Writing a story?

Question

I'm writing a story, do you think its best to start with character biographies?

Answer 1

Finally someone gets it! Of course!! You must do your homework first. You need detailed character analysis first. Flesh out your characters and make them living breathing people. Work on their relationships with others in the story - that is how you develop subplots and backstories. Then start with your basic plot - the spine of your story and plug in backstories and subplots - I like to use different colors for the different plots so you can keep track of them and move them around. The more you know about your characters, the more you will be able to know how they will respond to the conflicts in your plot and the better your solutions will be.

The other thing you need to do up front is the research on the story. Very important that your story be accurate and believable. The author who does their homework has a huge advantage over one who doesn't. Agents and publishers recognize B/s and it cheats the readers to just make stuff up. Spend the time - do the research. It also gets you into the proper frame of mind to write the story.

Once that is done, you need a great kick tail first line that draws the reader into the story and five good pages - because often that is about as far as an agent or publisher will get before making a decision about your work.

I recommend two books to you. One is called The First Five Pages. It will help you a lot. The second is a novel called The Novelist. In it, a famous author is teaching a class to a local community college group. During the semester, she writes a book for them and goes through all the steps along the way. It is a good novel and a teaching and learning tool as well. Check it out. Pax- C

Answer 2

I love reading. I always loved making up stories, and then in second grade I saw that it was even better when I wrote them down. When we read poems in third grade, I decided to write one and found that I liked that almost as much as writing stories. Same goes for essays. Now I mostly concentrate on a book I am attempting to write, but over the years I have switched off between short stories, poems, and full length stories. The longer stories never got very far because I wasn't mature enough to stick to them. Until about a year ago, all my stories were less than ten pages long, unfinished, or poems. Now that I am a bit older, I can focus on one story longer (122 pages today!). PS> I also like the fact that when I'm writing, everything is the way I want it to be, your rules don't have to apply to my world. I can say what I want to and nobody can interrupt me. I'm a bit shy, so I don't do that a lot in real life.

Answer 3

Yes, absolutely. You need to have a basic (and quite a few details) on who the characters are/what they have been through/their personalities/their fears/their hopes/etc. You'll add on details along the way, but it helps to know a lot before you actually start writing.

Then, once you do start writing, ever time something happens you need to decide how the characters would react to it due to their past, and how they would feel about their actions afterwards. Also, you need to determine how the characters will interact and feel about one another, etc.

Sounds daunting, I know...but with help, I'm sure you'll do fine. You already took a good first step! :) Best of luck!

Answer 4

That's what I do, it saves you some time later in figuring out why this person would do that or who would do what, it also helps to stop you from "Cheating" by adding another chapter to a characters life to fit the story.
The story should fit the character not the other way around.

Remamber no one needs to see the Bios but you so if you feel the need to change a character's Bio mid way through a story you can.

Answer 5

Don't write the biographies directly and obviously into the story...expose the characters slowly, and mainly though dialouge. However, I always do a short bio of each of my characters and refer back to it as I write. This keeps people's ages, relationships, family ties etc. all straight, but the bios don't get written into the story all at once.

Answer 6

Yes - for sure.

Scetch the details of your main and potential characters - start with looks, mannerisms, background, etc. Write the details down - or even draw them if you are a visual person.

Then take your main character or characters and imagine them in some new odd/out of the ordinary (out of your current work's context) places or scenarios – anything goes! Write down ideas on what would have to happen to your type of character or how they would react to the scenario you placed them in.

This may seem futile, but it will help you flesh out your characters further and give you insight into what you may want to happen to this type of character in a potential story. You may even come up with multiple story lines and can see if one of them just seems to be the best or easiest to continue

Strong well-crafted main characters can inspire readers to love your story as well as drive you to write a great story for these imagined beings to be in! :-)

This should get you going. Then you may want to write an outline of you story (a kind of synopsis), including the ending. I have heard that John Irving writes his endings first, down to the last line, and works backwards. The idea of the outline is to give you goals as you proceed. Writing the ending first may give you the "spark" you seek - and also give you something to strive for.

Answer 7

Flannery O'Connor, the greatest writer of the 20th century, said that you can't "tell" about your characters, you have to "show" what they're like.

Starting a story with character biographies is "telling." Instead of that, think of situations and actions that would show the reader who your characters are.

Answer 8

I think it's best you started with an outline; not just character biographies.

Personally, I don't use them all that often. I did in the past to see if I could unlock anything more about my characters, but I don't anymore. (It's all upstairs--if you know what I mean.)

Outlines will give you an assist in writing your story. But later on--as you get more and more experienced--you'll find that you won't need them as much.

Because it will be all in your head. :0)

Answer 9

I did for mine.


I found that I had to know who I was dealing with before I could know what they would do.


I've heard writers say go with whatever works for you.

Some outline and know the entire story beforehand, and others don't know where the story is going until it is written.

Find your own way, after all if you copy someone else it looks like their work... if it's original then it's... well, it's yours!



g-day!

Answer 10

oh yes. It's very helpful in understanding the way your character thinks :)