how to start

how to start

A Lesson by joanofbooke
"

how to start a story and take it from a simple idea to an amazing portrayal.

"

    Its alway best just to start with an idea. Whether it comes from a dream or a random idea.

then get it on paper or start it on the computer, from there read it over and you can add detail and discription.

 

 

 

 

 

            please submit some of your rough ideas and ill show you what i mean and give you some personal help.

 

 

                                                                        joan of booke



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Comments

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Posted 4 Years Ago


My story is about life as a boy growing up in his grand parents Shack at Southport Tasmania set in the 1960s

Follows his life and history of the period on Tasmania

Chapter one :

Beach front Shack waves rolling in crashing on the shore helping me find peace and warmth going off to sleep on a Friday night having arrived after a hour drive from Bellerive Hobart . We checked in to the Shack and took in Billy cans and drove Dad's
Falcon Ford 500 up to the local dairy farm the Mundy's for the milking of the cows and buy some milk and cream for Tea and our Porridge . Dad would give me and my brother a small Shandy after our meal and cooked toast on spikes in the open fire and boiled a big black kettle hung on a steel rod above the fire the water was kept hot all day and there was a water tank to catch the rain for drinking and washing .

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Posted 7 Years Ago


I am sorry. I made a mistake. I accidentally put, on line 5, that she is lucky to have escaped from the law for the past two years. I meant to say five years. She started at age 13, and quit at age eighteen. That would be five years.

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Posted 7 Years Ago


I have already started several. One is called The Secret. It starts out as a young girl of thirteen, Janet Thomas, is wanted as one of the most elusive serial killers of the decade. Even though she has only killed ten people, all for horrific crimes such as rape, pedophilia, etc.., she has felt horrible each time. After her tenth victim, she decides that she is done. She realizes she has been lucky to escape from the clutches of the law for the past two years. Now she's eighteen, and wants to start her life over. She turns to a family friend, Dr. Jonas Gibbons, a plastic surgeon that never asks too many questions. He completely alters every aspect of her appearance, knowing that her face has been splattered across the front pages for over a year, but also knowing the little girl that never would've hurt a fly.
That is the prologue. Chapter 1 starts three years later, when she meets a man online named Steven Montgomery. She has changed her name to Jenna Gordon. They click almost immediately, and meet face to face. One year later, they are married.
From Chapter 2 on, the book depicts the lives of them and their six kids (Ashley, Cody, Timothy, Mariah, Mikael, and Michelle), each told from different points of view. They each go to school and college, and they each get married, start careers, and have kids. Even Cody, who meets his gay boyfriend, Micah, and marries him . They have a baby (Alex Montgomery-Evans) via in-vitro fertilization, and adopt 5-year-old Nguya when they join a charity group that goes to Africa to provide the homeless mothers and children with food, blankets, and warm clothes. They find Nguya sleeping in a little cave, and when they ask authorities, they explain that his mother had abandoned him, and that he refused to go anywhere they tried to get him to go. He always ran away when they tried.
In the ending chapters, Jenna, now age 72, passes away. Upon going through her stuff, Steven notices a loose floorboard that was covered up with an old rug that Jenna had always insisted on keeping. He opens the floorboard and finds a very old box full of newspaper clippings. They are all about Janet Thomas, the serial killer that Jenna had flipped out about when Cody's teacher had assigned him an essay on her in the twelfth grade. The first thing he noticed was how pretty the little girl was, and couldn't believe that such a beautiful child could kill all those people. Then he noticed her eyes. They were the same ones he had woke up to every morning for the past fifty-one years. He struggles heavily with the fact that he had married a serial killer. Then he reflects back upon all those years they were together, having not had a single fight. She had been such a wonderful woman, and such a tender, loving mother.
The last words of the novel will be "If there was ever a monster there, it was buried deep in her past. My wife was a wonderful woman, and I love her with every beat of my heart."
I have not actually started writing the actual novel yet, as I am still outlining all the big events, with dates and descriptions, but that is the outline of what it will be. Do you think it has promise? Is there anything I should change? Your feedback would mean a lot to me.

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Posted 7 Years Ago



I heard a scream, just before the sun rose from the east. This was where mom first originated. She was frightened of something from there. Even her skin turned white as bleached flour. She trembled. Her heart raced just hearing of dad and me heading there. Was petrified of it. Trembling her voice cracked, burst and broke. With each word that fell from her lips in regards to this region. I knew she would not be there. Wouldn't be there? But where was that voice had come from? She couldnot be there, could she?

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Posted 9 Years Ago


Very helpful! Thumbs up!

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Posted 9 Years Ago


A new beginning.. A fresh start.. A brand new chapter. When people talk or think of starting something new, it is often a positive thing. Many a time I have seen myself giving this very mundane suggestion to my close people when they are going through a storm in their hectic life. "Move on" seems to be the only advice to give when you are trying to comfort a friend with a broken heart. However, it's not easy for everyone to take that leap of faith. It's not easy for someone to look beyond all the suffering, heartaches, the silent tears on the pillow; It's not easy to forget the hours that were spent on self-harming rather than self-renewing. It's not easy to forget those hurtful words and erase those excruciating moments that made you question your identity and purpose in life. Yes, It's definitely not easy but not impossible either. Very little is needed to have a happy life. It's all within you. It's all in your thinking. If you believe you can, you're half way there. Begin with loving yourself for who you are, be thankful for your blessings, turn every criticism into opportunities, surround yourself with positive people and celebrate this life that God has chosen you to live because when you stop and look around, this Life is pretty amazing!!



I'm just a start up writer. I really need some encouragement and advice from your side. Thanks

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Posted 11 Years Ago


Kora Magnus pressed her back against the stone pillar. She could feel the damp stone under her sweat drenched back.
“We know you’re here. You can’t run for long you know.”
It was true. She was getting tired. Sooner or later she’d have to fight them. That or give herself up. She looked around at the lifeless bodies of her team mates scattered around the area.
“Just come out. We don’t want to hurt you.”
Bull crap.
Slowly, she reached for a sword lying on the ground, its blood-stained blade glittering softly under the moonlight.
"Kill them, Kora. They don’t understand our power. They don’t see your potential. We can be more powerful than them."
Kora clenched her teeth. That voice. That was the reason why her team mates were dead. That was the reason why she killed them.
“Get out of my head. I don’t want anything to do with you.” She rasped. She cupped her hands over her mouth. She shouldn’t have said that. She shouldn’t have said anything.
She could hear footsteps. They were coming dangerously close.
“Found you.”
Someone grabbed her from behind and held a sword to her neck. “You shouldn’t have bothered hiding, Kora dear.” They said. “We would have found you sooner or later.” They paused for a short moment. “Why did you kill them? Why would you slaughter you own team mates?”
Kora didn’t answer. Even if she told them, they wouldn’t believe her. No one would.

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Posted 11 Years Ago


Love your name...good advice as well. Thanks.

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Posted 11 Years Ago


as we lay on the broken ground beneath our laughter, I hear the sound of his voice, the way it carries in the wind. I look into his eyes and i see the love he gave and and the feelings i've lost. The sweetest most caring boy wrapped around me as my best friend, swaddled in my arms and the sun glistened on our newly tanned summer skin. this day wont last forever. but for now we stay together in perfect symmetry with the smile on his face the warmth in his eyes and love in his face. His eyes were the most intricate piece of him that i have ever noticed. Hazel. Sometimes geen but mostly brown with different specs of beauty in them. His muscles form down his body in every perfect way; flexing when he laughs. The only person in the world he cared about was the girl that he smashed into pieces but was still his best friend. Who still loves him deeply.

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Posted 12 Years Ago


I need help writing about my main character, a 32 yr old single male. He's going thru a bit of depression at the beginning of this second installment. In the first he inadvertently kills a young girl, immediately after he is almost killed. He wakes in the hospital, thinking because of numerous circumstances that it was all a lucid dream and tries to forget it. Later on, he discovers it was all real, only took place in anothe dimension and has to deal with what he's done.
I have no idea how to immerse myself in that. I am a naturally bubbly-type and would like some guidance. Thanks

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Added on May 2, 2010
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Author

joanofbooke
joanofbooke

sacramento, CA



About
gender: female, age:seventeen, i love to write and read its very hard for me to relate to others and to talk about my emotions so i use writing to tell people about how i feel. i try to put myself i..