually has experience with non-fiction could probably be of even more use 😉
You can pronounce it however you want.
Thanks @kate-flournoy and @dekreel! Good advice. 😀 Theme… that’s what I was missing. Thanks Kate! @Dekreel, those are some good things to consider! Thanks!
@kate-flournoy I can’t wait to see you (and @emma-flournoy and the rest of the family) tonight! 😀- Rank: Eccentric Mentor
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@kina-lamb Sounds like a really neat story! Outlining will really help you keep track of where you’re going next in your story. You could also jot down notes on the development of the characters which would also help with the plot development. And the theme is also super important, as Kate already said. Hope this helps a little!
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