A story is not only what you have to stay but how you say it. After all, we tell stories as metaphors for some aspect of life as we believe it so. The best stories are those that speak to some universal truth. “That lis life”
Writing is iterative. Write consistently. Write in small chunks.
- There are two kinds of writers: those who outline and those who do not. Regardless of one’s preferences, both should engage in structured, deliberate writing
- Don’t be afraid to look at how other people have done a particular narrative, setting or character (i.e., Tropes are Tools, use them). But:
  - Critical to doing this is understanding why these elements work for their stories and making them your own.
  - Critical to the story being unique is how you, the author, tells it.
Variety is king in writing. It is crucial for plot and characters as it makes the story not boring. It is also important for controlling the flow of the storytelling.

What is Narrative?

From a pragmatic perspective, readers read the story because they perceive that it will give them something. Thus, good stories are those that pique the reader’s interest by meeting, and occasionally playing with their expectations about the story.
- “Your goal as a writer is to give your characters goals and then prevent them from reaching those goals. the goal is to be mean.” The root of all interesting stories is the conflict between what is expected and what actually happens.
We can use Miller’s model for narrative ¹ — as a system consisting of:
- Situation - an initial state, a change in that state, and insight brought about by that change.
- Character - a personification of events through a medium
- Form - concrete ways of representation.

How do I begin?

Begin ¹ with a Characters’ Core Personality trait and an underlying Goal — which the general conclusion of the story.
Write a one sentence scenario that describes the general situation. This is the prompt.
Optional: Establish the level of the story to be told. This dictates the level of conflict
- Inner - vs themselves. A good way to highlight conflicting personality traits as well.
- Personal - vs other people around them. This could be categorized with either:
  - Family - both an explicit conflict or an implicit conflict (for example, expectations)
  - Friends and Close Acquaintances
- Societal -vs others within society
  - The In-group and the need to conform
  - The Out-group and the struggle against the Other
  - Institutional (Businesses, Governments, Politics)
  - Circumstantial (Economic or Sociocultural circumstances)
  - Technological.
- Environmental - vs. the environment
  - Natural law
  - Natural phenomenon / disaster
- Abstract - vs an abstract concept. Usually has some ties to usual philosophical conflicts. Some examples: Fate and Nihilism
- Supernatural - vs. the supernatural. Typically, involves the use of usual mythological elements such as gods and spirits, but a modern mythos may also include eldritch horror here.

A lo-fi prototype is another way to say “turn off your editing brain”
Apply the principles from free-writing - no concern for punctuation marks or capitalization. Avoid erasing or ctrl + z
Write more than one prototype. That is, write more than one starting sentence.
Do not bother with names. Names are a fine detail. Stick to an archetypal story.
Using Stock Characters might be fun (formulate a list of such characters).

Write the list of characters and in one sentence explain the essence of these characters.
Write the list of key events to outline the synopsis of the story concept. The key events don’t need to be strung together in a paragraph (and preferably they aren’t).
- Events should be described in one sentence (preferably). Add more only to give more context or to add new twists to the event.
- When doing this ,don’t worry about consistency as the goal is to simply get to the interesting events or have the mind formulate something interesting that can be explored further (highlight theses)
With the list of (rough) events, establish a set of key themes in the story that will tie the whole thing together.
- Exactly one theme will be the major theme.
- Evaluate the theme using one criteria — is it archetypal?.