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Where Do Stories Come From?
Author: Stephen D. Rogers
Stories can come from many places. Perhaps a character appeared to you from out of nowhere. Or a snippet of dialogue. Or a situation. Perhaps, instead, you started with Step 12 and wish to write a story with the aim of selling it to a specific market.
Whatever the creative spark, one of the first things you must do before writing is decide what kind of story you're telling. Is it a literary story? A personal essay? A mystery? A romance? A cross-genre fantasy/horror? An adventure story for teenage boys?
Every type of story brings with it genre conventions and reader expectations. While you can play with those, ignore them and you risk not being able to sell your completed manuscript. Fulfill them and you'll receive only the first of many acceptances.
So how do you learn about genre conventions and reader expectations? You read the examples of stories similar to the one you plan to write.
If you've never read a mystery, you're unlikely to be able to write a sellable one. Even worse, if you actively dislike mysteries and don't understand why anybody would waste time reading them, your efforts are all but doomed.
Don't try to tell a story just because you think it will be an easy sell. People who regularly sell that type of story do so because they understand and respect the requirements of the genre.
Determine the type of story you want to write. If you're not sure, what do you like to read? The creative spark that sent you on this journey, what genre does it seem to fit? Where would you expect it to fit?
Find recent print and/or online examples of similar stories that sold to an editor. Recent publication is important because genres develop, and what may have been fresh forty years ago is now considered cliché.
As you read examples, ask yourself questions. Are the stories usually told in first person ("I went to the store.") or third person ("She went to the store.")? Do the editors seem to favor happy endings or tragic endings? How long do the stories tend to run?
Think about the characters you're seeing. White-collar or blue-collar? Young or old? Is protagonist after protagonist male? (If you imagine a female protagonist, how can you take advantage of flying against expectations?) How many characters generally appear? What manner of characters generally appear and how much space are they afforded?
What have readers come to expect? Just as when you write business reports or non-fiction articles, the plan begins with audience analysis, and that begins with deciding on your genre and thus the readers who seek out and read those types of stories.
How long should you expect to spend on this step before you begin writing? It all depends.
If I decided to write a romance for Woman's World, I would be done with this step before I completed the thought. I have read and written enough of that story type to know what's required.
If, on the other hand, I decided to write a piece of steampunk for Asimov's Science Fiction, I would need to reacquaint myself with that magazine and research how steampunk has developed since I last read the genre. (You can probably well imagine that when I'm next able to carve out some writing time, that I'll be focusing on the story types with which I'm most familiar.)
So what kind of story do you intend to tell?
This column first appeared on DM in 2008, but we think you'll agree that it still has some good information!
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