This is what I like about it:

• Provides worksheets
• Worksheets help me set goals
• Helps me build a story by focusing on the overview and progressing towards the finer details
• The Website KarenWiesner.com provides supplemental materials to the book

I am still working on writing a novel but I have used the knowledge gained from this book to write some short stories. I did this to become familiar with the guidance of the book.

Anyway, I have found this book useful and I wanted to put in a good word for it for any wannabe writers, like myself, that need some help on putting a good story together.

It has been said before and I shall say it again, “That is an excellent question.”

Since the dawn of the Internet with millions of people taking advantage of the freedom to broadcast their writings online, it is true that originality is lacking.

When I write, I know that my ideas are not original. Almost every story has been written before.

So why write?

I write because it is perspective that makes a story original. Each person has a unique personality that adds uniqueness to a story.

The phrase “We see the world as we are, not as it is” is a great human truth.

The fuel for writing is out there but the fuel has been used several times. The fire, however, is the individual personality of the writer that adds the spark of originality to the fuel.

What does that mean?

Right now, as I type this rough draft for a blog, I am sitting outside typing ideas into my laptop. I am drinking my morning cup of coffee with a splash of Splenda for sweetness, when I notice the young blonde lady across the street coming outside. She walks towards her car. Evidently, she is going to work.

She notices me staring and gives a friendly wave. I wave back. Then I refocus my attention to my notes on the laptop, realizing that she will probably tell her husband later that the weird guy across the street was staring at her again.

Anyway, that was the event. That was the fuel for a story. I think about “what if”. What if this lady and her husband are serial killers who have changed their identities to escape the authorities.

And no I don’t think about “what if” in a pornographic sense because I don’t write pornographic material. I only watch it. Sometimes. Not a lot. Accidently, I have seen pornos. Moving on.

I decide that the hero of my story just happens to be outside surfing the Internet on his laptop when he comes across a story posted on Google News about a Serial Killer Couple still at large. The pictures of the female and male look similar to the people that live across the street. As the hero looks at the picture of the female in the news photo, the female across the street steps outside, waves, gets in car, and drives off to work.

My imagination generates a scenario that is similar to the scenario in dozens of movies, stories, and television shows, which is, “An innocent person recognizes a criminal from a news photo.” That story element is not original.

So why write it again?

I write it again because my version of that story element will be different from all of the other scenarios before it. I will have my unique perspective of that scenario.

I add my personality to the scenario by having the event take place in Tulsa, Oklahoma because that is what I know. The hero is either a Web Developer that works from home because that is what I know or he is a recently laid off employee because that is also what I know. There will also be other unique elements to my story because of who I am and what I have experienced.

Therefore, the incident of a person recognizing criminals from a news photo is not an original idea. But the details I add to that incident make my story original. No one else is going to write about that incident the same way I would. My sense of humor, my hopes, my fears, and my life experiences blended together create a unique perspective of the world.

My final note is to acknowledge that the theme I discussed in this blog post are not original. I have advocated the primary principle every instructor in every creative writing class advocates: Write what you know.

She is an accomplished author who has written over sixty books and has won several writing awards. My goal is to write my first novel within the next few years. I have been writing flash fiction and short stories for a couple of years now. I write flash fiction and short stories to improve my skills in preparation for writing the novel.

Some good news for me is that I have been asked by a local newspaper for an interview regarding my recent short story A Creature in Keetonville. The interview will not be for another week but it is exciting that my short story has caught some attention.

Anyway, what I wish to discuss in this post is my process of story planning. The process I go through begins before the planning stage. Before I plan a story I like to get know my characters and the basic events of the story. I call this stage the Brainstorm Stage, which is really a pre-planning stage.

I use 3×5 index cards. I start with the protagonist and write his or her name and a brief description on a card. Then I decide on an antagonist and write his or her name and a brief description on a card. I write down the catalyst, which is the event that sets the protagonist on a collision course with the antagonist.

Then I just brainstorm and start writing events down on the cards. I usually put a title of the event, description of the event, and the date. For example a murder mystery story I am working on I have a card labeled as: (title) Mr. Hogan Found Dead, (description) Personal Assistant Ms. Jenkins finds body of her boss at his home in the den, and  (date) 2/10/2009.

The date is for my own tracking purpose, which is a habit I developed as a Web Developer of placing dates on CD backups of Websites. The date has nothing to do with the date of that an event occurs just the date I wrote on the card. Anyway, I write events on the index cards and I do not worry about transition events or the story making any kind of sense. I just write stuff down.

My planning stage was different than what Karen S. Wiesner describes in her article but I will probably start using the method she describes. I do outline my stories after I have written on several index cards.

The index card process helps me get a clear picture of the characters, the events and the overall story. I often end up trashing several index cards when I start reviewing the cards and I often add new cards with new events to start the process of molding the story together in a logical flow of events.

So there is my advice for what it is worth. Think of a story. Write down events of the story on index cards and then use the Story Plan Checklist.