Where To Begin...

I have met quite a number of people, the majority of which are around my age, who tell me, "I am writing a story."

There are several reasons I have discovered these people want to write a story.
1. They want to validate their idea(s). This individual is very enthusiastic in their response.  You ask, "what have you been up to lately?" And their response is: "I'M WRITING A STORY DO YOU WANT TO READ IT I HAVE THE FIRST ROUGH DRAFT HERE WITH ME RIGHT NOW YOU REALLY SHOULD READ IT THERE IS THIS ONE REALLY GREAT PART..." Ad infinitum...They have an entire world tucked inside of their minds just waiting to come out. At the first sign of interest, they charge full-speed ahead. If you ask this type of individual about their writing, be prepared to spend a couple of hours in a heated discussion over which villain best fits their plot. I hope your friendship is strong enough to survive and, dare I say? thrive on such an encounter.

2. They want some sort of purpose in their lives. I often hear the phrase, "I want to be a writer," and I have to wonder how many actually want to be writers, how many will actually become writers, and how many are flailing for purpose in what they see as a purposeless life. Writing is difficult. It takes a lot of hard work, perseverance, and quite a bit of raw talent. I do not think that simply having an idea, a structure, and/or a college degree automatically turns someone into a writer. If the talent is not there then all that is produced are dry, formulaic, sterile narratives that have very little nuance or depth to them. I do not, by asserting this, claim to have any such talent. I am merely speaking from my limited exposure to literature. If you do not have a good idea of what raw talent looks like, read Tolstoy, read Dostoevsky, read Gaskell, read Austen, read Lewis, read Chesterton, read, read, read. Pretty soon you will be able to distinguish between those authors who clumsily threw words together on a page and those who truly were writers.
What does this have to do with looking for meaning? Well... Writing can't be an excuse for doing nothing. And who's to say that "nothing" is nothing? Don't feel like you have to justify your existence by claiming you're a writer simply because you've jotted down a few ideas into a notebook you hope someday may possibly be published. If you finish it, that is.
Take pride in what you do and don't worry about what others think. And if you want to lay claim to being a writer, then do so. But realize that, when you do, you are striving to be like a Chesterton, like a Lewis, like a Tolstoy. Writing is not easy, light or fluffy, done merely for entertainment or enjoyment. It can be all of those things, but to truly write is to step into the great halls of literature and lay hold of a legacy that spans all of time and history. Do not use the title "Writer" until you fully understand the weight the word carries.
For those of you who struggle and work, and see your own smallness next to these great names: take heart. A good tale is like a good wine: it must age. Your experience, age, and exposure to literature will all help this aging process. Do not try to rush the process with formulas, or by skipping steps in the story development. Such carelessness will only serve to hurt you in the long run.

3. They love it, and they want you to love it too. Those who truly know the sacrifice and the struggle of writing, know the immense joy and satisfaction that comes with nailing it. Whether it is the triumph of reaching the climax, pleasure in weaving the characters' stories together, or the relief that comes with finally figuring out the beginning and the ending of the story (the most difficult parts), each of these moments eclipses the weeks of writer's block and the frustration of an impassible plot-twist. Every writer knows this.
What a true writer loves the most about their stories, however, are their characters. Creating a realistic, relatable, complex character is difficult. It is an even greater struggle to grow and develop them throughout a story. It is so much simpler to insert 2-dimensional, disposable characters to hurry the plot along. DO THIS ONLY WHEN ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY. Every character, no matter how little page-time they have, should be unique. If they are innocent bystanders who do not interact with anyone in the story, then make them as many 2-dimensional  as you want. But if they interact at all with the main character, they should at least have some kind of personality. How you describe a character is key when doing this. Using phrases such as, "sharp eyes that twinkled from under heavy, dark brows", or "a mouth heavy with disdain," "a face disposed to being unhappy"... You get the idea.
Remember that, although each character is a part of yourself, each character does not have to be like you. This is where extensive reading (and reading taste) is vital. Every character cannot respond like every other character in your story. If you have several months' time on your hand, read Dostoevsky or Dickens. Their characters are multi-faceted and unique. Dostoevsky in particular knows how to delve into the human mind and heart like no other author I have read.
So read, read, read.
Also, learn to study the people around you. Watch how they react to certain situations. Listen to their phraseology, the words they use the most frequently. Use them as catalysts for characters.
The more you understand people the more you will understand how to create people. So spend time with people.


A good deal of humility and perfectionism comes with the struggle to be a writer. A true writer never thinks he has arrived, is constantly learning, and constantly critiquing his own work. He is always searching for that perfect phrase, that description that will fully encapsulate all that he wishes to describe. He has never completely discovered every phrase, but he rejoices each time he does.
A writer reads critically. He never sits back and passively absorbs what is in front of him. Rather, his mind is constantly slicing, delving into the hidden message of the book in front of him. He is actively probing to discover the underlying worldview, the essence of the author behind the ink. He is constantly comparing the author's work to that of others he knows. If it is particularly shoddy piece of work, he will easily predict the ending and a good deal of the plot in between.
If he is a good author he will never presume that he could do better. Unless it is a particularly poor piece of trash. And then he knows that he can and sets out to do just that.