Author Michelle Monkou: Tip For The Aspiring Writer: No Idea Too Small

If your goal is to start a book (finishing it would require another blog), you have to start somewhere. Anywhere.

Lots of rules exist on how to plot, pace, and finish the novel. But to start the story doesn't require any skill or list of rules. All you need is an idea. An idea that sticks with you, no matter where you are, what you're doing, or what day of the week it is.

Once you have that idea, put it down on paper. This is the seed that has so much potential for healthy fruition.

No one says that your particular idea must be the central part of your story. It could be an event or experience that will cover a secondary character. For example, the idea could be a teenager standing at the bottom of a driveway on a dark night with a bloody lip. And you know that this story is going to be a romance.

Although the teenager wouldn't be the heroine, her seeming predicament can kickstart your creative juice to flow. Scenarios surrounding this small idea can create layers, adding to the story's richness. For example, she runs up the driveway, looking over her shoulder, before knocking at the door. She prays that the strangers who live there would help her.

Now at some point, you've got to stir up your hero and heroine into the story's reality. The time comes to bring them into the story. Don't worry about the character sketch. That will come eventually. Right now, you're working on an idea. Now you're fleshing it out with key players.

Maybe the owner of the house opens the door. She is surprised to see a young girl at her door, bleeding slightly from her mouth. Her first instinct is to invite her in, but from past experience, she has to force herself not to trust. She hesitates until the girl whimpers and asks for her help.

Just by the heroine's actions, you can develop her character sketch. There are revealing points to her personality and way of thinking. There is even a hint of her backstory.

The hero, on the other hand, shows up at the door, pounding on it to find his sister. When the door opens, he's shocked to see a petite, hauntingly beautiful, woman glaring openly at him. When he asks for his sister, the woman threatens to call the police. He doesn't want to scare her, but he has to talk to his sister.

He feels guilty about encouraging her to live with his father and new stepmother, instead of living with him, as she'd asked. His sister had told him that their new stepmother was abusive, but he didn't believe that his father would tolerate such a thing. And his sister was known to be petulant. But all of that flew out the window, when he got a frantic call from his sister that she'd run out of the house.

As I create this example, it's easy to keep adding texture to the basic skeleton of the story. And if you allow yourself to relax and set your critical internal editor on mute, you can freely create your story and add really good meaty points.

And where to get those ideas -- life.

That teenager with a bloody lip showing up at night at a stranger's door happened to my husband and me several years ago. Everything else that I mentioned in this blog was created for storytelling effect.

Get your idea and run with it. Take it from the seedling stage and turn it into a vibrant, compelling s

tory.