Tobias Hrothgar is an excellent writer who has developed many stories (most of which have yet to be written about); however, you may not know that I am a writer myself. As such, I know how much fun creative writing can be, and I want to help you to join into the fun. If you’re already a writer then some of these techniques may be useful in improving your skill. If you see a decrease in your writing quality then please tell me not to write any more of these posts. I’m certainly no professional. Now, all that said, let’s get to it.

Step 1: Choose A Setting

It’s important to know when and where your novel takes place. Whether it’s on earth in the ’80s, on Mars in 26 years, or in the 17th dimension during the tyrannical rule of the dread pickle monster, you need a setting. This does not mean you need to choose a particular location on the map, during a precise year. You merely need an idea of what the world is like, where the people are at in terms of technological or academic advancement, or what the world looks like. This leads us to our next step:

Step 2: Develop A Time-Line

This step is optional, but I find it to be very useful, especially if you’re developing an entire world around which to centre many stories. It lays down a foundation on which you can build your story, and it helps develop a history which can make your story feel bigger than the one book. It gives the reader more to think about outside the containment of a single book. Once again, this is not something that is necessary to tell the reader all about. It is mostly for your own knowledge, so as to make a fuller and more eye-catching story. It also helps you to realize how the world is running, and why it is running so. You can throw in a reference or so to the great garden-gnome shortage of 1932, and how it has affected the way the government is organized today.

Step 3: Develop A Plot

Now is a very important aspect of the story: The story itself. Try to come up with a unique plot; something new and intriguing that will keep peoples’ interest. If you can’t think of something off the top of your head that’s okay. Start with a basic plot like that which is found in every story. It could be something as simple as “the protagonist works to stop a power hungry antagonist from taking over the world”. After you have the basic idea, you can then go into greater detail. You can start by finding out the motives of the most significant characters, which tends to be important in finding the plot. For example, if the antagonist were trying get back a lost powerful item (i.e. a ring) then the plot may be for the protagonist to destroy this powerful item before the the dark lord can get it back. If you still can’t think of a good plot then you look up some writing prompts. Reedsy is an excellent writing tool that provides many creative prompts.

Step 4: Create The Characters

Now lets figure out some of your major characters. If you know the protagonist or antagonist’s motives then that’s a start. The antagonist can have the right motives but a bad way of going about it (Thanos), and the protagonist can have the wrong motives in the beginning but a significant change of character later in the story (Han Solo). The protagonist should have some character development through the story. I certainly wouldn’t be too interested in a story with a static Protagonist. You can add more side characters that develop the character and help them in their character development.

Step 5: Write Your Novel

It’s time to write your story now, unless there’s some further planning you want to accomplish. I suggest scheduling a certain amount of time every day to write for 15 minutes to an hour. Your writing doesn’t need to be perfect; you’re just writing the first draft in the beginning. Further editing and perfecting comes later. After you’ve looked it over several times you can give the story to an educated friend and ask him to edit it for you. After that it’s just a matter of figuring out how to publish it. I can’t help you much on that matter. If you want a better, step-by-step explanation then I may give one some other time.

That’s all on that. Please like this post and give me some feedback. I’m completely new to this type of thing, and would like know what I can do better. Follow me and I’ll see about doing this more often.

Ever onward,

Jacob Unger.