HOW

the first thing many writers overlook when writing a story.

HOW is something that is necessary, not optional for a good story. If you fail to ask HOW, your story will be a waste of time and effort.

When some writers think of a story, they think of only that particular set of events that occur within the story's time span. When asking HOW, you must think beyond that. Your characters didn't just pop out of holes in the ground, someone gave birth to them, raised them, and through interaction with other characters and certain events came to be in the situation in which the story is about.

Someone built the house your character is in. If your writing a crazy fantasy story that takes place in a world where everyone is either a mage or a swordsmen, you're not asking HOW. If your story only follows a single character the entire time, there were still farmers who grew the food that's in the market you're character is walking through. Someone needed to bring that food to the market. Someone needed to build the houses, the bridges, the castles. Someone needed to make the clothes, the furniture, those little umbrella things they put in your drinks. Nothing just appears out of nowhere.

The best way to practice figuring out HOW is to look around at your everyday life. Look at any object you see and think about it. Someone made that refridgerator or that television. You know it didn't just appear in the store, but have you ever really thought about it? The man who made that fridge has a family, a life, friends. Nearly everything in your possesion has a story of it's own.

Practice by thinking up an object, a dollar possibly, and picture of where it has traveled from the moment it was printed, to when it was burned in an alleyway by a hobo to keep warm. Not that you have to use that particular scenario.

Also, HOW has an effect on the future. remembering a rant by Holly Lisle, the movie The Day The Earth Stood Still had one of the most impractical endings ever introduced. Mankind ended up saved, though they would never be able to use technology again. The writers thought that it would seem like mankind has realized the error of it's ways and would return to being nomadic herders or something. Wrong. Nobody can survive without technology. We rely on it to feed our ever growing population, keep medical facilities open, and so many other things it would be rediculous to write them all down. Bottom line, when people run out of food, they go crazy. The people who have food would most likely be robbed or killed or both within the first few months. Eventually all the food would be gone and money would be basically worthless, so all systems of code, legal and moral, would cease to exist, resulting in world wide panic and possible self genocide. If this HOW is considered, then Klatuu would, in a sense, be the greatest mass murderer in history. Have you thought about that?

I'll add a few more basics before I get to the good stuff, so sit tight people.

Comments

Nancy S.

Posted 13 Years Ago Seems simple enough to think this way, and yet we often don't. I find myself over analyzing to death of me. Anywho, excellent advice. Good lesson. thanks

Miss Coral

Posted 13 Years Ago I always do this in daily life. Just yesterday, I was walking up the stairs to my flat, and looking down at all the stains on the stairs, trying to imagine how they got there, who put them there, what they were exactly, and if I should really be wondering why. I tend to do this probably a little bit too much every day. However, I rarely do this in writing. Interesting thoughts.. I can definitely see how it would improve a great deal. c: Thanks! :)

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