How do writers develop their stories
Author Cath Staincliffe guest blogs
I've been experimenting recently with different ways of developing stories. I've always recommended my writing students to work in a structured way - knowing their endings before they begin, developing storylines; writing character biographies and knowing more about them than they know about themselves; writing step outlines, so they know what is going to happen in each chapter. That way, a novel should almost write itself. As a non-fiction author, I always spend more time on the research and expert interviews, so that I know my subject well. Then the writing is quick and easy.Not everyone works this way and some authors find it too laborious. They're eager for the words to pour out of their heads and for the characters to make it all happen. This can often lead to a hiatus halfway through and is the reason why many manuscripts lie half-finished in a drawer. But I decided to give it a whirl one day. I'd had an idea and some characters but I wasn't happy with it. So I sat down at the computer and let my fingers do the walking. Imagine my surprise when a cast of new characters poured onto the page and moved the plot into a different direction altogether. I had such fun watching it happen, especially as it turned into a comedy and made me laugh. I have reached the expected hiatus but with time, I should be able to get beyond that, as I'm curious to see what happens in the end.
Cath Staincliffe's method
I still think some structure is needed at the start but I decided to ask a successful writer how she develops her story ideas and characters. Author and scriptwriter, Cath Staincliffe is my guest blogger this week. Cath's first book, 'Looking for Trouble' (1994) launched the start of her career as a crime writer and since then she has written many more crime novels and won several awards. She also writes scripts, like ITV's successful 'Blue Murder' series starring Caroline Quentin and the radio 'Legacy' drama series. And she's written three books based on the 'Scott & Bailey' TV series and is a founder member of Murder Squad, 'a virtual collective of northern crime writers. In a move from crime, Cath's stand-alone novels tackle various social issues, like adoption and growing up in the 1960s.
Cath's latest book, 'Half the World Away' has just been launched. It's about student Lori, on a gap year in China, who disappears, leaving her distraught parents to search for her in a country in which they're unfamiliar with the language and customs. So, how does she begin her writing process?
Author and scriptwriter Cath Staincliffe
Idea: the What If?
It
begins with the initial idea, often in the form of a question:
- what if someone
asked you to help them end their life?
- what’s it like
to testify as a witness to a murder?
- what do you do
if someone is attacked on a bus?
- how do you cope
if a member of your family kills a child in a road accident?
- can you ever
forgive a murderer?
- what if your child goes missing abroad?
These
are all situations I hope never to find myself in, prospects that frighten me
and I’m fascinated by what it might be like to live through that sort of
nightmare.
Character
My next step is to decide who the people are, whose story is it? Some
stories will have a number of different narrative voices, others are just told
from one point of view. I find it almost impossible to go any further until the
characters feel real and I know their names, what they do for a living, what
they look like, how they think, what their vices are, and their flaws, their
secrets and dreams, how they talk. Quite often I will write biographies in note
form for them, working out key dates and life events. I have to know what’s
moulded them, what life has thrown at them so far to make them who they are
today. Sometimes I have done mood boards too, looking at colours and physical elements
and visual symbols to further differentiate characters.
Why names are important
Names are a perennial
problem, they have to fit my image of the person but I try not to pick names I’ve
used before and 22 books in, that’s getting tricky. I also have to avoid giving
people the same initial letters or names with similar vowel patterns as that can
be confusing for the reader. I’m living with a group of characters for up to a
year while I’m writing and often find myself thinking about them even when I’m
not actually working, thinking about what will happen to them next and how they’ll
respond. It’s important to me to be as authentic and realistic as possible in
the way the story unfolds. As a reader it doesn’t matter how twisty-turny or
clever a plot is, if I don’t care about the characters (I don’t have to like
them but I do have to have a keen interest in them) then it leaves me cold.
Story
So
once I have discovered my characters I can begin to explore that initial
question. As for planning the story, I’m not someone who finds it easy to
follow any of those systems that give you guidelines to structure your book.
For example the whole ‘three-act story arc’ is beyond me, my brain doesn’t
function like that. Or if it does then it’s instinctive and not consciously
applied. I work more organically. At the outset I have a general idea of where
the story will end up (I need to follow the question through to its natural
conclusion, consider all the repercussions) and I’ll be aware of key staging
posts in getting there e.g. an arrest, a trial. But other developments, new
ideas and material I hadn’t thought of before, tend to come with the writing
and the interaction of the characters.
That sometimes causes problems when I reach a point and don’t know what happens next. Then I sit down and list all the possibilities I can think of and one (the one that makes my skin tingle) will usually get me back on track. I don’t always write in chronological order but will write separate sections and then fit them together. That involves the use of a lot of post-it notes and flip chart paper. The fiction I write aims to tell a good story above anything else and so the fundamental rules of story-telling have to be met – there has to be resolution, a clear ending, an answer or answers to the question posed at the beginning. And for me it is always an adventure.
That sometimes causes problems when I reach a point and don’t know what happens next. Then I sit down and list all the possibilities I can think of and one (the one that makes my skin tingle) will usually get me back on track. I don’t always write in chronological order but will write separate sections and then fit them together. That involves the use of a lot of post-it notes and flip chart paper. The fiction I write aims to tell a good story above anything else and so the fundamental rules of story-telling have to be met – there has to be resolution, a clear ending, an answer or answers to the question posed at the beginning. And for me it is always an adventure.