Welcome back to my blog. This is the second set of the six steps in story development. If you haven’t read the first three steps, you can do that here at yesterday’s post called “I have an idea for a story now what?”

I figured out these six steps when I came across a TEDtalk about idea development. Idea development and story idea development are really the same thing almost. Of course ideas can take other forms, but for us, we are talking about writing stories.

You simply have to ask questions like what if? do some research, let the idea rest and grow, and then you will come to what is the next step.

The fourth step of story development is what I like to call the AHA moment. This is when the idea has pretty much taken all of its forms, and you are really comfortable with it. This time the idea has percoloated and is really ready to be poured into its final form.

At this stage of story development, you are writing the story. You can revert back to step three for a little while, you may even reach all the way back to step two. But you are actively in the process of putting your creation onto a compuer screen or paper

The fifth step is one many of us are on even now. It is what I call the practice step. Here we are in the process of editing our work. This ball of clay is now taking a specific form and we are fine-tuning it. Like a pianist playing a well-practiced tune, we continue to refine and make it better.

At this next to last step, we can freely eliminate anything that doesn’t fit into the picture of what we are writing. If this scene or that chapter isn’t working, now we can delete, edit, elucidate, and polish.

Finally, in the last sixth step, we are ready for what I call the performance step. Here, you have done all you can with the story, and it is ready for someone to read. It may only be your mother, your spouse, or your friend, but now is the time to send that baby into the world.

At this stage of story development, we usually have a good handle on the story, the characters, and the plot. We can accept suggestions for making it better, for ways to take it even onto a more glittering stage – publication.

That’s about all I can think of about story development. I hope it helped you!

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