This is something I am really learning just now, and honestly, it’s a bit of a revelation. I’m finishing up my second short story and the whole process is completely not what I would have expected. In fact, it’s making me rethink my whole approach to creating.
I literally started spontaneously with one sentence, and the whole thing just grew organically from there.
After the first sentence, I came up with a title, but I had no idea what it meant. Then I came up with a name, and I still had no idea what was happening, but now I had a character with a name. And then I just started writing, letting this character talk, and boom – he was alive!
I quickly realized who he was, and the whole thing just started to come together. It has been fun letting the story reveal itself to me, and that’s what I wanted to make note of here.
If I thought about it, I couldn’t do it. Instead, I just start and let the thing tell me where it wants to go.
Think about that.