As a child I told outlandish stories either completely pulled from my imagination or exaggeration of actual events in my childhood. My Best Man at my wedding can remember back when I was young and would start to tell him a story when he would interrupt me to ask if this was, “an old story or a new one”.
Recently, I started thinking about actually writing down thoughts that I have had for stories. Since college I have wanted to write a book some time in my life. I decided that there is no time like the present. I have found that this feat is much more daunting than I had originally realized. It is easy to watch a movie and read a book and criticize what you would have done differently to make the book or movie better in your mind. But what about coming up with an original thought? That may not prove to be the most difficult part of writing. What proves to be more difficult is the plot and dialogue…not to mention character development. I have about six ideas right now. I have basic plot outlines, but getting it down on paper is proving difficult if not impossible.
Where do I start? How do I draw out my thoughts? How do I add twists and turns? I have noticed that I tend to think of the big picture too much and not an individual scene or sequence of events. I have read that once you develop a character you can start having conversations with these character in your head to get an idea of what it would do given a particular situation. What I have read basically tells me to throw myself into the world that my story would take place in and understand that this is YOUR world not the REAL world.
As for now I will struggle with my ideas and continue to keep a journal of my thoughts. Hopefully writing will start to come as naturally to me now as story telling did for me as a child.
