1. Creative Writing 101 Writing Stories Without Worries!

2. So you’re writing a story… …what’s that?  Remember the elements of a story:  Character  Plot  Setting  Theme  Style and Grammar

3. Character  Every story has a main character. If you don’t have any characters, you don’t have any story. You might have the most exciting plot in the history of the universe, but if you don’t have characters that make the reader care about them, you might just as well throw out your story.  Who are you writing about?  What’s their background?  What’s their struggle?  Who do they interact with?

4. Plot  Yes, the question you can ask to yourself if you want to know whether your story has a plot or not (what a mouthful) is: what happens in it?  Action is not plot. Whether you want to write a detailed plot outline or just start your story, you must take care of plot. Without characters there is no story even if you have plot, and vice versa. Without plot there is no story even if you have the best characters in the world. Both are necessary. Omission of any one can seriously hinder your story.  Your plot can be anything in the world. It can be happy, it can be sad, it can be serious, it can be funny, it can be realistic and it can be fantastical. Its only function is to draw the reader in.

5. Plot  Conflict  In your plot, you must introduce conflict between the main character and his surroundings. Conflict is necessary to make your novel spicy. Conflict between the protagonist (hero) and antagonist (villain), conflict between the protagonist and the side characters and so on. Without conflict there is no excitement in a story. People hate to see everyone agreeing with each other. Introduce some conflict.

6. Setting  Where is your novel set? It might be set in modern age India, it might be set in ancient Europe, it might be set in a fantasy world such as Middle Earth. Wherever, it doesn’t matter. But it must be believable.

7. Theme  What is your story about? Is it about crime, about politics, about realism or about fantasy? What is the theme of the story? How will readers feel after reading it? If you answer these questions, you have a theme.

8. Style and Grammar  Writing voice, point of view, style and grammar matter. If you break the rules, sometimes it’s for the better. But it’s always better to know them before breaking them.

9. Go Through The Process  Pre-Writing  What am I going to write about?  Why?  Drafting  How do I make this interesting?  How do I tell my story?  Revising/Finalization  How do I make it good?  How do I make it correct?

10. Pre-Writing 1. What am I writing about?  If you’re not given a prompt, think about something that matters to you. It’s hard to create a story if you don’t care about what you’re writing about. If you choose a topic you’re interested in, then it will flow easier.  If you like basketball, write a story about a basketball player!  If you like fashion, write a story about a model!  If you like science fiction, write a story about aliens or robots or WHATEVER.  Start from the heart.