HOW TO DEVELOP STORY LINE IDEAS

AuthorHouse

Contents

CHAPTER 1 Embracing the "Idea" of Writing....................................1CHAPTER 2 Books Versus Magazine Articles.....................................9CHAPTER 3 Discovering Story Line Ideas.......................................17Start with What You Know.....................................................19Discovering the Writer Within You............................................21Write About What You Like to Read............................................23Story Line Ideas Can Pop Up in the Strangest Places..........................24CHAPTER 4 Focusing Your Mind on the Matter...................................27Mind Games...................................................................27Establishing Your Credibility as a Writer....................................27CHAPTER 5 The Fundamentals of Gathering Story Line Ideas.....................31The Classifieds..............................................................31Pictorial Magazine Advertisements and Photographs............................33Newspaper Headlines..........................................................35Newspaper Articles...........................................................35Creativity in a Bag..........................................................35CHAPTER 6 Steps to Story Line Success........................................39CHAPTER 7 Acknowledging Your Story Line Ideas................................41Committing Your Ideas to Paper...............................................41Choosing Your Story's Literary Voice.........................................42Creating Your Own Style as a Writer..........................................44To Outline or Not to Outline.................................................45Story Line Flow..............................................................45Story Line Details...........................................................45Crafting Your Characters.....................................................47The Name Game................................................................50Story Line Challenges........................................................51Dealing With Loose Ends......................................................51Revisions and Rewrites.......................................................52CHAPTER 8 Summary............................................................53Recap........................................................................53

Chapter One

I have enjoyed writing since I was in grade school. Yet, if I pause to reflect on the matter, I would acknowledge that I have been a serious writer since my teen years. My work skills and management work experiences are diverse, but at the core of all I do and all I have accomplished, I am first and always-a writer.

As a writer, I resignedly subscribe to the same belief extolled by writer W. Somerset Maugham, when he said: "We do not write because we want to; we write because we have to." Likewise, to those individuals who, through the years, have asked me why I chose to write, I always answer, "I have not chosen to write, writing has chosen me." Moreover, I am of the notion that this statement of fact is believed and shared by many writers. Further, while I am of the mind that some things in life are easier to do than other things, I find it rather effortless to put my thoughts and my words on paper. Perhaps I am just partial to the writing craft because it does come easily to me.

Nonetheless, although I personally feel that the actual act of writing, putting the words on paper, is the easiest part of the writing profession, some writers would cite various segments of the writing process as being most difficult for them like: creating believable characters, writing dialogue that flows, and/or writing descriptive narrative. Still, other writers might say that coming up with a good idea as the premise for one's writing project is the real challenge. In reality, writing is not easy, but through your finished book, story, verse, or article, the idea is to make the writing process look easy.

Much of my own writing experience lies in nonfiction writing relating to business topics, as well as subjects related to my passion-writing. The key to developing your own story line ideas lies within your personal comfort zone of knowledge and experience. Story line ideas will flow more easily when you embrace subjects and topics most familiar to you.

When I wrote my first published book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Basics 101, I really didn't set out to write a business book per se. My ulterior motive for writing the book was founded in my desire to expand my horizons as a public speaker. I had held some key positions in the corporate world in which I had to conduct classes and/or make presentations in front of large groups of people. Over time I came to recognize that I really enjoyed those responsibilities, and I wished to take my public speaking to a higher level. As a result, I started to ask myself what knowledge, skills, and/or experience I possessed that I could capitalize on as a means to this end. Specifically, I wondered what I could do to help me further my opportunities to speak in front of people beyond those already available to me through my employment.

The answer was to utilize my "business" knowledge, which is exactly how I came up with the idea to write my book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Basics 101. The book provides the reader with, among other things, an overview of the requirements and responsibilities of business ownership. Moreover, it was a subject in which I had gained firsthand experience. It was a fact that I have been involved in many businesses over the years as a sole proprietor and/or co-owner. It was also true that I had long been conducting various classes in the workplace. Both experiences convinced me that the book would validate my existing role as a public speaker and find success on its own, and that role of public speaker could be expanded upon, as it related to the seminars and workshops I could present based upon the topics within my book. I thought it was a perfect marriage of my writing and public speaking skills and, therefore, I concluded it was a great idea!

Finally, I had found the story line idea I needed for this project. But then I pondered over the matter further and told myself that the story line in, and of, itself was not enough. I had to figure out something more, something that would give me an edge over any other like books that might present competition for my own. It was critical that I find a direction and slant for this book. After thinking about my story line idea for a few weeks, I came up with another idea, one that would encompass a complete alphabet of motivational messages within the book. I decided that I would showcase a motivational message incorporating the letter "A", write a chapter of the book followed by a message using the letter "B" and so on throughout the book. When I came to the letter "I", it was only fitting and proper that my "I" message be entitled: "I is for Idea". I am of the opinion that everything in life begins with an "idea". Hopefully, my idea of what an idea is will prove helpful to you-especially as you read on:

"I" is for: IDEA Conceived by desire, an idea begins as a miniscule seed. Planted in one's mind by a conscious or unconscious thought, it grows. Nurtured by endurance and nourished by initiative it feeds in the womb of creativity and slowly takes on a life of its own. It gains its strength from determination and drive until it comes to full term. Then, encouraged by the words of those who are endeared to it, the "idea" is born unto the world as a mental vision of a plan to be acted upon ...

My second published book, Pieces of the Puzzle, was actually the first book I wrote, before The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Basics 101. However, I purposefully chose to let it sit on my bookshelf (unpublished) so that I could pursue my "idea" for my business book. Ironically, Pieces of the Puzzle, a fiction/mystery story, is extremely far removed from the initial concept I had in my mind when I first considered writing any book.

Originally, when I first dreamt about writing a book, writing a fiction/mystery book was not part of my vision. Fiction seemed so difficult. I couldn't imagine coming up with a story line idea that could support a book of fiction, let alone a mystery book. I believed my first attempt at writing a book would be a nonfiction piece that would present the experiences my husband and I shared as owners of an independent (not franchised) liquor store and junior market. The manuscript about our venture was to be an account, not from the business side of our enterprise, but rather from the side of the interesting interactions we shared with our diverse and colorful customer base represented by people from all walks of life. However, after producing about five chapters and reviewing it prior to moving forward, I reasoned that the premise or story line idea, though conceptually interesting, was boring when executed upon the written page. I concluded it lacked the pizzazz that would make someone want to buy the book, let alone want to read its words from beginning to end.

I honestly felt there was a story waiting to be written that could be born of the business experiences my husband and I shared. So I pondered over my dilemma in an attempt to determine what I could do to rev up the book's content and still keep true to my nonfiction direction. I felt that I had to come up with a format that would showcase our business experiences within a story line that people would find interesting. I kept asking myself questions over and over again like: "What would readers want to read?" and "What kind of book might hold their interest?" The answers were not forthcoming and therefore seemed to be shrouded in mystery ... And then, suddenly I realized that the key words were "a mystery"-and that was my answer!

I finally decided to switch gears from a nonfiction book to a fiction book. Once I made that choice, and being a mystery-lover at heart, I acknowledged to myself that my story could best be written with the liquor store-junior market environment being the backdrop for the fictional mystery premise. In the course of telling my story, I could include actual information and insight relating to running such a retail store operation and loosely intertwine some snippets of real incidents and memorable moments with those of pure fantasy.

Having come to terms with the idea of writing a fiction book rather than a nonfiction book, I soon realized that I could craft my book at my whim. What a feeling of control to discover that I could use my imagination to develop my story line and my characters in any manner and direction whatsoever. Further, I could add as many twists and turns as I saw fit to tell my tale and keep my readers turning each page. In the end, it turned out to be a very wise choice.

Without consciously realizing it, by writing and publishing my two books (rather than just one book), I actually fulfilled all of my visions spurred by our business venture. My book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Basics 101, captures the business side of our store experience, although that was not my original intention. Yet, in hindsight, indeed it was a better way to go. There were no guide books available to assist my husband and me when we entered the scene as business owners. My book, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Business Basics 101, is a helpful, step-by-step basic guide that discusses not only the requirements and responsibilities of going into business for one's self, but also offers motivational messages and tips for success. Accordingly, the book does contain elements of basic value to and for others.

Changing my course from nonfiction to fiction and writing my book, Pieces of the Puzzle, still enabled me to speak of customer interactions and expound upon some of our liquor and junior market experiences, although not from my original points of view. Yet I believe my decision was a good one. As a result, I was able to produce a book with far more mass appeal than I had first imagined.

Moreover, since Pieces of the Puzzle was published in 2006, I have received many favorable reviews from individuals who have enjoyed the book's story line premise, its characters, and its style. The book continues to sell and some readers have personally conveyed to me that they have enjoyed the book so much that they have reread it multiple times.

Chapter Two

Much of this book is presented to writers to help them in their quest to find story line ideas for their book projects. The concepts for developing a nonfiction story line or a topic for an article are not all that different from those of fiction. However, writing nonfiction may require a slightly different focus and direction than you might follow for a story line idea for fiction. The reason for this is because nonfiction articles must be based in fact, not imagination. Even so, nonfiction story line ideas are just as bountiful as their fictional counterparts. They, too, are out there beckoning to writers and waiting to be discovered.

There are many ways in which writing a book of fiction or nonfiction differs from writing a nonfiction magazine article. Two differences that come to mind at this moment are word count and control.

Bearing in mind that a novel comprises a minimum of 50,000 words, to a large extent, book authors have the greatest single control over their story's word count. The word count total in a book of fiction is, more often than not, driven by the author's imagination and creativity. It is the fictional story line itself, and the length of time it takes the author to tell the story, that most often steers the book to its final word count.

The number of words in a nonfiction book may depend not only on the subject matter, but also the author's slant on the particular topic and how inclusive or exclusive the author chooses to be in his or her interpretation, presentation, and written execution of the material.

I do acknowledge, though, that in some instances if a traditional publisher purchases a manuscript (fiction or nonfiction), the acquiring editor may ask the author to revise or rewrite his or her book in some manner. Consequently, such a request may result in the final manuscript containing more or less words (and pages) than the author's original manuscript submission.

Yet, should an author self-publish in the truest sense through an independent printer or publish through a print-on-demand publisher, that author will still maintain control over the final word count of his or her (nonfiction or fiction) book.

Book authors can take their time, if they so choose, and write sporadically when their creative juices flow. However, in the world of newspapers and magazines, it is the publisher who: makes the rules, often determines the story line and its slant, sets the submission deadline date and dictates to the author the maximum word count for the article. A newspaper or magazine writer must have strong organizational and time-management skills too in order to survive and become successful in such a fast-paced, deadline-oriented, quick turnaround environment.

Newspapers and magazines make the majority of their monies from selling advertisements. For this reason, space is at a premium and ad space takes precedence over space for the written word, which is precisely why this industry is so focused on establishing and maintaining word counts. Nonfiction articles for a newspaper or a magazine might include: up-to-the-minute news stories, articles that spotlight a specific community event, a community resident and his or her noteworthy accomplishments, persons of interest within the community, business profiles, and the like.

Business profile writers will usually have to interview a business owner so as to gather the information to structure and write the piece. These types of articles are also called advertorials because often they are actually an advertisement formatted as a story wherein the business owner pays the paper and the paper sends out a writer to create the article.

Writing assignments from newspapers and/or magazines are not that easy to come by. A writer who has the best possible chance to find success in these areas would be: one who has already been published and has established a portfolio of clips (copies of articles previously written and published by the author), a writer who has thoroughly familiarized himself or herself with the targeted publication and understands its preferred writing style and format, a writer who is absolutely certain to meet every deadline on time-and stay within designated word counts. A writer who is adaptable in his or her attitude and writing style can thrive in this segment of the industry writing for multiple publications. The fact that all of them will have their own guidelines and rules to follow should pose little or no concern to a writer who can be flexible and go with the flow.

When you are writing business-profile type articles, it is imperative that you be able to effectively interact with others (especially business owners) to establish a good working rapport. In order to convey to the public what it is the business owner wants the public to know, you must first understand the client's product or service. Bear in mind, though, that the business owners themselves can inadvertently create a real challenge for the business profile writer. In some cases, the business owner will not always be sure what he or she wants to convey to the public. Consequently, sometimes due to inadequate communication on the part of the business owner, the writer might have a more difficult time identifying his or her slant to the story. Somewhere, of course, there has to be a meeting of the minds between the writer and the business owner. This might take some effort (and a whole lot of finesse) on the part of the writer, put if the writer persists, the article will get written to the satisfaction of the business owner client.

Business profile writers must get to the point of the article and the slant of the story quickly and directly. If you are contemplating doing this type of writing, I offer the following writing tips:

1. Get to know and understand the product and/or service you are writing about and what key points the business owner wants to convey to potential customers. You can do this by asking the owner questions that will (hopefully) provide you with the answers you need. A two-way channel of communication is necessary in order for you to clearly identify what the business owner wants to achieve in the piece and then write the article to meet his wants and needs.

2. Know your audience-the segment of the population you are trying to reach with your words.

3. Organize your thoughts carefully. Your words should flow naturally and segue effectively from one paragraph to another.

4. Hook your audience in the very first sentence and make them want to read on. Remember your article's word count might only allow you to write 100-400 words in the client's advertorial article. This word count range may seem like a lot of words, but reality will soon lead you to discover otherwise. You will have to make every word count in order to get the message to your readers as comprehensibly as possible.

5. The public wants to know what is in it for them and how they can benefit from the products or services being offered-and you must make sure you tell them.

(Continues...)

Excerpted from HOW TO DEVELOP STORY LINE IDEASby By Jo Ann M. Colton Copyright © 2010 by Jo Ann M. Colton. Excerpted by permission.
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