How do you even write the story?

[Kingyell]

Years have passed since I've been able to write a story from beginning to end. Now I find miself starting with an idea for my comic only to ditch it up the next day.
Seems like I didn't really conect with my characters or the plot wasn`t engaging enough to continue. But the thing is I don't really know, because I don't build upon my initial ideas. So. How do you write your stories? How do you keep being fascinated about your characters and their adventures?

[DWaM22]

At some point I have to say that an idea is good enough and start writing, even if it's all just looking bare-bones. If it doesn't work, it'll fall apart before the first chapter's over. If there's something to it, I'll keep going, using the general tone I've inevitably set to figure out the rest of the threads.

I think a lot of people get into their own heads and never get past the idea stage. The key part, for me, is to take that leap and just start. Only way it'll ever have a chance of getting done, really.

[Kingyell]

The dreaded idea stage is so real

[ar-ninetysix]

I wanna add that even coming up with ideas and immediately discarding them isn't necessarily a bad thing. It shows that you have a creative mindset, enough to constantly come up with new premises that may or may not work.

Use that creativity and apply it to expanding on your initial ideas! There might be more appeal to it if you work a little harder to make it more elaborate! And don't throw away your old ideas either, you never know if certain aspects might apply better in a different context.. like expanding any new ideas!

[CosmicLeon]

that is rough, but before you write, I think you should spend time with your characters and get to know them. You can draw them in situations, or write short stories for them. I also like talking about them to friends, which we bounce ideas off of, and it can lead to some pretty great inside jokes. Sharing ideas with people and seeing them get excited it a big boost in the motivation department. Another thing you can do is rp with the characters or play dnd with them. I think it helps flesh them out, so that you can see how they would respond to different situations. When you spend time with your characters you should be able to answer questions about them such as: What do they like, what can they not stand and why, what colors they like and why, what is their motivation, How can you break down their personality (sassy, timid, etc...) And where do they live? What kind of world so they live in?

Then I would started working out stories for them. This process takes time, and I have a lot of story fragments form my characters that I chose to abandon and take a different paths. It takes time, and sometimes I will just lie on the bed, or couch just thinking about it.

If you don't think your plot is engaging, ask yourself why? What do you think makes you feel that way? Is it the setting, tropes, genre, etc... Spending time thinking critically will help you out a lot.

[kmlangleyauthor]

It does sound like you e really gotten into your head. Just take your ideas and run with them. They’ll either crash and burn on their own or you’ll realize they have potential. Either way, it’s good writing/drawing practice and you’ll get more in tune with your creativity and characters - a win on all fronts.

I usually have a TON of character ideas. All. The. Time. They just pop into my head in the middle of a little scene. But only about 1 of 10 have full story arcs that come out of it. So I have approximately 7k tiny story blurbs that are 5-20 pages long that never really went anywhere, but, occasionally, that’ll turn into a 50k+ word story with a defined beginning-middle-end arc.

Anyway, that’s just my thoughts

[konori]

So the following is how I develop my ideas/stories. Hope it's useful.

I cycle through several story ideas over a few weeks/months before I write them down. When I get a new idea, I don't write it down yet. I let it sit and develop in my head for a while, and once the novelty of the idea wears off, I can determine whether the idea is worth keeping or discarding. There were ideas where the premise is good, but I can't think of a satisfactory plot, so I put those ideas aside and move on to the next idea to develop. When I revisit ideas and come up with a satisfactory plot, I finally write them down. Even then, it's not the final draft, but at least I have something concrete to refer to when I want to develop the plot in earnest.

I had an idea that I first conceived in 2012, had its first draft written in 2016, and its second/final(?) draft written in 2020. That idea was one where I couldn't come up with a satisfactory plot for the premise, and I thought I'd given up on it, but I somehow managed to come up with a plot I'm happy with when I revisited the idea on a whim. Years of new experiences and ideas managed to salvage that idea. (Of course, this one taking 8 years to develop is an exception. I have other ideas that's taken 2 years or less to develop.)

So, if you think an idea has potential but the story is not working for you, just put it aside and come back to it later when you feel like it.

[kennielacroix]

So what I end up doing is once I've got a basic storyline/characters, I create a bunch of documents and just start slowly adding to it over time.

I’ll make a separate document for each of my characters, world building, locations, random plots, outline/story arcs. What I do then is any time I have an idea, I just put it in a bullet point in the document and expand upon it as I am able to. Eventually I start drafting scene ideas around that, and then flesh that out into actual scripting. I usually try to also note fallout from a given piece of dialogue/action so I am able to add that where need be (you can use this to also add foreshadowing). The internet has a ton of worldbuilding/character development worksheets; add those to your separate documents and begin to fill them out randomly when you have time.

If all else fails, remember that you can always modify the story to make it more interesting. Ask yourself what’s not working/engaging for a reader, then make a list of things to improve/fix that problem, rework what parts of your story you’ll need to accommodate that change. For instance, one of my character’s only goal in life is to kill a particular demon, and I knew that this needed to be his goal to get the ending, so I could’ve just made that his goal because he wants to beat a strong demon, or even worse, just made it that he ends up randomly fighting this strong demon. But I knew it needed to be interesting and potentially be a compelling part of this character’s story so I made it so that he witnessed this demon kill his younger sister. There’s a twist midway through the story that also makes this incredibly heart-wrenching.

So basically, the point of that incoherent example is that you can always fix what you don’t like.

[k5rakitan]

I recommend finding a muse or three. Falling in love is a good way to find a muse, depending on if you're willing to call it love. If you're not willing to call it love, just a crush will do.

[nostalgicroxas]

I'd suggest perhaps... writing the ideas you do have? Like. Don't commit to them 110%. But take whatever idea you have and build off it. And honestly, if you can't figure out quite where to start, just.... jot it down and work off of it like a bubble.

Take for example, off the top of my head, uh::

Tarragon --> Food --> Restaurant themed --> theme cafe --> Japanese --> High school

Bam. I have... a weak, but a structure of thoughts that connect together in my mind. A high school character works at a theme cafe and.. I dunno. Sabotages all of the dishes with tarragon when they're on duty?

Then take that weak idea and start writing out characters. A cafe needs a boss, an underling, a cook, at minimum. Do any jobs cross over? Is it near the school? Is it run by the person's family so they're never paid? Like, bridge out those ideas together, VERY basic, and then start writing your opening scene or whatever scene that comes to you first.
It should take maybe an hour's worth of time to do all that before you realize if you're committed to the idea out of necessity, or because you like it.

[MeltingCORE]

So, I think a part of your issue is not being able to connect with your ocs and story. You definitely want to start with an idea you'll stay interested in. I've been working on my current project for nearly 5 years now and I find myself still interested because I keep expanding upon the world and universe. You don't have to go fast - it's your story and you want it to meet your own personal standards.

For my work, I started with an initial idea: a story based around a character who usually would be relegated to the background. What was his story? And from there, I built the history and culture of his planet through his interactions with the Royal Family and military. I found it easier to keep going once I had a web of interconnected characters and plot points. Everything that happens has a purpose and/or affects another character.

And also, just sitting down and writing whatever comes to you is enough to jumpstart your ideas.

Aaaah, I hoped this helps in some way!

[Kingyell]

I will definitely try this

[Kingyell]

Hey it's like a structured way to brainstorming

[Kingyell]

The more the merrier?

[KJWhitten]

And also, just sitting down and writing whatever comes to you is enough to jumpstart your ideas.

Basically I do this. I would open up a document and put down whatever comes to my head and then figure out later if I can use it or not. Everything doesn't have to be come up with right away and you can build it up over time until your satisfied with what you have.

[ratscout]

I am ashamed to admit that I am a pantser for the most part. XD I do some basic outlines, but just don't do very much planning beyond that. One thing that is good about being a pantser: It really helps me be productive. It forces me to write so I can find out for myself where the story's going to see if there's anything to it. The drawback: Sometimes I can get really far into a story only to find out that I'm just not all that inspired by it.

I think one thing that helps me stay interested in my characters is having a really firm theme to explore. Having a theme really helps me stay interested in exploring that theme in each of my characters in unexpected ways. I also find that starting out with a short story and then building that story out into a long-form story is really helpful. I can't really explain why it is, other than that my longest-running story, Inheritance, started out as a short story which I built out into a long-form story. Additionally, the current story I'm working on started out as a short story but I see great potential in building it out to a longer-form, but still shorter story.

Maybe the knowledge of knowing there are multiple good opportunities to end the story on a final note really helps me be productive? I dunno. XD

Oh. One more good thing about being panster-like: It forces you to actually write the darned thing rather than spending months planning only to find that you can't get anywhere with it.

[Dizwikz]

I generally will outline things in my head a lot without ever writing it down or making the story. The first time(Other than some short story writing assignments) I felt successful writing a story was a short script I wrote in a night where I basically just wrote out a interesting scenario and went from scene to scene in a very natural 3 part act. I'm a very visual thinker so using the barebones script format really aided in my writing style.
I previously felt hindered by novels and didn't know how to go about writing just because of how much pros were stressed in english class, but writing out a script and then writing some revisions helped me with being able to find a style that suited me.
Just going for it also helped things feel more natural and it helped me with writing the story I'm posting now. It's sitting at a little over 20k words, which might not be a lot to some but it's the most I've written for a story lol.

[Panqiuyan]

i would suggest you read varies genres of books to get a sense on stories are written. do some research on the story writing styles and see which one may fit you. Remember you don't to follow every step on the diagrams. learn how to outline and just start writing