 I thought it might be cool to do a blog post about how a single idea can turn into enough of a story to make a novel. But a single idea really isn't enough to do it, no matter how good that idea might be. So you need more than one. A book is a bunch of ideas that fit together to form a story. Ideas that can feed into each other, and work together to create a compelling world and narrative. Spark Before a Blaze What comes first? Where did the spark of all of your favorite stories come from?
The answer is yes. And no. All of the above. Take your pick. Basically the answer is that a novel can come out of anything, so long as it lights your imagination on fire. Before you have a book, you have to have a character, world, magic, or piece of the story that you can connect to, one that can fuel the creation of an entire story. You are going to be devoting an enormous amount of time to this story, and you have to love it enough to make it worth it. For me, with Soot of the Stars, that connection came from my character Soot. The first scene that I wrote (which you can read on this page) is where Soot of the Stars began. I wrote the scene way back in 2017 in a Narrative class in college for some random homework assignment. All I had was an image of a mechanic with a connection to the stars and a dream to escape the planet she was trapped on. That image of this character was enough for me to turn this scene into my BFA project, a full length portfolio manuscript that I would work on for the next four months before I graduated, and one that I am still working on today. A lot of the details and plot around the story may have changed, but Soot has remained who she is: grumpy and determined and drawn to the light of the stars. Her character is what made me want to write the story in the first place, and it has been the once constant thing in this mess of a writing process. Find an idea...any idea So. The first thing you need before you write your story is an idea (or character, world, magic, image, scene, trope, random story fact, worldbuilding tidbit, setting). Anything. Something that inspires you. Something that makes you ask: what next? what if? what happens when? Answering those questions is what will bring you your story. Or rather, it will get you started on your story. Where do you get ideas? Ah the hardest question. How do you come up with an idea? And if you do, how do you know that it's a good one? We'll cover that last one in the next post. For now, you can find your initial ideas in any number of ways:
The truth is there is no right or wrong way to find your ideas. I think I'll just ask you: How do you come up with your ideas? And how do you know when you've thought of something that could become a full book? Okay I have an idea...what now? So you have an idea for a character, world, magic, plot trope, or story element, one that lights fire in your imagination and gets you thinking about possibilities. Now what? The idea of my character, Soot, was enough for me to want to write a whole book about her. But 'mechanic space-traveler rebuilding her ship to return to the stars' isn't enough of an idea to write 200,000 words about. Not alone. So I had to ask myself some questions:
Now you can just answer these questions and go from there. Personally though, that was just too overwhelming. I don't know about you, but nothing is harder than just "answering questions." I tried. I really did. But asking questions is easy, knowing the answers, when the answers are literally limitless and there's no way to know if they're right or wrong, was just too difficult. So I started looking for more ideas to narrow my search. Whenever I'm in the beginning stages of a story, I always consult my idea bank. I have a half a dozen boards on pinterest filled with pins of quotes, settings, characters, magic ideas, random images, and bits of dialogue that I use when I need story ideas. I also have pages and pages of scribbled notes and ideas. I think of what I know about my story in my head (in this case I had my character Soot, space travel, and some sort of steampunk world) and I look for ideas from my boards that can fit with it.
Three main ideas = a novelI've heard form a couple other authors that 3-4 main ideas is enough to get a book started. I've never really kept track of mine (my first attempts at plotting a story were so convoluted and complicated so it isn't easy to untangle my thought process.) But 3-4 sounds like a good starting place. Once you have three ideas to work with, it narrows down your story, and you can start answering those questions. How do you know when it fits?You don't, really. Not for sure. It's just a feeling.
Really it just takes time and brainstorming and putting things together and trying out new ideas and asking questions. You may end up working with a plot for months before you realize that you have to change something drastic because one of your ideas doesn't fit, which then changes your characters, which changes your setting, which can change your plot again. There's a reason writing takes a long time. The good news is there's no right or wrong way, and it can take as long as it needs to. I'd love to hear your ideas about ideas! Is there anything you guys can think of that I've missed or glossed over? about the author
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