Storybuilding Step 1

I've recently read some interesting things about how people come up with story ideas. The two main groups seem to be people that come up with plots first and people who come up with characters first. This got me wondering about the different ways that people come up with stories. Specifically.

I mean, I don't really fall into either category. I like to take general ideas and then expand the characters and plot on those ideas. For example, for this year's NaNo I've been thinking about writing an Asian-style fantasy because most of my stories are very western. This is unfortunate because, if you know anything about me, I'm not-so-secretly in love with Asia and minored in Japanese.

Now, when I say Asian-style fantasy, this invokes a lot of different things. I like to take a broad topic like this and focus specifically on the things that I really want to show up in the story. Often these things are clichés, which can always be expanded on. With this story I want people wearing modest robes all of the time--but when everyone dresses up in elaborate modest robes, they're still considered beautiful and dressed up. Asian-style dragons are totally a must and I've decided the females should be blue and the males red (for specific reasons I assure you). I like doing things with magic, so that'll have to play a part. It'd be cool if that magic revolved around kanji somehow--specifically with the mixed meanings in Japanese kanji. Or maybe writing in general. Japanese has three different alphabets (each with their own uses), so that could be fun somehow.

All of these are fairly basic things, but I know I want them in the story and I'm going to build my plot and my characters around that. Nearly all of my stories are built around these kinds of ideas. How do all of you come up with story ideas? Is it plot? Character? Or something else?

A Writer's Biggest Asset

Ever since I've entered college (and since, left) telling people that I'm pursuing writing, my family, among others, have started coming forward and informing me that they too considered writing when they were younger.

I just got off the phone with my father this weekend who told me stories from when he was my age and was writing short stories. Then he said, "I guess a lot of people start out wanting to be writers."

The difference between writers and those who wanted to be writers is really one thing: perseverance. You don't actually have to be a good writer to become published, even. Just take a good look at some of the books in your local bookstore. There is a lot of crap, to tell the truth.

It's not an easy career by far. It's a lot of time alone, obsessing over a keyboard, slashing parts we love from manuscripts because they don't work and therefore are slashing parts of ourselves, all wrapped up with a whole lot of rejection. That's the simple truth of it.

A quote I heard this weekend while watching the new episode of Project Runway really cemented the idea for me. It was from the first girl to get kicked off the show. In a voice over as she was leaving, she said, "If everyone gave up after after their first rejection, no one would get anything they wanted."

So I submit the idea to wannabe-writers everywhere: The difference between being a writer and wanting to be a writer is perseverance and the ability to never get up.

When it's three o'clock in the morning, and nothing is going right with your story, and you can't figure out what's supposed to happen or how to make it work, just sit back and take a deep breath. Remind yourself that you can get through this, that the end is worth it, and continue on.