How to Write Your Story?

Writing an autobiography is a personal journey of opening yourself up to let others see who you are, which can leave you feeling vulnerable, and open to criticism after telling your life story. It requires you to remember events that happened to you in the past and add in your personality.

After reading your autobiography, your readers will know all about your life, and your thoughts and reactions to everything that has unfolded in your life.

Another point of view for the meaning of writing your story is writing the story inside your head or one that you are passionate about. This article is about writing the story inside of your head.

Getting Started:

The first thing to consider if you plan to become an author, and write your story is to look deep within yourself and decide if you are a Plotter or a Pantser.

The Plotter or Outliner is someone who plans out their characters, plot, and every aspect of their story before they even begin writing it. They have their entire story outlined from beginning to end. This can be beneficial for writers because they will know exactly what to write with their unique writing voice.

The big drawback for an outliner who is writing fiction is it reduces the amount of creativity they will use while writing their story, while they merely follow the outline they created before they even began writing. This will leave the reader feeling less connected to the story and your characters.

The pantser writer does not plan their story out ahead of time, they write by, “The seat of their pants” and let the story flow as their mind imagines it. Well-known author Stephen King is a pantser writer. He creates a situation and places his characters into it, and writes about their reaction.

The pantser will start writing their story with little more than a vague idea of what they want to write about. They let their characters dictate the story to them, if that makes any sense to you. It makes sense to the pantser.

The drawback of not plotting your story out first is with no well-defined direction to go while you are writing, it could lead to writer’s block which will cause you to procrastinate your writing.

Flashlight outlining is the happy medium between the pantser and the plotter. If you are walking through the woods in the dark, you will only be able as far ahead as your light beam illuminates, but if you keep moving forward, you will see your way to your destination.

Flashlight outlining is coming up with some ideas about what is happening in your story one chapter or section at a time. This will allow you to have some direction about your story's path while still allowing your creative mind to direct your story as you write it, and your subconscious mind to figure out the rest of the story in the background.

Plotting your story out first is great for non-fiction writers, and some fiction writers will find it helpful, but for most fiction writers, writing as a pantser will allow you to use your creativity to its fullest potential as you write your story for your reader’s entertainment.

If you ever get lost while writing your story, use a flashlight.

Set up a designated writing area.

If you want to train your mind to focus on just writing than you need to set up an area that is just for writing. This can be something as simple as a comfortable chair, with a small table pulled up to it, or a large desk in your own office.

Whatever area you choose, make sure it is free from distractions, so you can sit down at your computer and begin writing your story.

There are many tools available for you to use to help write your story. One of the most popular is Microsoft Word. This is a popular word processer that will fix your spelling mistakes and minor grammar errors. Proper grammar can save lives.

Let’s eat grandpa.

Let’s eat, grandpa.

Are you a cannibal, or inviting grandpa to eat with you? The comma makes all the difference.

No writer is perfect, we all make mistakes, that is why there are editors out there to correct our mistake. I have found two software tools to help with grammar errors, one is Grammarly, and the other is Pro writing aid.

You can use Grammarly right on their website for free. They also have a Chrome browser extension that you can download for free. You can use it on Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, and thousands of other websites to help improve your writing.

They also have a premium version with more features that you can purchase to help your writing even more.

Write First Edit Later.

When you write your story, keep writing, or you will lose your train of thought. The most important thing is not to allow yourself to get distracted. Any distractions will stop you from moving forward in your writing, including backtracking, to edit your work.

You can’t edit a blank page so get words written out on your medium of choice, be it pen and paper, or a computer. Let the ideas continue to flow. You can go back to edit them later.

Sometimes it is best to walk away from your work before you edit it, or even sleep on it, and edit it the next day with a fresh mind, and new creative thoughts flowing through your head.

The first draft won’t be perfect, even after you edit it with a fresh mind, and Grammarly it will still be rough around the edges. Don’t beat yourself up about imperfect work, edit it as many times as you need to until you are satisfied with your work.

Enjoy writing the story inside of your mind, then share it with the world to enjoy.

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