I've had a lot of people ask me how I can write an entire story. They say things like, "I could never write a story with so much detail. To think of all those characters and their back stories, and what they go through throughout the story." I don't know how to answer because to me it seems easy. Today, when sitting in bed typing away, my husband made an observation that I just "start writing". With a very vague outline and research as I go he was curious as to how I could write stories without mapping everything out first. My answer to him was this:

Based on one idea or another I think up a character to write about and I think up a very rough idea of what the story will be about. I have a blurry image in my head of what they look like and an inkling of what their personality is like. From there I start to write. Usually I'll start at a point that I think will be pivotal and draw the reader in. From there I discover who my characters are...in a way, they show me. It may sound strange but in reality that's exactly what happens. Through conversations they have and experiences they have I find out just as the reader would what these characters are like. As I write and discover these things I get insight for what will happen next and how they'll handle it. I find out what they like in people, what they don't like, and what surprises them about people they meet. From there the story basically writes itself. As crazy as that sounds, it's basically what happens.

I like to think of it as getting to know someone. I'm only twenty-two years old. I've experienced very little in my life compared to most of the world population. It would be naive for me to think that I could map out an entire story based on what I know and have personally experienced. In saying that, as I write I bring up questions that I then need to find answers for. I create a web of information as I go and weave together a story that started out as a single strand of an idea.

In life I've discovered that had I ended up doing what I'd planned for myself when I was, say fifteen, my life would be completely different. And boring I might add. I gave myself very little credit back then. I didn't dream nearly big enough and I didn't know a whole lot. But life happens...and now I'm twenty-two, living a life I never dreaming myself living, though simple, it's perfect and I wouldn't trade it for anything. I wouldn't trade it for the life I planned for myself when I was fifteen. So why then would I settle for a story that I had all planned out? Why not let the story flow freely and find it's own way, with me to guide it?


Shawn Kirsten Maravel