How Do You Turn an Idea Into a Story?

[Dog]

I really want to write something, and although I think I have some entertaining, creative ideas, I can't really expand on them at all. Like, I have a basic set-up or premise, but I have no idea of how I build a story around it.

An example: Let's say I had an idea like in Inglorious Basterds, where I say "I want to write a book about a team of Jewish soldiers who terrorize the Nazis." Well, that's where the idea would stop for me. I just wouldn't have any idea where to take it.

Any suggestions?

[Lord Reptilian]

think. think hard about your idea. i can't be any more specific than that because if you explore the idea in your head enough then pieces of the story will come together naturally. the idea is to have the thing written before you actually start writing. i think.

[RosettaStoned]

Basically, you just gotta let it flow. Let's say you have some basic idea like, "A man, who has lost everything in his life and is now out to exact revenge on the people that brought him down to where he's at now." Well just think like, "What happened? What did he lose?" Map him out like he's a real person. Then, just start it in any way you want. The idea may pop into your head one day, "Walking down the street he dropped his empty cigarette pack after pulling his last one out, fumbling for a lighter." Then just let it go. Let the story write itself.

This is just an example, but basically, don't think about it too much. I used to always be told by all my English teachers, "You know, you think too much about what you're going to write. You think so much that it takes you forever to write anything!" Don't over-analyze, just go with it. Let the ideas flow, that's the best way to do it. Sit down with a cup a' joe or something, just chill and write. Clear your mind of all the other bullshit of life and just go with it.

Also, when you write a story, don't be so caught up on making sure everything is perfect. You can always go back and edit. Besides, something I didn't know at first, is that even the greatest writers of all time had to start somewhere. It takes practice just like learning an instrument, or a new language, or becoming an artist. Makes me think of something interesting I read about T.S. Eliot. All his published poetry is fantastic, but according to people who have read his journals, his unedited, and original manuscripts and such for poems were quite undeveloped, amateurish, and looked like a grade-school kid did it (or something along those lines). So just remember, what you write the first time, doesn't mean it's set in stone, and even if it was, we could just ditch that stone and start from another one right?

Hope this helps.

[random_guy]

Take your idea. Smoke weed and an expand your idea, a lot of weed. As you expand write notes even wild ass shit alot of notes, do this with pen and paper. Now go get some crowns and a few poster boards. Eat some shrooms now visualize your idea and take notes and draw drawings about what you are seeings. The next day look at all your notes and drawings, now start writing based on those ideas.

[RosettaStoned]

Take your idea. Smoke weed and an expand your idea, a lot of weed. As you expand write notes even wild ass shit alot of notes, do this with pen and paper. Now go get some crowns and a few poster boards. Eat some shrooms now visualize your idea and take notes and draw drawings about what you are seeings. The next day look at all your notes and drawings, now start writing based on those ideas.

I figured out what the song Greet Death by Explosions in the Sky meant one time when I was really, really baked. I wrote down extremely sloppy notes. I read it the next day and was just like, "What the fuck? This is right but I mean, why was I so excited last night?" Haha. If you want go the drug route, weed = no no, stimulants (see: amphetamines) = win. That's the way to do it. You'll bang out some crazy shit.

[Sookie]

Basically everything that RosettaStoned said, but also- I used to be in the really BAD dry spell in terms of writing stories, but I finally got out of it... and here's how!:

Say I had an idea like what Rosetta said "a man loses everything and wants revenge." First, I would sit down at some pretentious place like Starbucks with a Moleskine in one hand and a Frappachino in the other. (Seriously, it makes you feel artistic and shit. It helps.) And then I would either write out an outline of what kind of person this man is (starting usually with what he looks like, what kind of weird nervous tics or habits he had, how he speaks, etc) or just start writing. And I think it's easier to write about things like the scenery or the description of a character than to go right into the action.
Then, just take your character and walk him towards his ultimate fate (revenge... what happened before that, what his family was like, if he even had a family, what his love life is like, if he was a loner, an asshole, a musician... etc.)

I mean, you can always start right from the action as well (exacting his first revenge) and then walk backwards, and then go forward again... which can help spur some things to paper.

Anyway.. good luck.

EDIT:
Also, I find that Chuck Palahniuk is pretty good at just fucking writing things down and making the action happen, so reading some of his stuff might inspire you.

[0omnidirectional]

I have a lot of ideas, but only a few stories.
Normally these ideas are building for months, even years before something is written down. If you want to turn your idea into a story, understand your idea. Think about it for a long time.

Eventually, one of those days come along where you just want to write. It's like a faucet is turned on and you spill your soul upon the space. All those things you were thinking about are influencing the out pour.

My problem is that I get distracted by the form and style of my writing. Instead of spilling an entire story onto the paper, I'll spend ten minutes writing a single sentence using a desired form, and then I'll write another. After about three or four sentences, I look back with dissatisfaction and realize that I'm going to have to completely transform this paragraph, possibly expand into multiple paragraphs.

Try not to fall in this trap. When turning your idea into a story, don't worry about the form at first. Just get ideas out there, no matter what the form. Then later, you can work on the form for months or years, and see your story in greater depth.

[Dog]

Wow, lots of great advice here. Thanks a lot, everyone. :thumbsup:

I suppose I'll start with Sookie's advice and start by writing the main event that's already popped into my mind. And I'll take the other advice and not worry much about form. If I had some amphetamines, I'd definitely try that too. (You know, that might explain why Stephen King apparently spent a good chunk of his writing days abusing drugs.)

[Euda]

There are lots of simple ways to make notes that flesh out a story. You can brainstorm, flow chart, or plot sketch.

[Cliche Guevara]

Snowflake Method for Writing a Novel: (summary from http://www.ingermanson.com/writing/snowflake.php)

1. Take an hour and write a one-sentence summary of your story.
2. Take another hour and expand that sentence to a full paragraph describing the story setup, major disasters, and ending of the book.
3. Write a short summary sheet for each character.
4. Take several hours and expand each sentence of your summary paragraph into a full paragraph. All but the last paragraph should end in a disaster. The final paragraph should tell how the book ends.
5. Take a day or two and write up a one-page description of each major character and a half-page description of the other important characters.
6. Now take a week and expand the one-page plot synopsis of the story to a four-page synopsis.
7. Take another week and expand your character descriptions into full-fledged character charts detailing everything there is to know about each character.
8. Prep for writing the first draft: make a list of all the scenes that you’ll need to turn the story into a novel using a spreadsheet.
9. (Optional.)Switch back to your word processor and begin writing a narrative description of the story.
10. At this point, just sit down and start pounding out the real first draft of the story.

[Zygo Orbitale]

Just start writing. You got the scene in your head, or a description of a character, or a line of dialogue, write it down. Once it's down, ask yourself what happens next, who is this person or who are these poeple, how'd they get to this setting, who's talking and who are they talking to, why'd they say that? Just ask yourself questions, the answers will come. Maybe it'll be smooth sailing, or you'll find you took a wrong direction. That's fine, go back and rewrite. Don't be afraid to dump what you've written if it isn't working, or alter it once you've gotten it in on the page.

Who is this story about? Consider that character, who is he? You don't need to know everything, but there must be some sort of defining characteristic, something that sparks your interest. So, here's the question, how does a guy like that get to the scene you wrote down? Maybe as you think about this, you realise he wouldn't have acted at all like the they way you wrote it the first time. That's fine. The story is maleable, you don't have to treat everything as concrete.

Something to consider. If you want to write well, you need to write a lot (and READ, know your genre, know narratives, good and bad). This won't be the only story you'll ever write. This may be completely embarrassing and if it's the first thing you've ever seriously written it probably is, but you have to start somewhere. That's fine, put it away, move on to the next story. Maybe the next story is a revamped version of the last one, maybe it's an entirely new idea. Stick with it. It may turn out you think this new story is as shit as the last one. That's fine, put it away, move on to the next one. Eventually you'll see improvement, eventually you'll say to yourself, this is good, there's something here, of course you'll look back on this same stuff years later and think it's shit too, but by then you'll be writing even better.

A discipline you want to learn is getting to an end. Plenty of people have half written narratives sitting on harddrives. It takes discipline to get to a satisfying ending, try to practice it.

Tip: You may not be a great speller, or proficient at grammar, you will want to work on that if you're not, but in the meantime disable spell checker, and grammar alerts. You'll waste too much time trying to fix typos, misspellings, or grammatical holocausts, that'd be better spent getting the story out. You can fix it later, this is of course the first draft, it does not need to be perfect.

Good luck.

[pygar]

write. it doesn't matter what. forget grammer, forget plot, forget syntax.

put your one line idea at the beginning of the page and write what you want to happen and what you think. At the end when you have half a page of nonsense, combine all the ideas into one good sentence about your story. you may take out shitty or opposing ideas.

Another way, is to write in detail about the characters appearance, personality, vices, usefulness and so on. what'll you'll find happening is ideas and plots just popping in your head.

Remember, it could take weeks to think of something tangible to write about. I think thats were a lot of people give up, they sit to write..get stuck and say "fuck it".