How Authors Create the Stories You Love

Have you ever wondered how a writer came up with an idea, scene, or story? You might be tempted to think their mind just spit it out in the condition that you saw or read it, but don’t be fooled. Good writers plan the scenes and plot those exciting threads. Great writers plan each part out using layers. Let me explain. Every story is supposed to have a few basics:

Layer One

Someone to love

Someone to hate

Friction or bonding between characters

Verification of personalities and choices

Influences from secondary characters, environment, and social situations

A start, middle, and ending of some sort.

 

Layer Two

Now we’ll add on a layer for the genre of book. Let’s go with horror, so we need:

Moments that produce horror

Moments that lead to producing horror

Horror aftermaths.

We also have to have verification of choices during horror, including, but not limited to:

Scenery

Weapons and gear

food and water

Shelter and warmth

Medical care

Flight or fight mentality

Communication

Layer Three

Now, we’ll go into the light details. To be horror, the mood has to be scary.

Giggling is discouraged.

Grins need to be changed to uneasy stretches of lips.

In horror, weather often plays an important role, so we have to be sure we match the scary mood. Children outside playing happily in water sprinklers will distract the reader/viewer from the scare they are about to get. It bursts the tension that we’ve built.

Our bad guy has to react properly to the characters. He has to be believable as in his motivation and methods

Our good guy has to be believable as in his dialogue and methods. His motivation (fighting the bad guy) should be obvious.

Layer Four

A fourth layer must go on now to keep track of all these threads. For example, if you have a snowstorm one day, you must make sure the cold is mentioned and there is still snow the next day unless it rains or floods or the sun sets directly on your iceberg. Details must be verified. Readers hate it when you screw up and have the same character in two places at one time. (I’m so sorry!) It was a simple name error, but it makes you look like an idiot. I call this layer the ‘make sure I’ve got them all where they should be’ layer.

Layer five

For the fifth layer, we have to be sure we’re giving conclusions. All the above items gave us potential threads to be followed and finished. People hate to be left hanging, unless it is a series, and even then, writers are supposed to tread carefully.  All those small moments that were set up have to be finished. Again, series are different, but even in those, a writer must eventually conclude that thread.

Layer Six

For the sixth layer, we have to explore the main them of the book. We ask ourselves 7 basic questions about the story:

Is there enough action?

Is the dialogue appropriate for the character and situation?

Will the reader understand?

Did the character have a good reason for reacting that way?

Was the scene boring?

Is the setting clear and appropriate for the scene?

Does the scene move the story along or is it just fluff?

Layer Seven

The final layer, for the writers who have the energy left, is to ask, of each and every scene or plot thread:

How can I make it better?

What if I changed, switched…

The Next Step

Now that we have put together the 15-35 page draft using the seven layers above, the author is finally ready to write the stories you love. It can be exhausting, even on shorter works. That’s why it takes so long. The tales don’t spit themselves out in full form. Writers shape them into cohesive, coherent (we hope!) tales that might last forever. Then we sleep.

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