What If?

So the writing of the story took me about 6 months. The story came from my sister relationship, my family relationship, family stories I'd heard, first loves and shattered dreams and of course the all-exaggerated what if? I think it was stuff I needed to write about. You know when you come home from a first date and you just have to tell someone all about it. Or you heard a story of something just awful that happened to someone else and you're outraged. You need to express your opinion on it. I tend to be good at what ifs which isn't always a positive trait. It's great when you're writing a story, but bad when you cripple yourself with worry. So what if I'd lived in that era and what if my sister was dating a guy I hated or what if I was dating a guy my sister hated. And what if we had this friend that seemed normal but was actually a little psycho, but still you couldn't put your finger on the psychosis. And what if you had your life mapped out -- you knew just what you wanted -- and it didn't work out that way?

I didn't do an outline, I just wrote spontaneously until I felt the story was complete. I've since learned there are two kinds of writers -- those who write outlines and those who don't. Some do both. I tend to believe that it's more common for the first book to be written without an outline. We've all heard that everyone has a book in them -- if this is true, why the outline? All that inspiration is tucked away somewhere; we just need some quiet time to unleash it. So the writing really was the easy and fun part -- it was all the details and editing afterwards that took the time.

So if you're in the writing phase and say perhaps you're stuck. My advice: Do the what if game and make it as outlandish as you want. Who wants to read a story when nothing ever goes wrong anyhow? That's not real life and it also offers no conflict.

The number one rule I learned is: ACTION, CONFLICT & RESOLUTION. Each chapter needs some kind of action which results in a conflict and finds a resolution. Those three points are crucial. As you reach the climax of the story, the conflict will increase but up to that point, you can have an ongoing conflict where the resolution to the prior conflict causes more conflict etc. Get the point? My initial chapter -- before it went through some edits -- was Emily wanting to have a nice boyfriend. The action was she got set up on a blind date; the conflict was that she was shy and wasn't sure if she should go, and the resolution -- she did go out with him. That's a mild conflict, but eventually her submissiveness and the dominance of her husband brought much greater conflict. The resolution, she stayed with him until . . . well you have to read the story. Don't want to give too much away.

And finally, when you start writing -- it'll be a mess. Don't worry about it. If you care too much, you won't write at all. So don't be a perfectionist in the initial writing phase. The re-writing and edits come later. It's a process and the first step is putting pen to paper and allowing your thoughts to spill into a story that has some thread weaving it together or some theme that you want to share. So use the action, conflict, resolution rule and what if game. Writing is an ongoing process where we get better the more we write. I have a long way to go, but I believe if you have some imagination, persistence and the tools you need -- it's a talent worth developing whether as an outlet or gift to share.