It may seem simple- may be overly simple- but the one constant with most forms of creation, writing, drawing, etc… CREATE! Lol. You can study, you can brainstorm- but there isn’t a substitute for doing. You can’t edit a blank page is nice turn of phrase. Everyone is different- in my opinion- writing is just editing a blank page. Editing it to tell your story. When you whittle wood or sculpt stone- if you want to make an elephant- you might decide to remove everything that doesn’t look like an elephant. That’s subtractive creation. When you start with a blank you add things until it looks like an your proverbial elephant.
How you do it is up to you- some people start with detailed notes about every character and the world and detailed outlines and such. Some people start with a story structure and build around it. Some start with some events and figure out how to string them together- and some start with an idea and a blank page. There isn’t a wrong way, just what works best for you and what doesn’t. You may edit a story and rewrite it as many times as you like- it’s never done until you say it is done, so writing freely and going back to tweak and make things make sense- that’s fine. Maybe you get to page 150 and realize it would be super cool if two charters were related but that contradicts what you wrote? You can go back and make it make sense. If you wrote yourself into a corner- you can go back and add the solution. You aren’t limited to linear time, you can change the past whenever you like.
You can cut things you love and save those for another story, you can insert things you’ve cut from other stories. You can set out to write an epic but instead write a series of short stories that are more a manageable and connect them into one story later or use them as the outline. It’s literally your world. If you get writers block or whatever- take a break or power through. Do what works for you. If you hit a plot hole, you can fix it retroactively- or sometimes you can even ignore it. Not every plot home needs to be fixed. If a story is good, people will often overlook plot holes anyway. You don’t have to spoon feed readers everything either- as we’ve seen with various fandoms- sometimes the reader puzzles out a better explanation than the creator could have thought of. Just because you can’t figure out how or why or when something happened doesn’t mean it can’t happen.
But I mean- it’s all very individual like I said. No right or wrong. Just create. Personally the only “rules” I think are particularly important are:
1. to not try to write something for everyone. You can’t make everyone happy and most things that try don’t make anyone particularly happy. Wether you wrote just for you or for a certain audience or whatever- don’t try or expect everyone to love your writing. Don’t get too discouraged if some people don’t like it. It’s not just ok, it’s probably good that certain people don’t like your writing. Anything that has a style or substance to it won’t be loved by everyone.
2. Have something to say. If it isn’t worth saying it isn’t worth reading. Your characters and your world or your story- if you don’t know what you’re trying to say, you can’t have a theme or a direction. Things happen and maybe it is cool- but why does it matter? Writing has a measure of anonymity but also a deep vulnerability. You have to share something of you.
1. to not try to write something for everyone. You can’t make everyone happy and most things that try don’t make anyone particularly happy. Wether you wrote just for you or for a certain audience or whatever- don’t try or expect everyone to love your writing. Don’t get too discouraged if some people don’t like it. It’s not just ok, it’s probably good that certain people don’t like your writing. Anything that has a style or substance to it won’t be loved by everyone.
2. Have something to say. If it isn’t worth saying it isn’t worth reading. Your characters and your world or your story- if you don’t know what you’re trying to say, you can’t have a theme or a direction. Things happen and maybe it is cool- but why does it matter? Writing has a measure of anonymity but also a deep vulnerability. You have to share something of you.