forum tips?

Started January 21, 2019 by luna

tune

hey im new, so how do you guys normally start with your story's? characters first? or do you have an outline of an idea

Hey Luna!
It depends on the story. For my story, the characters came before the plot, and while both the plot and the characters developed over time, the characters were what I came up with first.
Each has strengths and weaknesses.
Having the plot come first can sometimes make the characters seem less genuine and more like 'oh I need a person to accomplish X and a person to accomplish Y and Z'.
If you have the characters come first it can lead to them sticking out too much in the plot. For example, a modern day teenager wouldn't fit very well in a historical fiction setting, or a historical fiction character in a modern setting. There'd be obvious values dissonance between the time periods, and readers would pick up on it.
It's ultimately up to the writer on which comes first.
I'd suggest first figuring out if the story is plot driven or character driven, and then go from there.
Also I'd read some posts on places like Pinterest and Tumblr for inspiration of plots or characters, and to see what people want to see more of in books.

I normally start out with a plot first. That way I can tailor the world and the characters to fit the story, if that makes sense.

I do have one world where I came up with the characters first and I'm really struggling with coming up with a story for them

This is how I personally do things:

1. Pick a setting and genre
2. Make a character. Just one. They usually end up being the protagonist, sometimes not (my first in my most recent story ended up being an antagonist…) (I also might make a few instead, if I want multiple protagonists, or already have some vision of a dynamic.)
3. Give the character a story, which usually dictates the rest of the setting's major details
4. Make this character's story part of a bigger plot
5. Add more characters to further the plot and fulfill necessary roles
6. Figure out major plot points, and hopefully an ending
7. Worldbuilding/lore
8. Fix any inconsistencies between lore, plot, and characters

And a lot of these things are done after the writing process has started for me. I started writing my most recent story (and most of my stories) after point 3 on this list.