- Its been a long time since I published a new chapter of my story entitled "I'm pregnant". It is because I am having a trouble in writing it since I have a lot of schoolworks this past few weeks and the main reason is I didn't follow my plan about the story. Everytime I want to write the next chapter, I ended up in writing other article because I don't know how to continue my story. Now, I want to share what I have learned with this mistake.
What are the things that you need to keep in mind when you are writing a story?
1. Choose a better title
When you are writing an article, one of the most important is its title because you need to use a "catchy" title so you can encourage people to read your article. In writing a story, it is quite the same. You need to choose a title that will make people curious and ask themselves "What is the genre of this story? Is it worth to read" once they asked it to themselves, there's a probability that you might encouraged them and ended up in reading your novel. In my case, I didn't think about the title and until now I have a regrets for not thinking about it. "I'm pregnant" is too cheezy and I am always embarrassed everytime I read it. Now, if you are one of the readers of my story (if there is), what do you think would be the best title on my story to replace "I'm pregnant'? How about Chasing Serenity? Can you judge it honestly? Let me know in the comment section!
2. Think of a plot
You can't call one writing piece as a story if there's no plot. As a writer and author, you must think your own plot where the story will start and how the story will end. It is better to make a unique plot since the readers always want a unique genre and twists. I also recommend to make a plot twists to make your story more interesting and worth to read. In my experience, I had a plot but my mistake is I only think on the beginning and ending of the story thinking that making is easy but trust me, it's not.
3. Write an outline
This will make your ideas and plots more organized. Writing an outline of your story is a good move so you'll know the flow from the very start of your story even in the middle and until the end of it. We can't deny that we oftenly forget things quickly and on e of it is the plot that you are thinking earlier and forget it later. In writing an outline, your work will be more easier than expected because you already organized things on its chronological order. Well, as what I've mentioned, I created a plot but only from the beginninjg and the end not on the middle of the story or on the body of the story so I'm having a hard time to continue my story.
4. Know the characters, place, and events
Knowing everything on your story will end up in almost perfect story because it is the one that will give a color and life on your story. Characters will be the one that will act on your imagination and create an imagery on your playful mind. By the description of each character, the readers will immediately know what type of character is you are describing. By the antagonist up to the protagonist. It is also important the setting of your story or where your story will happen. The place where your story will happen and so you can easily describe it, it is either fictional or non-fictional. The events are more likely belong on the plot twist, "What will happen on the protagonist? antagonist?" let your readers ate by their curiosity so they will wait for the next update. On my story, some of them are just a supporting character and I don't even know their real status in life.
5. Continue what you started
Commonly, many underrated authors and writers are having lack of self-confidence and being lazy so they can't continue what they started. When you are writing a story, it's better to make an update in a short pan of days so you won't lose the momentum of the story. The long wait of your readers means less momentum or lessen the effectiveness of the plot of your story. Some readers will be bored when they are waiting for the long time and the worst, they will forget the first chapters and lose their interests. In my case, I already lost the momentum of my story that's why I only have a few readers or mostly nothing compared on the first chapter.
6. Don't write without a destination
Let's use this example as an analogy, "Are you going to ride a ship even you're not sure what will be your destination?". In writing a story, you shouldn't think not only on the beginning but also in the end of your story so you will know the destination where you are going and end the story smoothly. Personally, the story that I started have an ending on my mind but I haven't write it yet because I need to follow the chapters before the ending so I can easily put it on the end.
7. Follow your outline at all cost
What's the purpose of your outline if you are not going to follow it? Once you created an outline and you started what's written on it, you don't need to change it depends on the readers' demand. If you planned to have a tragic ending, go for it even your readers are expecting a happy ending. If you planned to write a short story only, don't make it a novel because your readers demand for it. I think this is the biggest mistake that I did on my story. Did you know that my story (I'm pregnant) only have three chapters? but the readers are expecting a very good story so my emotion controlled me and ended uo in writing a simple novel instead of short story that contradicting on my plan.
CLOSING THOUGHTS
It's better to do what you've planned so you can avoid a lot of mistake. In this article, I am talking ironically because I didn't even applied the things or tips that I mentioned. Well, this article is a product of that mistake and I want to share it with you so you will know the things that you will face once you did the same thing. If you will ask me about the story that I started, I will still continue to write it but I'm going to write its outline first so it can be easiern to write the plots. I am sure that it will take more time to finish it so don't expect an update from me in the next few weeks, even months. Always remember that it's okay to commit a mistake, the most important is you learned from it.