The steps in my creative writing process haven’t changed in the many years I’ve been writing. I first ran across it in a magazine and I’ve stuck with it because it works for me.
Number ‘4’ in the list becomes the first scene. Number ‘5’ becomes the last scene. Fill in between numbers ‘4’ and ‘5’ with as many additional scenes as needed to tell the story of how the main characters went from starting to deal with a problem to solving it.
- Describe a main character in one or two sentences.
- Describe a second main character in one or two sentences.
- Describe the problem that the story will focus on in one sentence.
- Describe in one sentence where/when/how the main character must start dealing with the problem.
- Describe in one sentence how the problem will be resolved.
