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Book Club 13w
For someone who has never written a story before, where should you start?
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Anonymous 13w

A rough outline is always a good start, or at least an idea of where it’s going to go. To make an outline, what I do is make one scene that I want, then expand from there. What happens after that scene, how they got there, etc, and slowly a storyline forms

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Anonymous 13w

come up with a complete outline of a VERY short and narratively VERY simple story, then write it *all the way through*. like as absolutely basic of an idea and a plot as you can, even if it seems ridiculous, and then follow through. I’m talking like 3 events happen in your whole story! you’ll get a sense of how long it takes to write, how to blend scenes together, how to balance dialogue, etc.

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Anonymous 13w

Honestly, get all of your thoughts down as soon as they come to your brain! No matter where you are, if you think of a thought, go to the notes app and write it in a bullet point before you forget it. You can organize it later, just get that much written. Some of my bullet points are quotes I’ll have a character say or a small interaction written like “A gets coffee and bagels for B and brings it to work” or something idk. Just get your thoughts written

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Anonymous 13w

I’ve heard some authors suggest starting with the beginning and the end, then filling in the middle afterwards

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Anonymous replying to -> littledove 13w

Seconding this! If you’re writing a novel, I like to do a rough chapter by chapter outline. Sometimes only 1-2 sentences a chapter, but it helps me conceptualize the pacing etc

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Anonymous replying to -> #2 13w

I’m actually interested in writing a graphic novel. I have a very rough idea of the type of story I want but don’t know how to go from there

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Anonymous replying to -> #3 13w

Thanks this helps!

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Anonymous replying to -> #4 13w

After that, you can start organizing and outlining. If you know the chart with intro, build, defining moment, climax, etc., you can grow your story from there and put in those small interactions that you had previously written down. Rough drafts are meant to be rough. The important part is that it’s there

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Anonymous replying to -> OP 13w

Def an issue by issue outline would help then! Storyboarding etc too. That sounds super fun and I wish you the best of luck with it!

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