Progressing the Storyline of a Creative Novel or Short Story

Turning an original idea for a written piece of literature into any decent amount of content can be difficult to accomplish. Likewise, taking a partially written story and completing it can be just as difficult. Often times, a writer will reach a point where they begin to lose touch with where their storyline is going or simply run out of ideas towards furthering and finishing their original piece of literature. Although every individual will find their creativity or motivation through different avenues, knowing some basic approaches that can be taken to further a creative storyline will only help an author to accomplish any amount of literary goals he or she may have.

The Characterization Conundrum

Although a large amount of the detailing put into any creative piece of literature or work of fiction will likely unfold as the story is written, deciding exactly how much of the plot and direction of the story will be left up to your imagination is an important duty for any writer. The need for creative freedom, intertwined with the necessity of planning, preparation and structure creates a sort of conundrum that all authors must be made aware of.

• Create an outline for key characters involved in your story, but don't entirely limit your space for change in their characteristics either through the plot progression or through action/dialogue. If you don't already have an absolute storyline laid out, don't entirely rule out a surprising change in a key character to add some excitement. By leaving a certain amount of leeway for key characters to stray from their original direction or persona, you provide yourself with additional subject matter to progress your story with. Many of the most renowned pieces of literature do not revolve around any single monumental event. Instead, the authors of such works relied solely on the interactions, dialogue and changes between or within their characters to create a truly inspiring novel.

• A character that strays too far from their specific traits or personal role in any story might cause a distance between itself and the reader. Change in a character personality is perfectly acceptable and often times desired in a creative novel or short story, but you never want a single character to shift so many times that the audience will be entirely unable to relate. Plot progression is something that has to come naturally; forcing a character to say or do something beyond his/her own characteristics or personality traits will lower the overall quality of that particular character in many instances.

This complexity will carry on throughout any fictional piece of literature, forcing an author into deciding where most of the change should be focused in their story. The results of an author who allows for too little or too much change in their characters will be readable at best.

 

 Making Writing Preparations

Being aware of certain key points throughout your story and their order of occurrence will, upon completion, generate a rough draft of your story that you are happy with and that will require little revision to the actual storyline. Creating a rough draft or outline to document the order of events in a story prior to its creation is far from easy, and not all authors are able to peer that far ahead in their story before it is written. 

• Create character maps that detail and describe all of your characters or things that play an important role in your story from head to foot. Include physical appearance, personality traits, relationships, history - anything that might be pertinent at some point in your writing. These charts are a great way to add structure to your plot progression, as well as an easy reference that can be used when adding personification during your writing.
• If you are having trouble focusing, or your outline seems to be trailing on aimlessly: consider writing an initial chapter revolving around a key character and allow your creativity to guide the story. Think of this exercise as less of an article assignment and more of a chance for you to immerse yourself in your own literary world to experiment with your various personalities and settings that you have laid out.

The amount of preparation made before the initial writing stages of any book is entirely up to the author's personal preferences. Outlines might make it easier for some to go about their work, whereas other people feel they lose their spark of creativity when engaging in such tedious tasks. After choosing your preferred approach for your upcoming piece, be sure to set up any guidelines or plans that are going to steer the story in whichever direction you see fitting.

Writer's Block and Other Difficulties

If you think back to a few different pieces of fiction literature you have ever read, you will probably notice some similarities in the formatting of different books by the same author. The way a story progresses is almost entirely dependent on the characters and settings - the actual writing of your piece is much like giving your fictional characters a chance to roam freely through your desired scenarios and complexities. As you write, use your complete understanding of the different personalities involved to give your characters a chance to make their own decisions by using your written words as their conduit. Allow for situations in your story to play out as they may - revision is always a possibility, but by using this approach towards your original novel or short story, writers block will become a scarcity for any dedicated author.