Have you ever thought “what if…” and then that simple thought turned out to be your novel? Most stories start this way. Overtime, an idea can end up becoming a grand plot filled with complex and compelling characters, intriguing prose, amazing dialogue, and the ultimate climax that leaves your readers spellbound.
When you have one of those ideas, it’s important to continue to fuel them so you can write an entire book off of a single thought. You want that innocent idea to grow into your masterpiece. I have a few tips for accomplishing this, and here they are:
- Embellish, Enhance, and Elaborate
The three E’s are important to get any idea from brain to paper. They are crucial for the growth of your idea. Start writing down plot points and outlining your story. Even if you’re like me and don’t outline your books, it’s still my personal recommendation to write down some of the key components and just get the general idea down on paper.
- Create Characters
This is my personal favorite part about any idea I have. I love to create and name the characters in my story and come up with their backgrounds. You don’t have to have a list of every single character, but a least have the protagonist, antagonist, and a few of the important side characters and their parts in the story. If you already know your characters before you start writing, you’ll find that it’s a lot easier to incorporate them into the story.
- Inciting Incident, Climax, Conclusion
I believe that these three are the most important parts of any books. I’ll do a separate blog on the inciting incident, climax, and conclusion and go into more detail about each one, but for now, I’ll just say that you need to at least have an idea about each one for your novel before writing. All of my ideas start off with the climax already in mind, so all I have to do is find a way to start and end my stories. If you have the beginning, middle, and end, the rest will naturally fall into place as you’re writing.
Writers thrive on their wild imaginations and ever working ideas we always have. It’s important that you consider each idea before writing about them though. Sometimes an idea is just an idea and should be left at that. Other times, an idea needs fuel to grow into an entire story. If you give lots of thought and consideration to your ideas, they can become something amazing.
Keep up the hard work, fuel those ideas, and as always…
Just write!
Jordan
JUST WRITE 