Hey, it’s Emily! Welcome to our first post in our new series Learning Your Writing Style! In this series, we want to discuss some aspects of your creative process to consider before you start writing. I’ll start us off by posing the question: Where Do You Start?
Where Do You Start?
In asking this, I don’t mean “What are your first steps in working on a new story idea?” or even “Where should your writing process start?” Instead, this question refers to the ways you already start your story ideas and writing process. What are the elements most important to you? What do you find yourself focusing on in a new story?
For example, I am very character-focused in my writing, so many of my story ideas start with a character. When I began my current book series, I was in the process of moving with my family to a new state, and I feared losing my home and my friends. I wondered if it was possible to find what I had before. I imagined a character dealing with some of my same fears, but, of course, including some element of adventure and fantasy. Thus started my idea: a magical teenager who seeks belonging.
I then asked the tried-and-true question of “What does my character want, and how can I keep them from getting it?” From that I made Kim (who has a much cooler, more fantasy-sounding name now) who found herself uprooted from a normal life because of a destiny she didn’t want—a conventional start, but a start nonetheless! I began to form more ideas around that, learning why she was so attached to her ordinary life, what could potentially disrupt that, and how her character arc would teach her to appreciate what she had, instead of focusing on what she lost.
I’ve noticed that often what writers enjoy working on the most—whether character, worldbuilding, plot, or theme—tends to be where their story ideas come from. Along those lines, what writers enjoy working on the most also tends to be what they focus their story on the most. If they’re not careful, this can cause other elements to be swept under the proverbial rug. Try to understand your process! If you can recognize where you start, where your ideas come from, and what elements are most important to you, not only can your writing of those elements improve, but you can also catch the pitfalls and remember to not neglect the other elements.
Character
I already talked a bit about starting with character and my own experiences. Most writers nowadays are likely also character-focused, considering how the writing industry has changed so drastically the past few decades to prioritize fleshed-out characters that readers can relate to and root for.
Character can become a writer’s starting point in many ways. In my case, I started with a character who was dealing with the same struggles I was. In J.K. Rowling’s case, it was an idea that materialized in her brain when she was stuck on the train. On her website, she says:
“I simply sat and thought, for four (delayed train) hours, while all the details bubbled up in my brain, and this scrawny, black-haired, bespectacled boy who didn't know he was a wizard became more and more real to me."
She fleshed out the ideas there on the train, writing on a napkin with a borrowed-pen, not knowing that this idea would lead to one of the most successful franchises ever. In coming up with this character, Rowling had to ask herself, “Why does this boy not know he is a wizard?” “Who kept this from him?” “Why?” “What will happen when he finds out?” and thus came Harry Potter.
Meanwhile, Audrey Niffenegger, who wrote The Time Traveler’s Wife, technically started with a title, but one which inherently demanded character. In an interview from 2009, she says:
"The idea came in the form of the title, while I was drawing one day. I wrote it down and began to turn it over in my head. The title contained two characters, the time traveler and his wife. It seemed that it might be rather trying to be the wife. I imagined her waiting. Then I had an image of an old woman in a bright room, waiting, and I knew that was the end of the story. After that it was a matter of figuring out who these people were, and how that woman got to that room."
Niffenegger began with a title, which led to two characters, which led to a dynamic, which led to a story. The Time Traveler’s Wife focuses on these characters—the time traveler and his wife—and their efforts to connect as he involuntarily leaps through time. It makes sense that the starting points of this story were the characters and their connection to each other.
On the other hand, a story based around character does not necessarily have to begin from an abstract, fictional place. For example, Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series stemmed from the author’s own grandmother—a very real, dear person to Christie’s heart. She said:
"Although a completely cheerful person, she always expected the worst of anyone and everything. And with almost frightening accuracy she was usually proved right. [She used to say] 'I shouldn't be surprised if so-and-so was going on.' And although with no grounds for these assertions, that was exactly what was going on. [The character of Miss Marple] insinuated herself so quietly into my life that I think I hardly noticed her arrival."
Christie took a person from her life to use as a character starting point—a trick many authors use in creating characters in general! I have definitely based characters, or at least their original ideas, after friends and family members. Writers can start novel ideas with characters in many different ways, but they must remember to move beyond just the character.
A pitfall of starting with and focusing on character is that you could get stuck. Some writers enjoy character building so much that they will forget or neglect the other elements, such as worldbuilding, plot, and theme. You may find yourself with a very fleshed-out main character who is absolutely useless to the overall scope of your story. Once you start with a character idea that you can form a novel idea around, you must ask yourself what comes next?
Where is this character from? Realistic or fictional world? How does their location affect their worldview? Their personality? Their life? What is their ordinary world? What would disrupt this? What does this character want? How could you keep them from getting this? What role do they play in the story? What will this character learn throughout the story? How will readers root for this character? Why is this character worth following through the story?
Often, you will already have some of these questions answered while you’re initially building your character. However, you want to make sure that you are intentionally connecting your character to the other facets of the story, placing them in the context of a world, giving them a plot-related role in the story, and using them to answer your story’s main question.
World
Many writers, on the other hand, start with the context surrounding a character before they even have a character in mind. Maybe an author knows they want to write a high-fantasy novel with castles and dragon’s caves. Or maybe a high seas adventure on a sailor’s ship. Maybe they want to base a novel’s location in their hometown. I also have friends who will spend months coming up with a setting—fantasy culture, magic system, even culinary arts—and have dozens of hand-drawn maps and spilling-over notebooks with details of this world they made. But they won’t yet have a story for it!
Like Niffenegger, Hilary Mantel also began one of her novels with a title, but one that alluded to a location: Wolf Hall. In an interview, she says:
"The title arrived before a word was written: Wolf Hall, besides being the home of the Seymour family, seemed an apt name for wherever Henry's court resided. But I had no idea what the book would be like, how it would sound. I could see it, rather than hear it: a slow swirling backdrop of jewelled black and gold, a dark glitter at the corner of my eye.”
Her story began with an image of luxurious halls as a home to an equally luxurious family, but the story only came later after she put in the work to dig deeper. She continued building her world, but she also populated it, gave it nuance, and structured a story around her starting point.
Mantel, however, did know early on who would live in Wolf Hall, even if she didn’t know anything about the Seymour family yet. Similarly, the worldbuilding master himself, J.R.R. Tolkien started with a location where an unknown character—even an unknown creature—lived. The idea for The Hobbit came to him while grading papers one day. He says:
“I remember picking up a paper and nearly gave it an extra mark, or extra five marks actually, because one page on this particular paper was left blank. Glorious! Nothing to read. So I scribbled on it, I can't think why, 'In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.'"
From there, Tolkien developed Middle Earth. Being a natural world builder and linguist, he already had many ideas in his head of settings, maps, cultures, and creatures. He did not yet know what a hobbit was when he wrote down the line, but he planned to find out! And eventually he had a character as well: Bilbo Baggins. And soon he had a quest for this Bilbo Baggins, and lessons for him to learn along the way.
If you are an intent worldbuilder who loves dreaming up elaborate cities and landscapes, remember to give your world a reason to exist! If you plan to write a novel using your world as a setting, you must have characters who reside and interact in it, generating a story worth reading.
Plot
Some writers start with a plot right off the bat. If you’re one of these writers, good for you! Often, figuring out a plot is the hardest part of getting a story idea nailed down. And sometimes it’s even harder getting that plot boiled down to the bare one-line essentials! Ideas can come much too big and it takes a skilled writer to be able to figure out the bare-bones necessities of a story so they can expand from there. But plot is likely the best element to start with if you are able to, because the other elements are much easier to draw in when you know where you want your story to lead.
Robert Louis Stevenson found his idea for The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde from a consumption-induced fever dream (and no, this is not a suggestion to find novel inspiration!) and started with a plot. His idea started with a story about a doctor who must investigate the consequences of his own actions after he delves too deeply into the darker side of science and awakens an alter ego.
Often, when you start with plot, you also partially start with character. In the example above, Stevenson already has, technically, two characters to work with: the doctor and his alter ego. However, Stevenson still had to develop his characters beyond the initial story set up. He also had to consider his setting—Victorian London—and theme—the duality of man.
Theme
Still, some writers begin with an abstract theme before anything else. They may not know what they want their novel to be about story-wise, but they do know what they want their story to communicate. Sabaa Tahir, who wrote An Ember in the Ashes, describes that she knew her story had to address a fight against powerlessness:
“I grew up in this really isolated town in the Mojave Desert where I felt like I really didn’t fit in. I felt really voiceless as a kid and I felt really isolated. Eventually as I grew older, I ended up finding my power and voice through writing. Then, in 2007, I decided I was going to write a book. And I didn’t know what it was going to be about; all I knew is that it was going to be about people who felt like me as a kid, people who felt that sort of powerless, but unlike me, I wanted them to fight against it.”
Tahir did not have a clear vision of who would be in her story yet or what they would be doing concretely or where they would find themselves. But she developed all these things after finding her starting point and knowing what story and message she wanted to provide her readers with.
Other Starting Points
While character, world, plot, and theme are fairly common starting points and focuses within the world of writing, there are many other ways writers can strike inspiration-gold and come up with their ideas. Suzanne Collins came up with Hunger Games while watching TV one night and blurring the lines between a game show and a death battle. Stephenie Meyer’s plot for Twilight came from a dream. Khaled Hosseini based The Kite Runner after current events in Afghanistan while Mark Haddon started with an image of a pitchfork-pierced poodle for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. Beyond that, you could come up with a character, world, plot, or theme from reading obituaries, hearing war stories, or dreaming an aesthetic. My most recent novel idea came from the idea to subvert the runaway princess trope. There is an endless supply of inspiration existing around you that can help you fuel your ideas. You just have to know where you will start and where you will go.
They’re All Connected
Ultimately, however, what element you start with does not matter so much as what you decide to do with it. There is no right way to get inspiration, nor is there a right way to come up with a novel idea. However, if you are serious about writing a story and one day getting it published, you must learn how to connect your initial idea to other elements. Don’t leave an abandoned character without a quest. Don’t leave a world uninhabited. Don’t leave a plot without meaning. And don’t leave a theme without substance. Luckily, these threads often weave themselves together well. All you have to do is be there for when the ideas start flowing and the points start connecting—ideally with a fresh pen and notebook at the ready!
Thanks for checking out our first post of the Learning Your Writing Style series! I hope that these ideas have given you some clarity into your own process and how you can prepare to start your novels. As you draft and revise your stories, remember that Brianna, Gabrielle, and I would love to help polish your writing. If you’re interested, please reach out to us on our Contact page or on our Instagram! We would love to hear about your story and work with you towards your publishing goals.
In the meantime, stick around to hear about an exciting project we’ll release soon, which will help you learn to apply all sorts of writing tips and inspiration—such as character, world, plot, and theme. Next week, we’ll hear from Brianna as she shares a writing style tip of her own invention!
Till then, bee brilliant!
Emily
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