How to write a story

To write well you’ve got to write a lot, but in tandem, you have to read a lot!

I read books, magazines, newspapers and journals and especially lots of poetry. I like the freshness and the succinct way poetry expresses ideas. It often inspires me and I begin some of my novels that are thousands of words long, with just a few simple lines of poetry.

For example, my first young adult novel Thunderwith began with a rhythmic repeating line whilst a terrible storm raged outside in the Australian bush, that became a poem.

With thunder you’ll come, and with thunder you’ll go!

that became a story.

Think about books you enjoyed and think about why you enjoyed them?

Try to write in a similar way. As a writer I modelled on writers I loved at first in order to find my own voice.

Ingredients

dreams, ideas, a love of words,
the will
paper, pen or computer,
thesaurus, dictionary
more dreams and ideas,
characters,
a setting,
a climax and an ending
and lots and lots of patience for editing

Inspiration for Thunderwith - Writing Thunderwith — Writing my story in the setting I used, on my brother Stephen’s farm in the Wallingat Forest, north of Newcastle, NSW.

A bright idea!

Collect ideas from newspapers, magazines or books.

Listen to conversations, jot down ideas, keep a dream diary to draw from and always, always be observant. Small details will often enrich your writing.

Let your ideas run wild. Sometimes let the keyboard or the pen take you on its own journey. Loosen your ideas and just write. Just write! Often out of these musings an idea will occur. Idea will lead to idea, join up with idea, something forms and hey presto you have the beginnings of story…

Most of all if you want to write, keep reading, reading, reading!

Find a place

The dignity of time is one thing but if you can, find a place where you are likely to be uninterrupted. As a kid I hid behind the lounge sometimes to both read and write as there were four kids and it was difficult to find a quiet spot. I was lucky that one of the most important pieces of furniture in our lounge room was the bookcase. So there were plenty of stories to explore and I did just that, some of them becoming life-long friends.

Try to have favourite books around you, or the accoutrements of writing, things that keep you in the mood. When I am writing about the sea for example, I might very well put a shell on the desk; about the bush, a sprig of gum leaves; or about a character something that gives me more insight, a picture of the era in which he or she lives…

sprig-gum-leaves

Structure your story eventually

Sometimes a story will occur with a beginning, middle and end and all you have to do is capture it, beginning middle and end on the page. My novels Thunderwith and Fire Song and both came to me this way but they were the only two that ever did.

Mostly though, my stories are a slow build. A bright idea. A little nagging ache to say something, a great scene that seems to come out of nowhere and begs to be written down, a mystery that the writing process will help solve, and always the pleasure of the chase of a good story.

For example, the novel Rift came from my son Keiran undertaking a Padi course and exploring the underwater world, and the news that a strange sect in LA had agreed with each other that death was more important than life. So began a story about an Australian sect in which the underwater world has a part.

Eventual Poppy Day began with holding in my hand the service record of an Australian soldier who had been both to Gallipoli and the Western Front, my uncle Maurice whom I’d heard about from my mother who had explained how he had died at the Battle of the Somme in France. After much research histories, letters, postcards, news, war poetry and so on, I began to tease out that war record into what would become a novel.

planning-your-story

Planning.

I begin with fragments, a few lines, teasing out a thought or idea. I like to keep these first jottings when the idea is freshest of all. This acts as the basis or a kind of plan and an inspiration about what I want to say.as a story. Then the idea seizes hold. This is one of the most exciting parts of writing.

Get your fragments down even if it’s only a scrap, on paper. If you get enough fragments soon they may begin to attach to each other. At this stage it’s hard to stay away as a story takes some sort of form. I keep it fluid as characters and settings may well change.

Then it could be time for your plan, your beginning, a middle and an end. But an event that’s strong in your mind can be written down first before you know quite where it’s going to go in the order of your story. It’s great if the ending can surprise your readers. It sometimes surprises you as the writer! The end of each chapter you write should make the reader want to go on reading, too.

If you are a person who loves the idea of the shape of a story, draw a plot line with possible chapters, and mark and label the climax of your story. I don’t do this but I do know writers who do for each and every story! It’s what suits your way of thinking that will work for you.

libby hathorn notes-handwrittenThunderwith — Handwritten notes from Thunderwith

Dress up your characters in strong words

secretive, self-important, surly, loud-mouthed, hilarious

What does he look like? (large, lanky, thin, powerful)

How does she sound? (shy, fast-talking, confident)

Do they have mannerisms? (hums a lot, jingles money in pocket)

What are they like in a crisis? (calm, excitable, panicky)

character-descriptions

The setting is where your story happens.

It could be a house, a zoo, a cave, a bedroom, a school, on a camping trip in a forest or in another world. Look at pictures that help you write about your setting.

Paint pictures with words.

Practise describing things, even simple objects in your bedroom or on the kitchen table. Then describe the same objects but in a completely different way, as if they were in another setting, like a castle or a cave. How would your descriptions differ?

Sharpen your powers of observation. If you want to describe a forest, walk in one if you can or even in the park among trees if you can’t find a local forest! and call on your five senses. If you can’t do either, dig and delve through pictures of forests, imagine yourself there and describe what you see…

Then edit and re-edit what you’ve written cutting out the weakest words and polishing your description by using the thesaurus or the dictionary to find braver, stronger words if you need them. When you story is accepted for publication there is a whole process of proof reading and copy editing before it gets to that amazing stage of becoming pages and then an actual book to hold in your hand and to go out into the world. But the more work you do on your manuscript before sending it out there, the better!

planning-your-story

I’m repeating what I said at the beginning to encourage you to let your ideas and dreams take flight.

There’s no formula for writing though you will find heaps of advice online or in books. There’s a process you can go through – and I’ve described mine. However, I really believe that the most important thing is the need and the will to do it, and the persistence to get your story to a level where you can let it go.

ideas

Let your ideas run wild.

Sometime let the keyboard or the pen take you on its own journey. Loosen your ideas and just write. Just write! Often out of these musings an idea will occur. Idea will lead to idea, join up with idea, something forms (often through the lines of a poem for me) and hey presto, you have the beginnings of story!

write-ideas-down

Most of all, if you want to write keep writing every day and keep reading, reading, reading!

Good luck with your stories and poems!

And don’t give up the hope that your story will surely please someone.

Libby Hathorn

To write is to trap heaven and earth in the cage of form

– Li Po