What's up my friend Abbie here and welcome back to Writer's Life Wednesdays where we come together to help you make your story matter. Today we are talking about what to write next because it's the beginning of a new year and for a lot of you writers that means new writing projects, but if you're anything like me, you have a lot of story ideas to choose from. So how are you supposed to choose what story to wholeheartedly commit yourself to for the next few months or year or however long it takes you to write a book?
It's a big decision to make so you shouldn't make it lightly or spur of the moment. It's actually kind of like getting married. It's going to be the first thing you think about in the morning.
The last thing you think about at night is going to consume all your time and your attention and your thoughts. So you've got to make sure you choose wisely. When it comes to deciding what story to write next, whether it's a novel, a series, a screenplay, whatever it is, it is going to completely take over your life.
For as long as you are outlining it and writing it and that's why today I'm going to share with you my process for figuring out what to write next. Why does your story matter? Good question.
What if I told you that there's a science behind every great story? I don't just teach you how to write. I teach you how to change the world with your story and make your author dreams come true.
Okay, first things first, what you will need at least one hour of uninterrupted time to do some serious decision making, a notebook or a blank document, a large cup of tea or coffee for your sanity and a comprehensive list of all your story ideas. If you don't have a comprehensive list of all your story ideas, why? Why would you do that?
Please? Every time you get a new story idea, write it down. Write down every single fragment of an idea you have.
Keep a running document or a folder of documents. Better yet, I have a whole Scrivener project for this shocker, right? It's called plot bunnies and right now it has like over 30 different story ideas in it.
I know that's a lot and it just keeps growing unfortunately, but it's nice to have options, you know? No, no, that is way too many options. Maybe you can't relate at all and you have no story ideas and if that's the case, then you should watch this video that I made a while ago, which is about like how to actually brainstorm a story idea and make something up out of thin air.
So if, if you got nothing that video is for you, but if you do have some blot bunnies, doesn't matter if you have three or 10 or 50 make a comprehensive list or document or folder of documents or a Scrivener project of all your story ideas organized. Don't go reading all your notes for them, especially if you wrote down a ton of like I do because then you'll just get really overwhelmed and not feel like writing anything ever. Just have your story ideas organized and then we're going to begin the process to figure out what story you should write next.
A lot of people will tell you to ask yourself, well, what's the book you want to read? What's the story you want to read? And that's a great question.
Ask yourself when you're brainstorming new book ideas, but when you already have like a whole list, a whole document, whole Scrivener project full of story ideas, it's kind of hard to narrow it down with that question because when someone asks me that question, when I ask myself that question, I'm like, well all of them, I want to read all of them. So now how do I choose? Here's what I discovered after putting a lot of time and thought and energy into this question, I find in my experience what makes me fall in love with a story I'm writing is two things.
It has to be attractive and relatable. Like I did some serious introspecting to figure this out. Why is it that some stories I'm so excited for and I love writing them and I cannot wait to jump back into writing them and I'm so frustrated whenever life or any person interrupts me when I'm writing them and then why is it that other stories, I just don't feel that way about them at all.
In fact, sometimes I procrastinate writing them. The answer I came up with was those two words, attractive and relatable. The more attractive and relatable a story is, the more I want to write it, the less attractive and relatable a story is, the less I want to write it.
Of course, attraction and relate-ability are two totally subjective things. So the first step of this process really is to ask yourself, what attracts me to a story? I'm not just talking about stories you write, I'm also talking about stories you read.
Go to a blank page in your notebook or your document and write at the top what attracts me to a story. Now, just start listing things out. It can be vague, it can be specific, whatever.
Just start giving yourself a clear definition of what attracts you to a story. My list went like this, an attractive or adorable protagonist who I can personally relate to on some level, fun and games, some sense of playfulness in the plot, some heavy, serious stuff, but mostly uplifting stuff. Comedy, even better if the protagonist is the comic relief.
And of course happy endings. So that's my list and yours is probably going to look totally different because everybody is unique. So list out what attracts you to a story, but try not to be too genre specific because if you want to write outside of your usual genre, we're actually gonna use this list of things that attract you to a story to make that other genre you don't usually write more your vibe.
Okay? So after you make the list of what attracts you to a story, it's time to make a list summarizing all of your story ideas. Go to the next page of your notebook or your document and write at the top premises.
Now list all your story ideas, the first, the title, and then underneath that write down the basic overarching premise of the story, preferably in one or two sentences. I felt like that was really confusing. So for example, if I was to write a premise for my debut novel, 100 days of sunlight, it would go something like this.
100 days of sunlight. When 16 year old blogger Tessa temporarily loses her sight in a car accident. Weston, a bilateral baloney amputee reaches into her darkness to show her that there is more than one way to see the beauty in the world and in the process overcomes his own fear of being seen.
It doesn't even have to be as coherent as that. It just has to be something that you understand and if you don't know certain details about your story, like your characters names or how the story ends, that's totally okay. Just write what you do know.
Next list we're going to make is all about themes, so go to your next blank page and write at the top story truths. This is going to be a lot like the list of premises, but even more brief. Basically you're just going to describe the main theme or story truth as I like to call it for each plot bunny.
Now you're probably going to weave multiple themes into this story, but try to just focus on the big idea, the main overarching theme. Again, try to keep it down to one sentence. For example, the main story, truth of 100 days of sunlight is you are not defined by the number of times life knocks you down, but by the number of times you get back up.
So list out all your story, idea titles again and underneath each title, write down in one line that stories main truth. Basically why it matters to you. If you've been here for a minute, you know that this is one of the most important things, probably the most important thing that you can ask yourself about your story.
Why does it matter to me? Okay, so we're not even finished, but by this point you might be getting a little more clarity already as to which stories are the most attractive and relatable to you right now, let's move on to making the final list, which is protagonists. Make a list of all the main characters from each of these stories.
You might have multiple main characters for each story. Basically, if you plan on writing a lot from this character's point of view, add their name to the list. Then underneath each name, write two lines attractive because relatable, because basically you're going to go through this list and write a brief description of what makes each of these characters particularly attractive and relatable to you.
Obviously everyone is going to relate to your characters differently for different reasons, but the purpose of this list is for you as the author, figuring out which story you want to write next. Your protagonist is the most important element of your entire story. You're going to be spending hundreds, thousands of ours inside their head writing their story in their voice, so to make sure you're not going to get bored with them.
You have to figure out what is going to attract you to them and what are you going to find relatable about them. You can keep this super brief. Here's an example of mine again from 100 days of sunlight, Tessa, attractive because she's kind, creative, loving, persevering, outwardly, sarcastic and salty, but in relay she's a total cinnamon role.
Relatable because she's obsessed with order, must be in control, independent, artistic, sensitive and has a hard time letting go of past mistakes. Weston attractive because he's freaking adorable. Also kind, empathetic, great sense of humor, charismatic, spontaneous and positive.
Relatable because he's optimistic, hardworking, sensitive, but doesn't seem like it. Confident but struggles with insecurities of his own. Loves everyone with zero strings attached, so that's what I mean about keeping it super brief and just listing out the characteristics that immediately come to mind.
When you think about this character, if this character was a real person that you were friends with, what would you find attractive about them? What would you find relatable about them? Because those two things put together, create connection and a strong connection.
That is what's going to make you addicted to your own story because you'll love everything about it. You'll love the premise. You'll love the truth.
You'll love the protagonists. You will be in love with your own story. That's the goal here.
I designed this process for me to figure out which story I'm going to fall in love with because yeah, you could write any of them. You could throw a dart at a list of stories on the wall and decide, okay, yeah, that's the one we're going to write and you could muscle your way through it and maybe it would come out fine, but when did you rather write a story that you're in love with? Like a story that you cannot wait to write every single day.
So by this point you should have some awesome lists going. What I want you to do now is go back to the first list you made. What attracts you to a story.
Now compare the items on that first list to the other three lists you just made, which story, premise, truth, and protagonist most closely match that list of ideals you made in the beginning. Boom, that's the story you should write next. You're welcome.
This is a great repeatable process so you can use it every time you're trying to figure out what story you should write next. And if for some weird reason you go through this entire process and you still don't know which story you should write next, let this be the final qualifier. Ask yourself, if I could only write one more story, which one would I write?
If you get really quiet with yourself and ask yourself this question, I promise you your heart will know the answer immediately, but I would recommend going through this whole process first and not just asking yourself that question because we're talking about falling in love with a story, not just writing it out of conviction. Don't get me wrong. Conviction is great, but sometimes the story that you're convicted to write isn't the story that you should write right now.
So you use that as the final qualifier, but not necessarily like the be all end all question. You're going to be spending a lot of time with this story, so you've got to make sure you really love it and you're not just writing it out of a sense of duty. Okay.
Let's recap that whole process. Start to finish, grab all your story ideas and make the following lists. What attracts you to a story?
Reading and writing all your story premises, one sentence each, all your story, truths, one sentence each, all your protagonists and what makes them attractive and relatable. Compare your first list with your other three lists to find which story matches your ideal the best. And when in doubt, ask yourself if I could only write one more story, which one would I write?
Okay, boom. That's it. That's the exact process I use to figure out what story I should write next.
I hope it helps you to narrow down your options as well and figure out which story is the one or at least the next project that you're going to commit yourself to. And once you figure out what story you're going to write, take the next step, check out my outlining series that I recently posted, which will take your one-line premise that you wrote just now for that plot bunny and turn it into a beautiful outline for a riveting novel, complete with an awesome cast of characters and powerful themes. Okay, now it's time for you to talk to me.
Comment below and tell me how do you figure out what story to write next. Do you know what story you're going to write next? And if you went through this process that I shared with you today, tell me how it was.
Smash that like button if you liked this video, and be sure to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because I post writing videos and publishing videos every single Wednesday and I would love to have you here in the community. Also, be sure to check out my Patreon because that's where we go beyond videos and take storytelling to the next level. The Patreon community is not only the best way to support what I'm doing here on YouTube, but it's also the only way to connect one-on-one with me and get better guidance on your stories.
So go to patreon. com/abbeemmons and check out all the awesome exclusive content that I've made for you. Until next week, my friend rock on.
Now, don't get me wrong. Conviction-- Oh, that spider's still alive? He's like slowly crawling across the ceiling.
Yeah, just stay over there! Don't come near me. You're going to be spending--[laughs], for example, the main story truth of 100 Days of Sunlight.
. . [laughs] I don't even know what I'm talking about anymore.
