Starting Off on the Right Foot

From now on your idea is your baby. You have to nurture and take care of it so that it can grow into something really great. Now if you just start off writing, you'll most likely end up stuck or frustrated, which can really upset the baby. Nothing gets your idea down more than writers block. The best thing to do is to set up your story for success. Start off by making sure your protagonist has a challenge to face and an antagonist. Your antagonist does not have to be an actual character in your book, you can have an abstract antagonist, where your main character must overcome an emotional struggle, an illness, a natural disaster, etc. After you have your protagonist and antagonist, start creating a plot around them. Every story is different so creating your plot will be a little different for everyone. To help with your style and ideas read stories that are like your idea. Write down everything you like about each book and everything you don't. This will help make sure that you are getting everything you want from your writing. Also remember that you do not have to follow your original plot line at all. You can have a great though at one point and go from there, once you do make sure you can pave the road before you get stuck in a ditch. After you have some direction in your piece, make a list of all your characters and start writing down everything about each character including your protagonist and antagonist. Do a Google search to find questions to answer for each character or make up your own. This is easiest way to get to know your characters and make sure they are relatable. Everything here is meant to be flexible. Your writing is meant to push rules and boundaries. This can give you even more ideas like having a physical antagonist and an abstract antagonist or you could have your antagonist switch half way through. There are a thousand different ways to mix it up, so don't get stuck in the same old story. Remember that your idea isn't just any baby, it's your baby.