Good Stories

Good stories are not easy to write. I’ve been writing my own little stories and they have all be shorts, with maybe 3 longer ones in the works. This has lead me to sit and look over what I have written and what others have written and pick them apart. Modern thrillers and romance books are the easiest to write, while they can be complex in their details of the lives what people don’t look at is that they have a simple basic funding. They are modern, meaning all points of reference and the daily bits of life we can all associate with because they are what we know. To make a true challenge you need to look to fantasy writing, while anyone can write about dragons and such, the details are different.
Kim Harrison and Carrie Vaughn both write modern novels, with fantasy twists, while Vaughn’s “Kitty Norville” series keep things very modern, Harrison’s “The Hallows” change things. History was changed in her books, and while leaving the monetary issues the same she’s left the exact date, and certain brand names off items to make you wonder if it’s this time or a future time. On the other end of the spectrum is James Silke and Frank Frazetta’s novels of “The Death Dealer”, with it’s ancient earth locations. You can read the book and figure where the people would later migrate to and start civilizations we know. But it draws on enough fantasy and mysticism that old stories were made of to keep it a true fantasy world. Then you come to writers such as John Norman, there may be humans in his story but he took the time to make a new world, complete with society, social structure, religion and the details of plants and animals. That is where good stories and great stories begin to differ.
Lets begin by taking this apart at the basic level, a story needs characters, do you want humans or an alien race as your focus? What do they look like, what is their environmental needs? Details like reproduction can be worried about later, you don’t want them reproducing before your ready to deal with them.
Once you have an idea of what these people are where will your story take place? Earth is easy, looking to a new world can be more of a challenge, as you have nothing to fall back on as a guide.
Now you have a planet full of beings, what are they? They need a name besides beings, best to be friendly before they storm your desk and break your computer.
Now that they are named, we need to decide how do their world is organized, do they have a government structure or is it all the law of tooth and claw? While “take what you want by force” sounds like a fun structure, it can grow tiresome to write about. Do they have a ruling council, a king or president? How is this person or group chosen?
Okay now they have chosen a person (or persons) that can handle bringing you their problems, best to decide how advanced you want them, living in mud huts and caves or do they have sky scrapers? Choosing their level of Technology about now would be good.
Good they are all housed and happy, make a storm so they all stay inside and quite begging while you finish figuring what to do with them. Hmm are you their god or are you going to make others for them to blame? Make a religion to keep them occupied, and decide how much of an impact that religion will have on them.
Okay, now we need to decide their economy, they barter, trade or do they have money? Money you need to decide values and what it’s called, a lot of people like to go with the simple “gold, silver, copper” method, it’s a good system and people understand it. But if your really feeling energetic you can make an entirely new method of payment, maybe there’s a more valuable resource than precious metals. The economy needs them to have jobs, this is where your technology choice comes in, no need for a carpenter when they have all steel buildings. What kind of jobs and is there a caste system for these jobs, meaning do they rank and earn a level of importance to society by their job. Now that they have income, what do they do with it? I’m sure there’s clothing and food, what sort of items do they get for fun? Again where your tech level comes in, buying computers or still using stone tablets?
Now that they are out working and spending their money, what else is on this planet? What does it look like? Lots of water, lots of desert and rocks, or is it a temperate rain forest? Perhaps you should sketch a map? Onto other life, even underwater you’ll have plants of some sort, are they all just pleasant to look at or do some have poisons, some might even be vicious and attack. What about animals? They have pets of any kind, beasts of burden, game, predators that hunt them? Also what is the weather like? Is there common storms and such to make life challenging or is it pretty much always calm and peaceful?
They seem to be rather busy among themselves and their little lives, lets look at the bigger picture, you might not be planning to go to space with them, but do they have a single sun? a single moon? They may not seem that important but they can make nice back ground information when your describing their days.
Okay they are all surviving well by this point if you’ve done well, now for a story. It’s best you pick a main character, time to go among your creation and find one, study their lives well. They need a name, a gender too pending their race, their age and where it puts them among their race in experience and life expectancy. What do they do for a living, and what of their family? The stranger from no where may have appeal, but it can make for a bit of a mysterious but hollow background for your writing. Do they have friends? And what’s this little adventure they are going off on?
Now your to where the normal little “story writing” takes up that people get the urge to make everyday. Let them interact and grow and keep an eye on them occasionally to see if they give you any ideas to write about.