Story Development (Step 3)

by Kerry-Ann McDade · November 25, 2024

Story Development (Step 3) – How To Write the Future podcast, episode 128

“Get to know your characters and really understand how they perceive the world. So that you can write the book in their voice.”

In this latest episode of How To Write the Future, host Beth Barany continues to guide listeners through her Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap as she explores step 3 and discusses the different types of writers, core elements of story development, and why you want to get to know your characters.

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About the How To Write the Future podcast

The *How To Write The Future* podcast is for science fiction and fantasy writers who want to write positive futures and successfully bring those stories out into the marketplace. Hosted by Beth Barany, science fiction novelist and creativity coach for writers. We cover tips for fiction writers. This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

This podcast is for you if you have questions like:

– How do I create a believable world for my science fiction story?

– How do I figure out what’s not working if my story feels flat?

– How do I make my story more interesting and alive?

This podcast is for readers too if you’re at all curious about the future of humanity.

Transcript for Story Development (Step 3 in the Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap)

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[00:00] Introduction to the Podcast

BETH BARANY: Hey everyone, Beth, Barany here with How to Write The Future podcast.

[00:05] Overview of the Creative Heart Roadmap

BETH BARANY: I’m here with you – in this episode and in this series talking about Trust Your Creative Heart Roadmap. This is my roadmap for science fiction and fantasy authors to help them go from idea to published book that they are super proud of, that you’re excited to hand to your readers. So we talked about step one, about an assessment.

Step two, developing a writing practice.

[00:32] Step 3: Story Development

BETH BARANY: Now here in step three, we are going to talk about story development. And if you want to go and get an overview of everything that I’m talking about, I have an overview episode, and if you want to go back into steps one and two, be sure to go and check those out as well. Today, as I said, we’re going to talk about story development. I love this phase.

So I am assuming that you have an idea, even the tiniest idea. Great. It could be a scene. It could be a moment. It could be a dialogue line. It could be a big kind of action. It could be a thought. It could be an object or a sound. It could be anything, literally anything that gets you excited. And you’re like, there’s a story here. I want to do something with this. Once you have that kernel or that seed. Now you can develop it into a story.

[01:30] Types of Writers: Pantsers vs. Plotters

BETH BARANY: Now, there are generally two camps of writers: 1. Complete write by the seat of your pants. We call them “Pantsers” and there, I’m sure there’s other names for them as well. Are you someone who could just sit down and write from that idea? Great. Go for it. Come back to story development in your revision phase. Or if you are on the far other end of this spectrum, you might be a “Plotter,” someone who takes their time writing a very detailed plan of what their story is going to be about. My husband is like that. He writes very detailed plans. And I’m somewhere in the middle. I have an idea. I have a general, I like to have a general roadmap of where I’m going. I love roadmaps.

[02:15] Core Elements of Story Development

BETH BARANY: But it doesn’t tell me every single detail, otherwise I would be bored and I would feel like the story has already been created. So I’m somewhere in between. And with that. I think of what a story development is creating milestones so that I can sit down and write the first draft. And then in the revision phase, I also actually go back into story development and think even more deeply about my characters, about the story, about who everyone is and why they want what they want and why they want it. So that’s the core of story development is:

What is your story about? What do your characters want? Why do they want it? That’s their motivation.

And what is in their way? That’s their conflict.

[02:59] Plan Your Novel Like a Pro

BETH BARANY: Now I have a whole entire curriculum for story development. And it’s called Plan Your Novel Like A Pro. This is a book that you can buy digital or paperback, and it comes with a free digital workbook. I encourage you to, if you’ve never written a novel before and you don’t know where to begin. I recommend Plan Your Novel Like A Pro.

It’s really designed for people to go through it step-by-step and do it in bite sized pieces throughout their busy day throughout their busy lives. And I have to tell you, I got a great testimonial recently from a teenage girl who said to me that she, number one, understood the book and number two, it got her working and planning her story.

So I know this book is really helpful. I’ve had hundreds of people take the class that’s associated with this book. And be able to go through the plan and write their first draft. It’s awesome. And it’s actually my method that I use.

And I’ve thrown in some more plotter oriented tools in there as well, if you’re more like my husband and need way more plotting detail. So that’s included in the book as well. It is for people who want some guidance in: how do you go from story idea? And we walk you through all the way. So you can end the planning process with either a very detailed plan. If that’s the way you want to do it, or a milestones type roadmap, which is the way I do it.

And I explain all of that in Plan Your Novel Like A Pro.

[04:30] Tips for Character Development

BETH BARANY: I’m going to give you two tips today to help you get into character. Get to know your characters and really understand how they perceive the world. So that you can write the book in their voice provided that you want to write your story in the voice of one character or many characters. And that is:

Journal in your character’s voice. Interview your character and have them reply in a very personal and private voice.

And that will help you get to know them better. Understand how they think and how they perceive the world. It’s one of my favorite tools. All right.

[05:09] World Building Resources

BETH BARANY: And if you would like more resources on developing your story world, I have a free resource for that, which is the World Building Workbook for science fiction and fantasy writers. It’s designed for all fiction writers.

I work with science fiction and fantasy writers. There’s a lot of questions in that workbook for world building.

[05:27] Trusting Your Creative Process

BETH BARANY: Lastly, I would like to say it in this step.is where you get to have courage and trust your own voice and your own style. Writers often come to me and ask me: Am I doing it right?

It feels like I’m not doing it right. And I’m asking them: Why do you feel that way? And they tell me: I just have bits and pieces and it’s a bit of a mess and I’m doing something I haven’t done before, or I feel it’s too derivative. It’s too much like what other people are doing.

And I’m like, it’s coming out of you. You’re inspired. I asked them, is this something that they really care about? They really want to write?

And they’ll tell me yes. Yes. And they’ll be very excited and adamant and I’m like:

Trust yourself. Trust your instincts. Go with what you’ve got. Now is not the time to judge your work. Now is the time to put your work down on the page, to put your ideas on the page. And after you’ve written your first draft, don’t worry.

You have plenty of time. To judge your work, to decide if it’s good or not.

And that’s much, much later down the road. In this stage, in this step of story development, your job is to be creating your story plan, to be answering questions about: who your characters are, what they want, why they want it, and what’s in their way. All right.

[06:46] Final Questions for Story Development

BETH BARANY: There’s two final questions. I want to leave you with that. You may be familiar with it if you’ve listened to the other episodes, which is: In the story development phase, What is working for you? What is already working?

Maybe you’re already in progress with your story development. Maybe you have resources. Maybe you have your hands on everything that you need to help you plan and plot your story. I use plan and plot interchangeably because I prefer planning and lots of writers use the word plot, but for me, it’s planning.

So what is working for you? And then the second question is: What would you like more of when you think about story development?

Maybe you need to build skills around how to develop a story.

What is a scene?
What is story structure?
How to develop a character?
What is world building?
What is a scene itself?
What are the components of a scene?

So maybe you need skill-building. Maybe you need inspiration. And what you would like more of as inspiration. And in which case go and do the things that inspire you, television or film or reading or travel or music or eating new foods. Do some things that inspire you.

Or maybe what you would like more of is to have conversations with interesting people. So you can get some new ideas on what to write about.

Or maybe you want to talk out your story ideas and that is your part of your process. And that’s something that you need.

Those are just some examples. So be sure and ask yourself: What’s working for you in the story development stage? And what would you like more of?

[08:19] Conclusion and Next Episode Preview

BETH BARANY: All right. In the next episode, we’re going to talk about writing your messy first draft. That’s all for this week. Write long and prosper.

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ABOUT BETH BARANY

Beth Barany teaches science fiction and fantasy novelists how to write, edit, and publish their books as a coach, teacher, consultant, and developmental editor. She’s an award-winning fantasy and science fiction novelist and runs the podcast, “How To Write The Future.”

Learn more about Beth Barany at these sites:

Author site / Coaching site / School of Fiction / Writer’s Fun Zone blog

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CREDITS

EDITED WITH DESCRIPT: https://www.descript.com?lmref=_w1WCA (Refer-a-Friend link)
MUSIC CREDITS : Music from Uppbeat (free for Creators!): https://uppbeat.io/t/soundroll/fuzz-buzz License code: UMMKDRL02DFGKJ0L. “Fuzz buzz” by Soundroll. Commercial license: https://musicvine.com/track/soundroll/fuzz-buzz.
DISTRIBUTED BY BUZZSPROUT: https://www.buzzsprout.com/?referrer_id=1994465 (Refer-a-Friend link)
SHOW PRODUCTION BY Beth Barany
SHOW CO-PRODUCTION + NOTES by Kerry-Ann McDade

C 2024 BETH BARANY

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