Hello, furballs, and welcome to the next part of my little writer's assistance guide! In my earlier guides, you've learned a bit about how to develop ‘real’ anthropomorphic characters, how to craft intricate settings, and how best to handle the creation of hero and villain characters.  What we’re going to discuss here now is that which binds your characters and setting together to enrapture the reader: the story itself.

First, a reiteration of some core facts about this guide. I am NOT a trained writer. I've done no courses, no workshops. I don't attend any writers groups, and I don't claim to have professional knowledge. I HAVE been writing for over ten years, and I HAVE sought out the knowledge that I can to improve my skills. However, this little guide is going to have little to nothing to do with technical writing, if I have my way. Rather, this guide is being provided as a way to motivate and inspire other writers here on this site. I'm not going to tell you what to write, or how to write. I only hope to provide you with some mental ‘tools' that will allow you to craft your words to their greatest potential. That said, let us begin!

The next lesson is this: Whether they pop into existence or are painstakingly crafted, storylines are always the culmination of your efforts!

You can have more characters than people in the world, and more settings than stars in the sky.  They can be perfected after years and years of tweaking.  They can be awe-inspiring.  But the story is what creative writing is all about.  The story is paramount.  So far we’ve talked a lot about the aspects of a story, but in this guide I’m going to try to handle the hardest thing I can think of: the creation of the story itself.

Part of why this is so hard is because of the nature of writing.  As with all my guides, these are just toolsets for you.  I’m only presenting my methods, so that other writers might be able to learn from some of the things that I do and thereby improve their own writing.  Crafting a story is even more unique than an individual person.  I have many, many ways that I create my stories, and odds are that you do too, so this is going to be rather difficult to convey.  Try to bear with me if you find I make no sense; it all clears up with the bullet points!

The easiest and simplest method (Your mileage may vary!) to create a story in my mind is to simply open a new Word document, pull a fresh sheet of paper onto your desk, or yank out some parchment.  Look at that blank page, and just go.  No preparation, no base to work from.  Total freedom.  In doing this, the writer is able to forget about everything that’s come before and everything that’s yet to come, and simply write on instinct.  Whenever I’m creating a new setting, this is part of what I do.  Before I have characters, lands, laws and the like, I have a story pulled clear out of my arse.  Renthani started that way.  I had a blank piece of paper and the barest idea of where Faora Argus Meridian came from.  I wrote and I wrote and I wrote.  Six years later, and Renthani has six hundred years of established history.  There’s no established canon to bind you to something.  You don’t need to check back to stuff you’ve written in the past.  Everything’s new, and that can be a powerful motivational force for any writer.

On the flipside, the blank page is a very intimidating thing to a lot of writers.  Even me.  I look at a blank page and shudder to think that I have to somehow fill it.  It’s enough to sometimes even shut down my desire to write completely.  I have to fight through that desire to go play Guild Wars instead, no matter how much more fun it might be to spirit-spam Margonites.  For all the freedom that the blank page method presents a writer, it can be one of the most stifling by virtue of that which it presents us.  Nothing.  Nothing at all.  No support, no established base to work from, no foundation to build on.  That blank page won’t fill itself, and it’s going to take a whole lot of effort to fill it.  Renthani evolved over six years into six hundred years of established history.  That’s six years of work from that original blank page, to create the setting in its present form.  That is a LOT of time.

A method that works well for me once I have an established setting to work with (be it with or without characters) is outlining.  This is a method that I feel everyone should try just once.  That way, they can at least get a feel for if it helps them or not, and can decide how to progress down the line.  Now, a lot of writers will simply not be very good at it.  A lot won’t find that it benefits them in any way at all.  Sometimes I find that for all the structure it presents me, outlining a story feels too much to me like I have it all down and I can stop.  It feels done, before I’ve written a single word.  Dangerous feeling, and a risky thing with someone who procrastinates as much as I do.  There’s also the risk of feeling constrained, bound by that outline that you’ve set up.  This is especially true of large projects, be they novels or (especially!) a series.  They can invoke the feeling that you have to follow that outline step by step, to the letter, or else things are going to go wrong.  This can sap the fun out of writing, and kill the writer’s enthusiasm and motivation.  They also can take a long time to create, time that could be spent just writing.

On the other paw, outlines give a lot of writers a sense of purpose.  It’s less a map and more a guideline to what they eventually want to create.  An outline can solidify in the writer’s mind exactly what they want to get out of a story.  It can be a semi-rough detailing of events from start to finish, what happens to the characters, and whatnot.  It can even simply be just a detailed analysis of the world your characters exist in, to help you in crafting a story on the fly.  It could be a bunch of biosheets for your characters, so that you understand them intimately and what drives them, before you plop them into a whole other world.  Outlines give ideas a real form, and at the same time are so malleable that they may still just be in your mind.  An outline isn’t set in stone.  Some of the best events in my novel projects have come about because I ignored what the outline said and made an on-the-fly decision that worked better for the overarching storyline.

The third method I want to present is the idea of what one writing book I have calls ‘seeds’.  These are little things that we hear, or see, or experience in life that inspire us.  Seeds can come in all manner of shapes and sizes.  As an example, as a writer of sci-fi, a lot of seeds come from articles linked to me that reference advanced technology that’s presently in development.  My boyfriend told me about advances in robotics technology one day and, coupled with ion drive research an ex mentioned and the concept of comet mining I read in an article I found myself, these seeds were able to grow into a setting.  I built for myself a whole future Earth, with advanced (but realistic) technology that I plan to use in a novel project I want to start sometime around April.  By gathering seeds to ourselves, we’re able to cultivate new and interesting storylines with which to enrapture our readers.  Because those seeds are born in reality, it only helps us to make an immersive world with believable characters.

Of course, this is a method of writing that is heavily based in outlining.  As a result, there’s a whole lot of troubles that go with it, as have been mentioned above.  Seed writing is really more about the real world being used as inspiration though, rather than the imaginative methods used in ordinary outlining.  When it comes down to it, the differences are simple enough to handle based purely on what kind of story you’re creating.  If it’s set on an alien world, then seed outlining isn’t really going to be as useful to you.  It’s entirely possible that certain things will spark your interest, but for the most part you’ll be putting imagination to use.  If you’re dealing with people primarily, and their emotions and lives and the like, then you’re probably going to want to draw on seeds for inspiration.  All those little things that happen to us in real life are perfect devices to use in our stories.  Why not tap the resource that experience is?

These are just three methods that I use to create my stories.  Some of you may already use some, or all of them.  Others will exclusively use methods that are completely beyond my scope.  When the time comes to actually write one’s story though, method for writing goes out the window.  There’s a few key things I believe that all writers need to be aware of, if they’re going to be producing something that they want other people to see.  Writing for one’s self is a path that leads to little self-improvement.  It’s in writing for others that we really grow as writers, stretching our proverbial legs and learning the techniques that will enable us to really take our writing places.

Structure is very important.  Beginning, middle and end.  It sounds simple, and it might even sound patronizing.  All stories need a structure to hold them together, and it’s a practiced skill for any writer.  Everyone has a different style, and it would do nothing for me to tell you in no uncertain terms exactly what you must do in order to structure your stories well.  There’s a couple basic methods that I try to use, though, that I’m happy to share.  For instance, I believe that a strong, powerful beginning is key to hooking the reader’s attention.  Throw yourself headlong into the most outstanding writing you can produce at the start, and the reader will be interested enough to read all the way to the end.  I believe that if you build character and drama in the middle, it takes that powerful beginning and ups the stakes for the characters.  It pushes them harder, easing them towards the climax.  And I believe that the end needs to snap into place even more sturdily than the beginning does.  It can’t be rushed, it can’t be weak; it has to bring everything to a close that satisfies the reader.  If the beginning needs to be strong and powerful and the middle needs to be dramatic and full of growth, then I feel the ending needs to bring together all that came before in a way that can give the reader a sense that everything was meant to reach that point.  It should feel right, and appropriate, regardless of what events take place.  Even if evil triumphs over good, it should make the reader feel.

Structure is all well and good, but the characters and the setting need to be detailed enough to make the reader feel as though they’ve been transported into your world.  They’ve been covered already in my other guides, so I won’t touch on them here.  I will say that the two need to be bound together in such a way that makes sense.  If you’re creating a setting that has certain immutable laws, then your characters can’t go around and break those cosmic, writer-god-dictated rules.  At the very least, any characters that break the rules of their world need to be given very ample reason to.  Why is that character given free reign to do things that others would find impossible?  Why does the setting allow for this person to act in such a manner, but not others?  Why is the rule in place?  Every rule that is broken is a rule that I feel must be intimately understood first, and this is not just the case for the various intricacies of your language of choice.  There’s a creative element to that, too!

The last thing I want to touch on in the creation of a good story is something that I’ve said time and time again, to a lot of different people.  You’ve got to love your work.  You have to be enjoying the process of writing in some way, shape or form, or you wouldn’t do it.  We don’t write because it’s a chore.  We don’t write because it’s a path to fame and fortune (those come to a rare handful; I doubt I’ll ever reach that, personally).  We write because of the love of the written word, of the characters and worlds we create, and the fantastic adventures that take place within our minds.  We love the process of writing, we enjoy those moments we escape reality and put pen to paper.  If we can’t enjoy our art, then what’s the point?

Bullet points for the now and the here!  What have we learned?

-	Everyone crafts a story differently.  Find the method that works best for your style and hone it!

-	Try opening a blank page and just throwing yourself at it.  Refinement can come later; this gives you complete freedom to write whatever you want!

-	Writing just from a blank page gives you something to work on; whatever you create can serve as a base for future writing projects!

-	The blank page can be very intimidating right off, without anything to build your writing on.  The sooner you write, the sooner you have something!

-	Every writer should try outlining their work in advance at least once, to give themselves an idea of if it helps them or not.  Never know until you try!

-	Outlines can feel binding and constraining.  Keep your outlines loose, to give you some room to breathe when actually writing your story.

-	Try using your outlines just as a guideline; they don’t need to detail every event that takes place in the story, and it gives the story a chance to evolve.

-	Outlines take many forms, from a sketch of the storyline in full to simply detailing certain elements.  Tailor your outline to your needs!

-	Use events and people and things around you as ‘seeds’ for your story ideas.  Grab a few, cultivate them, and watch them grow!

-	Seed outlining allows an added level of realism for the reader; most seeds come from reality after all, which is very relatable!

-	Reality is one big seed.  Tap into that!  Use real experiences!

-	All stories need a good structure!  The basics for me are a powerful beginning, a dramatic middle and a fulfilling ending.

-	Make sure the characters and the setting fit together for your story.  If your characters don’t mesh with your setting, then either one or the other might need tweaking or replacing.

-	All settings have rules.  Make sure that your story doesn’t require those rules to be broken without ample justification!

-	Enjoy your writing.  If you can’t enjoy it, why are you doing it in the first place?

Stories are why a lot of us write.  This is one of the most enjoyable, powerful and emotive pursuits of creativity in the world, and every day I feel blessed that I’ve got the chance and the drive to write.  Telling these stories are what I do, I believe they’re why I’m here.  I only hope that I’m able to help others who read these guides to find their own methods to create the stories that burn in their minds, eager to be free.

I’ve written a lot of guides, now.  It’s hard to believe I started these a little over a year ago, on Yiffstar in my Journal space.  I’ve covered a lot of topics that I feel are useful to the majority of writers that could read these.  I’m not out of ideas by a long shot, but I’m honestly unsure of where to go from here.  So I’m taking requests for particular guides to be written in the future.  Give me a PM on SoFurry or a note on FurAffinity, and let me know what kinda things I do you’d like to hear about!

But what does that leave me with for my next guide?  Next time will be a complete grab-bag of information, of course!  Leave me questions, either in response to this guide or through the above-mentioned channels, and I’ll present my answers in the best way I can.  Everything I give will only be my own opinion, so append to that whatever weight you wish to.  I’ll read every question I’m given, and hopefully I’ll be given enough to form a Queries guide about!  Until then though, take care and keep writing!

-	Fae