writing a story

a friend came to me the other day telling me they had an idea in their head about a story for a while, but they were afraid to do anything since in the past someone told them their writing was terrible and they would never get published.

first off, who fucking talks like that? like. just in general. this isn't fucking naruto, just live your best life and stop hurting people.

but while this made me livid people like this exist, it had me thinking about how hard it can be to get yourself motivated to start writing. maybe you don't have an idea. maybe you think your writing is garbage. maybe you don't know how to write. well, i'm here to tell you that all of those insecurities are completely valid. but you shouldn't let them get in the way of having fun and doing what you want.

here's some hot knowledge about aspects of my own creative writing process that'll hopefully help you and some of my friends out too. i'm mostly gonna talk about planning and not so much about actually writing, because i can't tell you what your style is and depending on what medium your story is gonna take place in i can't really give anyone a catch-all perfect solution for that. so here we go.

characters

characters are the meat of your story, no matter what it is. there would not be a plot without them. make sure you make some characters you either love or love to hate. everyone has their own way of making characters, but i prefer to start mine with a conspiracy-esque diagram of shit. you can start it with anything. a face you think fits, a picture, word, aesthetic, hobby, personality trait. i usually like to start with hobbies and interests, but if anything else would make it easier for you just start with that. then, i like to branch off into other things associated with that little tidbit of starting info. for example, maybe my web starts with the word pineapple.



this can branch off over to beach, and ba-da-bing whoever this fucker is likes to surf. this doesn't really have to stem that far, hell they don't even have to directly correlate with each other like i feel in media most of the time when there's a surfer dude he's seen as this huge dickish dude bro so i'm gonna make this guy a nicer, shy, not really confident sort of fella. sometimes a background starts to form in my brain at this point, like maybe he's really insecure because he was always picked last in dodgeball or something like that... ehheeghgfdf this is a very simple character, but it's a start. it's a good start.



i also recommend making other characters that have a connection to this character in some way, be it through something as simple as "this boy also likes to surf" or something as complex as "they're step-brothers because his dad married his mom". no cast of characters has to all be connected to each other, but i do recommend every character have at least one other character they're associated with. they don't have to get along, they don't have to be friends, just knowing each other by being students in the same class will do just fine.

having them all strangers and just connect with each other through the plot forcing them together is also fine and dandy. just make sure there are some interactions planned out. feel free to take some time when you're free to roleplay your characters, try to find their voice. find prompts if you can't find someone to write with, practice short little scenes to get the juices flowing! it can be hard to stick to, especially when you're alternating between a few in one scene, but write what you think fits! write the kind of voice you'll have fun with! just try to make everyone's voice is unique.

world building

i'm not gonna lie, i don't have a lot of confidence when it comes to my world building. i kinda have a hard time coming up with the elements on my own to really feel like the setting is fleshed out. i have to be given an extensive series of questions before i feel like i have a strong world that my story takes place in. if you want, you can totally just make your story happen in a place that already exists like modern day australia or fucking... 15th century europe i dunno. just make sure you have a lot of knowledge on the culture, technology, all of that jazz you know what i'm talking about.

make up the parts of it that you want if you want, like maybe there's a wizard school and you gotta come up with magic rules. there's nothing wrong with weaving your world based off of something you already know and making it complex, just be prepared to accommodate appropriately. think about the political impact, the rules you'll make for how your new shit works, cultural impact, just... how things would be affected. make sure you have solid explanations for things.



here's a good list of things to think about if you're gonna weave your own world. make sure whatever you come up with (as you should with your characters and, well, everything) is written down somewhere. this is a somewhat early document of the world building i've done with aspen, albeit not too much has changed a lot has been added onto it. most of which will be seen in the art book for everyone who purchases it!

aspen's world building has a very heavy focus on politics and cultures associated with artificial intelligence and uh metahumans i guess if we're talking dc terms. there are a lot of extra things, such as the evolution of language and technology, but it's far from my main focus. still, it's nice to refer back to little things like aceso and self-driving cars. it really makes the world feel fleshed out to have even the most minute details! just make sure to get the big ones you'd like to focus on first.

plot planning

so sometimes plots are just really hard to come up with. i'm sure we all know about the basic conflicts: man vs man, man vs self, and man vs world. pick one to focus on and consider the others secondary or completely unnecessary. 

i recommend having man vs self as a b-plot (i.e. ~*character development holy shit*~) and just picking man vs world or man vs man as your a-plot, but this might just be a matter of my brain working differently. i like this set up because i'm a fairly concrete thinker. i prefer physical plots that are easy to follow rather than vague, abstract concepts like self-discovery. not that abstract concepts don't have a place in man v world/man conflicts or they're bad, hell no.

i feel it's more satisfying to realize there's more to a story than what's on the surface rather than the whole thing being abstract literary analysis. if it's all just you trying to be smart and complex everyone's gonna be confused. people need something to stick their shovel in before they start digging. that's just my thoughts. you can be successful as someone that heavily focuses on abstract stories and concepts, just remember to have fun!

notice how i kind of made plot the absolute last thing to worry about. it's not wrong to get these three elements of a story in a different order. maybe you get the world then plot then characters, that's fine! whatever order works for you! this is just how i do it. 

remember when coming up with a plot that it not only makes sense in your world, but all your characters have a role in the story one way or another. your order of operations doesn't matter, just make sure everything fits and syncs well together. it wouldn't make a lot of sense to have a surfer in a forest setting, would it? or if things don't really fit together, think of a way that they would through your plot! maybe the surfer's optimism leads him to be super gullible when someone tells him to go into the forest to find some berry that he can eat to become an amazing surfer.

...i feel like i'm doing a horrible job of explaining this, but do you get what i mean?

actually writing

alright so you know the plot. you have a good hold on your characters. your world is fleshed out and fancy, so now it's time to actually... get to it, right? haha, no loser not fucking yet. there's a journey you gotta take everybody on. you gotta outline how a conflict is resolved. if you wanna do it through a few books, movies, etc, fine. if you don't want the journey to be all that long, cool. just enjoy what you're doing.

sometimes, you might think of some scenes. write them down right away. even if there isn't a specific place that you can think of for it at the time, you might find a place later or a way to tweak things around so it makes sense if you like the scene. if you don't, that's fine! think of it as character development or practice. just don't force something in if you can't find a way to make it work.

now, to get to actually thinking of a path you gotta remember english class and how when you're writing an essay your teacher told you to make an outline. do that. fucking go for it. you can make your outline as vague or specific as you want. think of scenes, places to go, actions people do, whatever. just make it chronological.

as much as i enjoy doing these, it's... hard for me to really explain my process in terms of making outlines. i guess the easiest way to explain it is that i kinda do it backwards? like i write roughly how i think a story is going to end or some potential endings to the story overall. then i think of how the fuck they even got there.

depending on the story, i feel it's better to divide your outline into each number being key steps your characters make to the conclusion and everything under that being what happens/how to they get to that step. feel free to sprinkle in some brainstorming for character interactions and how the world will change (if applicable) while you're at it too.

here's a peek at an outline for my (most likely to be permanently) drafted d&d visual novel.

again, depending on what medium you plan on telling your story with and what your shit is even about your outline might look a little bit different. i had to have some bits and pieces where i distinguished in and out of character since it's a dungeons and dragons campaign. i just thought it'd be a nice touch to have the players interact with each other as frequently as their characters do.

generally, i discourage having as much fluff/filler as i do in this. there's an exception to every rule, like since this is technically supposed to be sort of a dating sim fluff is kind of encouraged to get to know the characters better. whatever you do, just make sure it fits and you enjoy what you did.

extra tips

• fucking have fun and do shit how you want i'm not your dad, this is just how i do it.
• if you really wanna make sure it's good, be sure to have someone you trust to be honest read it for you and tell you what they think. you're always gonna be your worst critic, it's generally best to have an outside force.
• the key to getting something done is telling everyone you've ever met you're gonna do it. not only will it get your friends psyched and supportive, it'll also feel really fucking embarrassing if you end up choking out so go ahead and tell people you're gonna write a story. it gets you jazzed to talk about it and work on it more when people are excited to hear about it. it's an amazing motivator.
• there's nothing wrong with taking breaks. if you get bored of your main story, maybe write a few short stories to give yourself some fresh air. i encourage using the same characters and world, just so you don't get too distracted from the end game.
• when it comes to dialogue, less is more. people generally aren't grammatically correct in their speech. drop some words or make words more generalized, people are also really fucking lazy. like instead of "the group of assassins" just say "they" and people can ask about it! there, you even have a scene!