How to Plan a Story

First you need a topic. What is the point of the story? Is it about an arranged marriage, or a teenage runaway, or maybe just the life of normal people?

Then you need to come up with your main characters. (You can come up with others as you feel they are needed. Such as friends, enemies, parents.) The characters need to be thought out in detail. What are their names, attitude, social status, age, what kind of people do they hang out with, if they are in school do they like it, what's they're favorite class, what extracurricular activities are they in, what are their hobbies? Even come up with what they were like before your story even started, such as their childhood life, did they have an imaginary friend, were they happy children, any siblings? You may not use all these details in you story but they are important to have, because if you have enough information for you to feel like your characters are real people, then you will portray them that way in your story, and you and your readers will become more attached to them. The most important thing is to make your characters realistic. You are not going to have a jock that watches teletubies or a hardcore Christian drinking and smoking.

Although most people assume you need to start with a beginning, when you are planning it's better to start with an ending or the climax. How do you want your characters to end up? What is the big thing that happens?

After your ending is planned you then decided where in your characters life you would like to begin. Make it interesting where it hooks the reader in. Do not just tell everything about the character in the beginning her is an example:

Emma is 17 years old. Her favorite color is blue. She loves school, especially geometry. She is a cheerleader. She is in an arranged marriage.

It's better to release information about your character slowly although you can tell a little in the beginning. Here's a good example:

17 year old cheerleader, Emma is happy with her life little does she know it is about to change forever.

You may not even want to start with flat out information you may want to start with action from the beginning, for instance:

Emma walked in from cheerleading practice to see her mother sitting on the couch crying and her father sitting with a very serious expression wearing his business suit.
"Emma," her father said seriously "I have placed you in an arranged marriage." she was speechless how he do this she was only 17.

Now that you know where to begin and end you can start the middle. Make sure to have smaller actions leading to the climax and not just constant filler. Just do a brief outline to make sure all the actions in the middle make sense together. The situation your characters definitely does not have to be realistic, however the reactions of your characters do need to be realistic. Such as if your character is a teen who just found out she is in an arranged marriage most likely she will react in some way and most likely she will be unhappy. If they don't react or react in an unusual manner you need to tell the reason. You can never provide to many details. Most likely if it's about a teen they're parents will be there or involved no matter what the story is about if not give a reason why they are not there.

At random times you may see a quote or think of something that would make a perfect line for your story. Even if it seems stupid or a random write it down you will most likely use it also try to pay attention to the little details of the things you and the people around you do. Even things like the way you drink a soda. I once wrote down once when i was with my friends drinking a soda "The sweet soda ran down my throat as I brought the cold can to my ruby red lips." and although it sounds stupid and over dramatic it ended up sounding nice in my story. You need to use imagery to get your readers into the story. To much imagery is better than to little.

As far as sex scenes, make out scenes, and even kissing scenes go, if you don't know what your talking about just say they did it don't provide imagery. No, that does not mean if you are a virgin you can't write a detailed sex scene. Just make sure it's accurate, have someone with experience read over it to make sure it is accurate, read a story your self with a good sex or make out scene just make sure your writing is not b.s. Remember you will have readers who have actually experienced it and will call you out on it if it's inaccurate. If you don't feel comfortable or you know it will be inaccurate then just write enough to let the readers know what happened and hint about what happened before and after that is perfectly fine but in that case it is not NC-17 it's like PG-13. So please rate it correctly.

That's another thing people may not read your story even though it's perfectly appropriate. Please rate it appropriately here is a list of circumstances that are for each rating.

  • G- no cussing, brief non detailed kissing, no shirt for guys, swimsuits, anything someone under 6 could see in a movie. Low details.
  • PG- mild violence, detailed kissing, brief calm make out session, natural death, mild cussing, anything someone between 9 and 12 could see in a movie.
  • PG-13- strong violence, non-detailed suicide, implied sex, detailed make out session, strong cussing, anything ages 12-16 could see in a movie
  • R- really strong violence, semi-detailed sex, homicide detailed or not, detailed suicide, nudity. Anything that someone 16-19 could see in a movie.
  • NC-17- very detailed sex. No one below age 18 should see in a movie.

Now I know people younger than they should be reading R and NC-17 on her but that's between them and there parents I've got nothing against it personally it's not like you are seeing it. And remember if there is an unexpected turn you can change the rating

Now when you copy and paste onto mibba before you hit submit there's this magical button the mibba put in the left hand corner of the screen just for you it is blue and says SPELL CHECK click it it's there for your use.

If you have any questions about ratings or anything, even if you need someone to spell check your story you can message me or comment on my profile I promise I will answer I always have the window pulled up on my computer. The most important thing when writing your story is to enjoy it so have fun.

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