Ten Steps to Writing a Story

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Because I like lists (they're easy to write), and we're trying to give this new board a swift kick-start in the pants, here are the ten things you need to do to write a story:

ONE
Read a novel.  Any novel will do.  If you've already read a novel, move on to the next one.

TWO
Read twenty novels.  Not all at the same time, preferably.  If you have a rudimentary high-school education, you've probably done this already, too.  But don't stop, there's no reason to.  Squeeze in some novels around your writing from time to time.  Your writing will love you for it.

THREE
Obtain a firm mental cognisance of the functionality and inherent properties of the English language.  If you can understand that sentence, you're halfway there.  Buy a dictionary; read it from time to time.  Learn a new word every day, and use it whenever possible.  Once you have the ability to express advanced concepts and ideas with your enhanced and expanded vocabulary, move on.

FOUR
Read some books about how to write stories.  "But, Pode, that's what this list is about!"  True.  But I'm not going into everything in-depth.  There are plenty of other resources available to writers, that you should certainly take advantage of.  No one writer knows everything.  Some resources that come to mind that I've used a lot are Fiction Factor.com, Fiction Press.com's editorials, and Worlds of Wonder, by David Gerrold -- these sources I'll be citing a lot, and I'll put in some more links in another thread in the future.

FIVE
Get an idea.  This will have to come when it comes, and the idea doesn't even have to be good.  Listen to your muse and try out whatever it says; if its a good idea, you'll be better for it, if its a bad idea, take it as an experience and move on to the next one.  Sometimes all it takes to find your Great Idea is a little time.  Your Idea is also the Point you're trying to make; all stories are about something, and you want your reader to take that something away when they're done reading.

SIX
Choose your setting.  All stories have to take place somewhere, whether its an already existed world for a fanfic or a world you build from scratch.  Define the scope of your story, where it stops and where it ends up, and how to get from Point A to Point B.

SEVEN
Choose your characters.  Stories are about people, and how they interact.  If this is a fanfic, all you need to do is pick and choose; otherwise, start building your ensemble cast from scratch.

EIGHT
More pre-writing crap.  A lot of people skip this step, but if you're the kind who likes all their ducks in a row from the start, put together a story summary and an outline, at the very LEAST.  If you want to go farther, detailed summaries of all the characters and places involved can help add depth and consistency to your writing.  I always seem to end up with an encyclopaedia of terms that I build on as I write along (but then again, I'm obsessive/compulsive, so don't ALWAYS go by what I do 8P).  Touch on each of your characters, and what they're going to endure over the course of your work.  Go back to your outline constantly, if not only to see how much you're deviating from it (I never said you had to FOLLOW your pre-writing crap!).

NINE
WRITE THE THING!  Do I really need to elaborate on this?  Okay, I do.  Set some kind of limit for yourself, so you know when you're absolutely DONE.  13 chapters, 15,000 words, 10 pages, something to give you a reference to how far you are, and how much you're getting done.  Once you're done, proofread it -- several times -- before posting it online.  You don't want your countless hours of storycrafting tripping up by some rogue commas.

TEN
Repeat as necessary.  Writing is never done.  If you're pursuing this with a passion, perhaps professionally, you should never stop writing, never stop reading.  When you're done with your draft, go munch on a couple novels and get right back into it.  Write a sequel, write a new setting, more characters, an online writing tutorial!  Even if it's not a full story, always write something, so have something to show for your acquired knowledge.  Practice, practice, practice; it's the key to everything.  In "Worlds of Wonder," David Gerrold says this,

Your first million words are for practice.
     They don't count.  Remember that.
     You will practice writing stories.  You will practice writing novels.  You will practice and practice and practice.  It doesn't count.
     [...] If you haven't written a million words, it's all practice.
     Once you've written a million words, then you can take yourself seriously.