1. Jot down the ideas.
Capturing the best ideas is CRUCIAL! I recommend getting a notebook and just beginning to sketch out the plot, figure out the characters, et cetera. Once you have that ready, then you can just delve deeper into each part and work from there, slowly building up your information step by step.
2. Work through the first draft.
It is important, when you already know your information more or less, you begin the first draft. You may just write the first few chapters, and then edit them two times more before doing the same with all the rest - but really, I'd recommend writing your full story first before you do anything else.
3. Collect feedback.
Okay, so now you have your unedited first draft! So what you've got to do now is collect some feedback; maybe share your story with your family and/or friends, or perhaps your teacher, or Wattpad. And I don't say Storybird because Wattpad is actually more or less for children - for tweens. But if you want more, so to say, structured, more heavy feedback, then Wattpad is really good for you! Nevertheless, direct feedback from somebody whose a little older than you may seem daunting, so you can check out Storybird and work without fear on there, because the community is lovely (unlike the few issues with cyber-bullying that have beek coming up on Wattpad).
4. Work through your second draft.
Working through your second draft is always very important! For one thing, the little vexing flies that make up your "of"s instead of your "if"s can be improved, for sure! And you may as well want to give your characters more depth. This is where you are coming to the end of the whole "process", and may want to watch your steps.
5. Stop working!
This may sound weird, but closing your eyes on your work for a month or two really actually helps me! This is where I get to collect new things, such as get time to get inspired by other books or go somewhere original and come up with a new idea. Furthermore, this may give you the eyes of a stranger, however eerie this may sound, simply meaning that you can criticize yourself as though you were not you - rather, as if you were... a stranger.
6. Ask more advise!
Now that you've corrected all your errors (well, or simply most of them!), you may want to show somebody once more, so that they could see if you have improved or not. This is very helpful also. If you haven't done much, then take a break, and re-edit your draft again.
7. Get rid of snakes!
Here, we are finally to the second-last step - yay! And we're up to my favourite one, too...
This is where you type up your story and delete all the parts that you may want to delete! Some can be like snakes - they may coil around your readers, and want them to gasp for breath, because all those parts and paragraphs that make no sense to the plot of the story can just be so confusing! But I also recommend saving the parts that you may think are good just because, well, they might be!
8. Finish up.
This is the last step - when you briefly glance through your work again and then decide to finally end everything. Well, not EVERYTHING...
Anyway - now you are done!
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PS: I just wanted to say that these are the steps only if you are taking your writing seriously. If you don't strive for improvement, then you might just make a first draft and be done with it. However you wish!
From
Sandra
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