The Write
Recipe
Like the perfect summer pie cooling off in your grandmother's kitchen window, every good book has a recipe.
Discover all the ingredients, learn to tweak them and you are well on your way to becoming a powerful writer.
You are here because you want to learn some basics to write a story.
Here is the recipe for your story:
Character:
Use a character profile cheat sheet to develop your characters. You should get to know them quite well and the form will help you to understand your characters motivations, personality quirks, their temper, etc. From this form you should be able to develop 3-D characters.
Conflict:
Your main characters always have major obstacles. What problems will your characters face to get what they want?
As much as we love our characters, we have to put them through some serious struggles, even if it hurts them and you.
Plot:
This is how your character intends to solve their problems. According to Schaum's Quick Guide to Writing Great Short Stories, there are four characteristics to a plot:
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Your character should have both a goal and a conflict
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The events and details of your story should move forward in time
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The events in your story should demonstrate causality and connectedness, it answers how they are related.
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By and large, the direction of your story should move towards the answers your characters seek or the resolution they need.
Setting:
Where do your characters live, or where will your story take place and what year. What things there shape and influence and motivate your characters? The answers to these questions give you a setting. 3-D settings become a character in the novel.
Voice:
How will YOU tell YOUR story? This is your voice. It includes the language or accents your characters will use, the style in which you demonstrate it and how you demonstrate the events in their lives.
​Alexia Stevens
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