Storyline/Plot.

Every (good) story has a main problem. Where that problem starts is up to the writer. It can start in the beginning, it can start in the middle, but a story usually never ends with one. (unless it's a huge prologue to another story.) Basically, the entire story comes together with that problem, and the main character(s) solving/facing the problem is usually what makes the story line.


Examples of stories and their problems:

Romeo And Juliet: Two people fall in love, but their love is forbidden.
Titanic: The ship hits an iceberg and sinks.

For now, I'll use the titanic as the main example. Since most people know this story, I'll use this one a lot.
 

A typical story, whether it's a drama or a romantic comedy, usually is build up like this.

All is well. Something goes wrong. All is well again.  Something goes wrong. All is well again. Something goes terribly wrong. Then all is well, or at least, fairly well.

Titanic example:

Jack wins tickets for the titanic > Rose tries to kill herself > Jack saves her and they fall in love > Rose fights with him and says she doesn't want to see him anymore > They make up and get together > The ship hits an iceberg and sinks, taking Jack's life > Rose accepts what has happened and dramatically throws her necklace into the ocean.

 

The first thing I do when writing a story usually comes naturally. An Idea pops into my head. I'll use my story 'Key's lullaby' as an example.

The idea came, like I said, naturally. You can get ideas out of everywhere. The news, the street, people around you, things that happen to you… As soon as you have an Idea, you can start brainstorming. Brainstorming is when you think about something, and write down everything that comes to your mind. For me, the process went like this.

Idea:
Key loses his memories about being a trainee and a part of SHINee, and as the others try to introduce him to his lifestyle, he faces lots of complications.

TIP: As soon as an Idea pops into your head, write it down! Do not safe it for later, don't fool yourself thinking you'll still remember it the next morning, because you'll regret it if you forget. Make a note in your phone, write it on your hand or a note… Make sure you've got the idea secured somewhere, so you can't forget.

Brainstorming question:
What are things that could happen to Key?

-Dislike his hair.
-Dislike his clothes.
-Be openly gay.
-Act like he's a kid again because he's lost years of his memory.
-Go out and run into fan girls.

Those are some examples of what came out of my brainstorming session. Of course I thought of more things, but in the process of writing the storyline, you'll start scratching things that don't fit or that you don't like.

TIP: Brainstorm with someone who's interested in either the subject or the character(s) you're writing about. Brainstorming with one or more people can stimulate the process. Someone may think of something that triggers you into having another idea, and that's the power of brainstorming! And once again: write everything down.


Once you've thought about the main problem of your story you can start thinking about your story line. A story line is basically the right > wrong > right > wrong  thing were the story is build on. The foundation for your story! We'll get more into the writing of particular parts of the story line in other parts, but for now I want to give you one last tip for this chapter. I've used it since I was 11, and I still use it today. Chapter-planning.

TIP: Plan out your chapters. Make a rough sketch of what you want the chapters to be like in your head. If you have A main problem, think about what you want to happen in the chapters before that problem starts to exist. Write that down for every chapter until you have what I call a chapter planning. A chapter planning helps you to stick to the story idea. Don't be to detailed with your planning, remember, it's just a little guide line to the full story. Write down the main events for chat chapter and leave the details for when you're writing the actual story.

Example of a Chapter planning: (I'll just use a random cliché high school romance. I'll be improvising, if it reminds you of another story, I am sorry. I'm just making this up as I type.)

Chapter one: Jonghyun's thoughts let the reader know that he's recently moved and that he's not too happy about it. He has his first day in school and walks into a boy in the hallways as he runs for his first class.
Chapter two: Jonghyun's first class for the second school day is gym, and he runs into the same boy again. Jonghyun tries to talk to him, but the boy tells him to piss off and he walks away.
Chapter three: Jonghyun walks out of the school, when he sees four bullies pushing someone around, calling him . Jonghyun sees that the boy they're pushing is helpless and he decides to help him. He tells the bullies to leave the boy alone and then he realizes it's the same boy he walked into earlier. The bullies ask the boy if Jonghyun is his boyfriend, and the boy pushes Jonghyun away from him, running away.

See how the story slowly builds up? They meet. Nothing happens. They meet again. A little fight takes place. They meet again and there's the first really triggering event in the story. You can probably imagine how this story will end. Maybe as practice, you could fill in the remaining part of the foundation for the example story in the chapter planning!

Jonghyun runs into a boy at his first day of school > He wants to help the boy, who's being bullied, but the boy runs away > … > … > … > … > …

Use as many "> … >" as you need and have fun triggering your imagination! High school romance is a good way to start with, for it is, most of the time, the most cliché storyline. If you want to learn more about types of stories, please continue to the next part; Genres.