Creating the Perfect Story

‘Large oak trees covered the autumn road. Their leaves danced across the ground. Swirls of gold, orange, red, and brown covered the earth like the jumbled thoughts of a bemused painter. The road was peaceful and winding. Leaves rolling across the asphalt made it sound as though it were flowing, like a dry river. A torrent of the harmonic leaves followed the car as it sped down the sheltered path. The tires glided down the road generating a raging rapid as it took him to his liberation.

Unrelenting, the haunting memories of his life would not relinquish their ghoulish hold. He could see the faces of those he loved in the spaces between the oak trees. April looked out the window at the falling leaves, oblivious to the visages her father saw. Her innocent mind was on the memory of her mother and her last words to her.’

Creating a character that is both understandable and complex is very complicated. I’ve found that to make the character affable to the reader, the character needs to be a sympathetic one. By which I mean the reader needs to associate themselves to the character or sympathetic to their plight. If the reader doesn’t find an emotional connection to a character the story has less of an effect. A reader needs to feel for a character and the situation they’re in.

If you were to read a story where the character and the plot are completely superficial you would find it dull and unappealing. But, add history, along with a little mystery, to the character and they become more of a real person and someone you can relate to. When the plot becomes convoluted and more intricate it also becomes more interesting. However, there are also limits. If things become too complex and too intricate the story can become unpleasant and will turn the reader away.

As you can see it is very difficult to create a great story. Everything has defined lines, but blurred edges. You can push the limits of course. A story has to be different. There are millions of books published in the world. If your story sounds like all of the others it will be lost.

So as you can see creating a story is very difficult. It has been a process to create this story. Trying to find my style and create something that will be appealing in today’s market has been a challenge. But, I really think I have succeeded with this story. Hopefully the end product will be as I have envisioned it and will be successful.

Difficulty in Dialogue

'It looked like an open hand. There were no more leaves on its branches. It was the only tree that did not have any life to it. Bleak and cold, it seemed to have given up on its life a long time ago, but was too stubborn to leave. That is where the road began.'

Although the story has not progressed as fast as I had hoped I am making steady work of it. It has also been better writing than I had thought my first draft would be. There are numerous places where I know that I am going to almost completely rewrite an entire section (possibly chapter).

I have found that dialogue is the hardest portion most of the time. Making a believable and natural string of dialogue that sounds good and is not choppy is very difficult. Also, trying to convey a characters personality is at times complicated. As I continue to write the story it becomes increasingly easier however. The interactions between some characters has been quite easy, whereas the more complex characters seem difficult, which is not at all unexpected.

The book contains sixteen chapters (initially it was only going to contain fifteen) and each chapter will have a minimum of fifteen pages. I have divided the writing process into four sections, of four chapters each, to help make the process a little smoother. I am nearly finished with the first section. Currently, I am on page five of the fourth chapter.

The first section was the hardest to write. Since I didn't know my characters personally yet it was hard to determine how they would interact with one another or react to a situation. I knew some of their habits, but not the more intimate details. Now that I know more about their interactions I think the next section will go faster. The next section is also where the action picks up and the book starts to become intense.