Yeah, write a simple story. A lot of writing happens in the process. Eventually you’ll find yourself asking questions like “Wait, how am I going to make that work?” or when doubling back, “Maybe I could change up this dialogue to be more foreshadowing now that I’ve finished the last part.”
It’s kinda like drawing: you’ll go in with an idea of what it should be, but more often than not you come out with something a bit different at the end of the process.
It's hard to start with a blank slate. Give yourself some constraints and you'll find it's easier to be creative. For example, tell yourself you need to write a short story that is set in a laundromat and features a three-legged bear. The constraints are arbitrary but they help eliminate a lot of possibilities and force you to make creative choices. Good luck!
You can always checkout r/writingprompts or google something similar and use that as a starting point. You’ll find your interests and voice somewhere along the way.
My favorite professor in college gave us an Intro to Literature assignment to take a famous short story and rewrite it from another perspective.
I chose to write a story from the perspective of the officer from Poe’s *The Tell-Tale Heart.*
It was a great excercise because I had to analyze an existing work, research the time period, and write a backstory for an underdeveloped character. Plus I got to build up to the shocking discovery at the end, which was just too fun.
Try it! Just to get your feet under you.
Start with writing the most boring story you can think of. Make it as boring as possible.
John gets up in the morning, has an uneventful drive to work, does his accounting job, has a butter sandwich for lunch, etc. Write it in excruciating detail.
If you come up with anything exciting, write it on a notepad but don't add it to your boring story. There's a traffic jam on the way to work? Too exciting. Get rid of it.
You'll find that your brain will actively come up with ideas to fight against the bore. When you've really had enough of boring stuff, take the good ideas you threw out and use them to make a story.
Great suggestions, but you could also adapt an existing entity that you like.
Does a couple things for you:
1) Let's you get practice with the physical act of formatting a screenplay.
2) Let's you focus on story without creating. You will be forced to make creative decisions that allow the story to fit the format of a screenplay but stays true to what you like about the source.
It's harder than it sounds and it will certainly get your brain thinking of story without thinking you need to create.
This is also my recommendation!
I’d also add learn elements of a story. Start with plot. Research all the different plot structures and sit down with a movie and literally take notes and see if you can plot the movie yourself.
Most movies will have a blogger online who’s already plotted it, so you can double check with someone that way.
What makes that plot work? Remake that plot step-by-step, even if you feel you’re copying that movie—remember, this is for yourself to learn.
Then if you feel comfortable, start branching into other elements of a story. If you break it down like that, it can actually turn extremely mathematical.
Practice, practice, practice! If writing in screenwriting format freaks you out, just write NOT in format THEN turn it into format after you have something written.
Being creative doesn’t always mean you pull things out of thin air or suddenly have created the next big blockbuster. Sometimes it means borrowing, recycling, renewing.
But also remember, if you’re planning to market/publish your work do not ever steal someone else’s! Acknowledge credit where it’s due!
Look at the local paper/ news. There’a always a little random story that’s happened. Or, pick your favourite to show episode/ movie and write what happens before it starts or after it finishes. - take the last episode of the sopranos for example.
What happens after it cut to black? Did tony die? If so what happened to the people around him? You do t just kill a mafia boss and get away with it. What happened to his crew? What happened to aj, meadow? Etc etc.
Set yourself little mini challenges! That’s what I do - or find them online. I know it’s cliche but you could always start by ‘writing what you know’! Find a story from your own experiences.
This. 100% this. I write screenplays because I love visual storytelling and I have stories I need to get out of my head. The actual act of writing is the worst part. 😜
This was way, way, WAY too far down the replies.
OP doesn't want to write to tell stories, they want to "write" as some sort of **cosplay.** Writing isn't a "hobby." It's not some paint-by-numbers exercise that allows highly regulated, curated creative expression without much original thought.
The motivation to write must flow out of the same impulses of all other forms of art and/or entertainment to express oneself. To set free into the world these things that have been within us, flapping about like some animal trapped in the attic needing to escape. To say that you "never think of stories" suggests that OP has no curiosity about the world around them and are living a very sheltered, incurious life. Good lord, we live in an age when it's so easy to dive into a vast river of information without leaving your bed much less your house. I just discovered that I can "borrow" thousands of movies from my local library through Hoopla and there's an app for my Fire TV Cube (not that I want to encourage nascent writers to seek inspiration from existing films, there's already way too much of that in this sub).
I hear and respect your opinion of writers and the artistry behind it. As someone who identifies all to well with your sentiment of setting free into the world the things trapped within, I hear you loud and clear about curiosity and questioning the world around.
However, I don’t really understand the claim that writing isn’t a hobby. I’m glad we have differing opinions because I think there’s a lot I can learn from you, but I do want to add that writing is 100% a hobby.
It’s what I think about when I drive to work, when I workout, and when I sit to write in the evening. It’s not my 9-5. When I’m stuck, when I’m confused, I turn to others works. I read. I watch. I research. I think and think and when I’m at my 9-5 I have to work.
So by the very definition of hobby, it is a hobby.
Idk how old OP is (and don’t want to know) but I do know that our current day in age has a huge impact on people’s critical thinking, as you said before. There’s a wealth of movies and stories available so why would you feel the pressure to make your own if you’ve never had the challenge? And when the challenge comes to you, if you’ve never done it before, how would you begin?
What if critical thinking’s a skill OP hasn’t developed yet? Where’s the harm in taking the mathematical approach to writing, researching, and mimicking elements they’ve seen in other stories to learn what the heck they’re doing before developing their own passion that bursts from inside? If you’ve never questioned the way the world works around you, how would you begin?
It all starts as a hobby, one hour here and there. And the beautiful thing about hobbies is you don’t have to share with others—you totally can, but there’s zero pressure.
Of course it can be a hobby. If *"can't make a full-time living from it"* is the definition, then most screenwriters (and novelists) are hobbyists.
The OP might enjoy learning the craft of "how" to tell a story - but if you don't have a story you **want** to tell?
Start with a short story. Maybe five or six pages. About something that actually happened, maybe to you or someone else. Fictionalize it - change names, locations, etc. The idea of 'write what you know" sometimes gets a bad rap, but another saying "truth is stranger than fiction" works too.
Choose two people with opposing world views on something you know or care deeply about (the better you know it, the more it’ll sing on the page), then make them have to collaborate on something else, maybe unrelated, but make all the tension they have in their collaboration of that task actually about their opposing world views.
Start with bullet points or numbered sentences per point like
1. Main character walks down road into a coffee shop
2. Meets ….
3. They …
Try this it is how I’m starting. Then I will do my dialogue. Plot details first then finer details last I guess !!!
All the best
“Girls, I have writer’s block. And it’s the worst feeling in the world.”
“How many pages have you written?”
“Well that’s the trouble, none.”
“Blanche, you have to have written to have writer’s block. Otherwise all of us have it.”
-Golden Girls
How to invent a story. One, create a character or 'steal' one from real life. Two, flesh out your character with a history, ambitions, flaws, expertise, relationships, insecurities, etc. Three, now, do to your new character the worst possible thing you can imagine. And, I mean the worst. Be as cruel as you can possibly be and then do more.
Now, here's your story. Write what your character would do or would try to do escape your tortures. And, get even more cruel. Make them fail as they try to deal with the tortures you visited on them.
Voila, you have a story.
I can see many people giving you advice on how to start, but…maybe, you’re not a writer.
A lot of things seem cool, or pleasurable to us, but that doesn’t mean we are able to, or know how, to do it. Perhaps it’s simply not in your nature if thinking of stories, or seeing stories all around you, is not something that you innately do.
I would love to be a famous scientist, who invents groundbreaking devices for NASA. Alas…
I hear what you’re saying, but what’s wrong with trying it out as a hobby? Same with making devices? Obviously as a hobbyist, you wouldn’t be working for NASA but if you want to build things, you can? I remember building a flashlight and a computer and although not groundbreaking, it was fun and what I got from those experiences was worth so much more than if I hadn’t done it?
I know some people aren’t cut out for things, but writing and telling stories has been in the human culture for centuries, even telling a friend what you had for dinner is telling a story, so why not write about that as a hobby if it brings joy?
Not saying not trying it out. I was referring to the fact that he doesn’t really know what to talk about, so i got the impression that he’s more enamored with the idea of having a writing hobby instead of really doing it in a way that he enjoys dedicating time to it and that it brings him pleasure. Which is perfectly fine, but there is a distinction there.
My point was actually to say that it is ok if we don’t do all that we would like to. Definitely try it out, but if it’s more of a hassle than natural and pleasurable, then drop it and don’t feel bad about it. Maybe it will open up his time and energy for something else he might enjoy more.
Start the easy way, throw a quick idea in ChatGPT. Let it build you a plot then move on from there! Easy…. Or just write what you know, if you feel that would be cheating.
I think r/writingprompts is a good place to start. I like to read the stuff in there and it kind of gets me thinking about the things I could be writing about. Surrounding yourself with creativity, is helpful for producing creativity.
When I get like this I take a vivid memory I have and write it out like a scene in a movie. I allow myself to expand and change it as I want.
Pretty soon your silly story about you and your cousins at 14 driving 4-wheelers to get candy at a gas station becomes a high speed chase with a truck load of drunk rednecks trying to run you off the road while you and your cousin reconcile over a misunderstanding about a shared love interest neighbor girl
Start with stories that are already made. Adapt a short story, a novella and a nivel. This way you can safely see the insides of a story and see hiw much you can cut until it falls apart.
Yeah, write a simple story. A lot of writing happens in the process. Eventually you’ll find yourself asking questions like “Wait, how am I going to make that work?” or when doubling back, “Maybe I could change up this dialogue to be more foreshadowing now that I’ve finished the last part.” It’s kinda like drawing: you’ll go in with an idea of what it should be, but more often than not you come out with something a bit different at the end of the process.
It's hard to start with a blank slate. Give yourself some constraints and you'll find it's easier to be creative. For example, tell yourself you need to write a short story that is set in a laundromat and features a three-legged bear. The constraints are arbitrary but they help eliminate a lot of possibilities and force you to make creative choices. Good luck!
You can always checkout r/writingprompts or google something similar and use that as a starting point. You’ll find your interests and voice somewhere along the way.
Absolutely do this. Writing prompts for me are really fun to do
Pick up a newspaper and browse through the stories. Find one that’s interesting and use it as a stepping off point.
My favorite professor in college gave us an Intro to Literature assignment to take a famous short story and rewrite it from another perspective. I chose to write a story from the perspective of the officer from Poe’s *The Tell-Tale Heart.* It was a great excercise because I had to analyze an existing work, research the time period, and write a backstory for an underdeveloped character. Plus I got to build up to the shocking discovery at the end, which was just too fun. Try it! Just to get your feet under you.
This is amazing advice I’ve never even thought of it!
Start with writing the most boring story you can think of. Make it as boring as possible. John gets up in the morning, has an uneventful drive to work, does his accounting job, has a butter sandwich for lunch, etc. Write it in excruciating detail. If you come up with anything exciting, write it on a notepad but don't add it to your boring story. There's a traffic jam on the way to work? Too exciting. Get rid of it. You'll find that your brain will actively come up with ideas to fight against the bore. When you've really had enough of boring stuff, take the good ideas you threw out and use them to make a story.
Great suggestions, but you could also adapt an existing entity that you like. Does a couple things for you: 1) Let's you get practice with the physical act of formatting a screenplay. 2) Let's you focus on story without creating. You will be forced to make creative decisions that allow the story to fit the format of a screenplay but stays true to what you like about the source. It's harder than it sounds and it will certainly get your brain thinking of story without thinking you need to create.
This is also my recommendation! I’d also add learn elements of a story. Start with plot. Research all the different plot structures and sit down with a movie and literally take notes and see if you can plot the movie yourself. Most movies will have a blogger online who’s already plotted it, so you can double check with someone that way. What makes that plot work? Remake that plot step-by-step, even if you feel you’re copying that movie—remember, this is for yourself to learn. Then if you feel comfortable, start branching into other elements of a story. If you break it down like that, it can actually turn extremely mathematical. Practice, practice, practice! If writing in screenwriting format freaks you out, just write NOT in format THEN turn it into format after you have something written. Being creative doesn’t always mean you pull things out of thin air or suddenly have created the next big blockbuster. Sometimes it means borrowing, recycling, renewing. But also remember, if you’re planning to market/publish your work do not ever steal someone else’s! Acknowledge credit where it’s due!
Look at the local paper/ news. There’a always a little random story that’s happened. Or, pick your favourite to show episode/ movie and write what happens before it starts or after it finishes. - take the last episode of the sopranos for example. What happens after it cut to black? Did tony die? If so what happened to the people around him? You do t just kill a mafia boss and get away with it. What happened to his crew? What happened to aj, meadow? Etc etc.
Set yourself little mini challenges! That’s what I do - or find them online. I know it’s cliche but you could always start by ‘writing what you know’! Find a story from your own experiences.
The secret recipe for writing a good story: 1. Write a bad story 2. Fix it through multiple rewrites That's honestly it
I have a hard time with a list that doesn't start with: 0. Have an idea that really excites you.
Review Pixar’s 22 rules of storytelling, it has great starting points for story
Rewrite a story that already exists. William Shakespeare wrote 36 plays, and only used an original story in two of them
Why do you want to write if you don't have any stories you want to tell?
This. 100% this. I write screenplays because I love visual storytelling and I have stories I need to get out of my head. The actual act of writing is the worst part. 😜
This was way, way, WAY too far down the replies. OP doesn't want to write to tell stories, they want to "write" as some sort of **cosplay.** Writing isn't a "hobby." It's not some paint-by-numbers exercise that allows highly regulated, curated creative expression without much original thought. The motivation to write must flow out of the same impulses of all other forms of art and/or entertainment to express oneself. To set free into the world these things that have been within us, flapping about like some animal trapped in the attic needing to escape. To say that you "never think of stories" suggests that OP has no curiosity about the world around them and are living a very sheltered, incurious life. Good lord, we live in an age when it's so easy to dive into a vast river of information without leaving your bed much less your house. I just discovered that I can "borrow" thousands of movies from my local library through Hoopla and there's an app for my Fire TV Cube (not that I want to encourage nascent writers to seek inspiration from existing films, there's already way too much of that in this sub).
Writing can be a hobby. Reddit posts, for example.
I hear and respect your opinion of writers and the artistry behind it. As someone who identifies all to well with your sentiment of setting free into the world the things trapped within, I hear you loud and clear about curiosity and questioning the world around. However, I don’t really understand the claim that writing isn’t a hobby. I’m glad we have differing opinions because I think there’s a lot I can learn from you, but I do want to add that writing is 100% a hobby. It’s what I think about when I drive to work, when I workout, and when I sit to write in the evening. It’s not my 9-5. When I’m stuck, when I’m confused, I turn to others works. I read. I watch. I research. I think and think and when I’m at my 9-5 I have to work. So by the very definition of hobby, it is a hobby. Idk how old OP is (and don’t want to know) but I do know that our current day in age has a huge impact on people’s critical thinking, as you said before. There’s a wealth of movies and stories available so why would you feel the pressure to make your own if you’ve never had the challenge? And when the challenge comes to you, if you’ve never done it before, how would you begin? What if critical thinking’s a skill OP hasn’t developed yet? Where’s the harm in taking the mathematical approach to writing, researching, and mimicking elements they’ve seen in other stories to learn what the heck they’re doing before developing their own passion that bursts from inside? If you’ve never questioned the way the world works around you, how would you begin? It all starts as a hobby, one hour here and there. And the beautiful thing about hobbies is you don’t have to share with others—you totally can, but there’s zero pressure.
Of course it can be a hobby. If *"can't make a full-time living from it"* is the definition, then most screenwriters (and novelists) are hobbyists. The OP might enjoy learning the craft of "how" to tell a story - but if you don't have a story you **want** to tell?
Start with a short story. Maybe five or six pages. About something that actually happened, maybe to you or someone else. Fictionalize it - change names, locations, etc. The idea of 'write what you know" sometimes gets a bad rap, but another saying "truth is stranger than fiction" works too.
stories are about characters who want something, and what they do to try to get it.
Choose two people with opposing world views on something you know or care deeply about (the better you know it, the more it’ll sing on the page), then make them have to collaborate on something else, maybe unrelated, but make all the tension they have in their collaboration of that task actually about their opposing world views.
Start with bullet points or numbered sentences per point like 1. Main character walks down road into a coffee shop 2. Meets …. 3. They … Try this it is how I’m starting. Then I will do my dialogue. Plot details first then finer details last I guess !!! All the best
Read more, find stories that you like and ask yourself how you might make them better.
if you can't think of stories, why do you want to write? genuinely wondering
“Girls, I have writer’s block. And it’s the worst feeling in the world.” “How many pages have you written?” “Well that’s the trouble, none.” “Blanche, you have to have written to have writer’s block. Otherwise all of us have it.” -Golden Girls
How to invent a story. One, create a character or 'steal' one from real life. Two, flesh out your character with a history, ambitions, flaws, expertise, relationships, insecurities, etc. Three, now, do to your new character the worst possible thing you can imagine. And, I mean the worst. Be as cruel as you can possibly be and then do more. Now, here's your story. Write what your character would do or would try to do escape your tortures. And, get even more cruel. Make them fail as they try to deal with the tortures you visited on them. Voila, you have a story.
I can see many people giving you advice on how to start, but…maybe, you’re not a writer. A lot of things seem cool, or pleasurable to us, but that doesn’t mean we are able to, or know how, to do it. Perhaps it’s simply not in your nature if thinking of stories, or seeing stories all around you, is not something that you innately do. I would love to be a famous scientist, who invents groundbreaking devices for NASA. Alas…
I hear what you’re saying, but what’s wrong with trying it out as a hobby? Same with making devices? Obviously as a hobbyist, you wouldn’t be working for NASA but if you want to build things, you can? I remember building a flashlight and a computer and although not groundbreaking, it was fun and what I got from those experiences was worth so much more than if I hadn’t done it? I know some people aren’t cut out for things, but writing and telling stories has been in the human culture for centuries, even telling a friend what you had for dinner is telling a story, so why not write about that as a hobby if it brings joy?
Not saying not trying it out. I was referring to the fact that he doesn’t really know what to talk about, so i got the impression that he’s more enamored with the idea of having a writing hobby instead of really doing it in a way that he enjoys dedicating time to it and that it brings him pleasure. Which is perfectly fine, but there is a distinction there. My point was actually to say that it is ok if we don’t do all that we would like to. Definitely try it out, but if it’s more of a hassle than natural and pleasurable, then drop it and don’t feel bad about it. Maybe it will open up his time and energy for something else he might enjoy more.
Start the easy way, throw a quick idea in ChatGPT. Let it build you a plot then move on from there! Easy…. Or just write what you know, if you feel that would be cheating.
I think r/writingprompts is a good place to start. I like to read the stuff in there and it kind of gets me thinking about the things I could be writing about. Surrounding yourself with creativity, is helpful for producing creativity.
When I get like this I take a vivid memory I have and write it out like a scene in a movie. I allow myself to expand and change it as I want. Pretty soon your silly story about you and your cousins at 14 driving 4-wheelers to get candy at a gas station becomes a high speed chase with a truck load of drunk rednecks trying to run you off the road while you and your cousin reconcile over a misunderstanding about a shared love interest neighbor girl
I'm in the same boat. I'm going to write a scene. Or a conversation. Get the juices flowing.
Start with stories that are already made. Adapt a short story, a novella and a nivel. This way you can safely see the insides of a story and see hiw much you can cut until it falls apart.
Try ScriptGen.com, you can type in genre and topics and get story ideas