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Beginning writers often don't know and

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can't tell if they have a story.

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They know that they've got an idea, but

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even once you've got an idea, what do

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you do with it? How do you build it up?

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How do you know if your idea has legs?

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if it's going to go anywhere.

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We're going to talk about that. We're

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going to talk about how you build a

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short story, how you build a novel, how

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you build a plot, how you find out if

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you have an idea or a notion or a

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concept

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or something that actually might be able

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to stand up there on its own two legs as

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a novel.

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I especially during the Sandman years

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would worry and think and obsessively

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ask myself questions about what is the

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story? What is the story? I'm making

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these things. They're how I feed myself.

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They're how I feed my family. They're

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how I pay the rent. What is the story?

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And eventually what I decided was the

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story is anything fictional that keeps

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you turning the pages

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and doesn't leave you feeling cheated at

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the end.

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That was my definition.

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My son Ash is three years old, just

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turned three, and his favorite game is

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to stand next to me on a bed or on a

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large sofa and go, "What's going to

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happen?" And then I have to go, I don't

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know what's going to happen. And then he

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jumps in the air and falls down on the

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sofa. This can go on for weeks if you

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let him. He just thinks the what's going

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to happen game is the best game in the

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world.

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The what's going to happen game

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is the game that you play

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as a writer

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with your readers.

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What's going to happen?

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And that is what keeps them turning the

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pages. Things they don't know, things

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they need to find out, things they care

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about.

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And coming into a story, it can just be

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things like, "Who are these people?

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What are they doing?

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Why should I care? That's a bit odd."

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After a while, it can get a lot deeper.

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It can be, "Is she going to kiss her?

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Is she going to poison her?

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Uh, does she know about the missing

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will?

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Do they know that grandmother's body is

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still in the room upstairs? Um, what's

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going to happen? I wrote an essay

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once, a very small essay in a book

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called Stories,

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and

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it was called Just Four Words.

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It began when somebody wrote into my

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blog,

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"Dear Neil, if you could choose a quote

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either by you or another author to be

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inscribed on the wall of a public

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library children's area, what would it

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be? Thanks, Lynn."

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I pondered for a bit. I'd said a lot

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about books and kids reading over the

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years, and other people had said things

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pathier and wiser than I ever could. And

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then it hit me. And this is what I

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wrote.

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I'm not sure I'd put a quote up if it

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was me and I had a library wall to

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deface. I think I'd just remind people

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of the power of stories, of why they

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exist in the first place. I'd put up the

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four words that anyone telling a story

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wants to hear, the ones that show that

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it's working and that pages will be

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turned.

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And then what happened?

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The four words that children ask when

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you pause telling them a story. The four

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words you hear at the end of a chapter.

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The four words spoken or unspoken that

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show you as a storyteller that people

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care

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and then what happened.

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And those words I think

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are the most important words there are

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for a storyteller.

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So, anything you can do to keep people

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turning the pages is legitimate,

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the main thing that you have to do

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is to care.

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Cuz if you don't care what happened,

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nobody else will. If you don't care

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about these people, nobody else will. If

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it doesn't matter to you

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what happened next,

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nobody else is going to give the

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smallest toss.

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So you need to care

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and you need to imbue that care into

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your writing because then anytime you

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stop, anytime you move from one

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character to another character, anytime

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you move from place to place, anytime

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you hesitate,

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the question is going to be and then

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what happened.

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So

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you are starting a project.

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You are starting from scratch. Whether

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it's a comic, a graphic novel, whether

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it's a novel, whether it's a short

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story, whether it's television, whether

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it's a movie script, you're starting

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something completely new. One of the

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best things that you can do is just sit

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there. I like to do it by hand if I can.

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I will take out a notebook and I will

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write down everything I know. And it's a

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giant brain dump. Um, sometimes there'll

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be little doodles, words will get

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circled. This is not an essay for people

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to read. This is me telling myself

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right up front

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just everything I know. The process of

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writing

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is a really important one because even

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in the process of writing anything

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simple, your mind starts to notice

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connections

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and connections

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are what fiction is made out of.

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So stories begin with ideas

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and the idea can be very very small. It

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can be a feeling. It can be an image.

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It can be something that you it can be

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something your story begins with. It

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could be something your story ends with.

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It could be some moment from the middle.

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It could be two characters interacting.

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Mostly you don't know an entire story or

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I don't know an entire story. I will

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write it to find out what happens but I

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have something going in.

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The question then is

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is that enough to start a story with? Um

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sometimes if it's a beginning

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I have to have a general idea of where

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it's going to go. If it's an end, I need

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to know how we got there.

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Um, I've been writing long enough that I

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have

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a certain amount of faith in myself and

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I simp and and I think faith in yourself

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is something

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that you need because the process of

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writing

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it's wy coyote running along a cliff and

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then still running and he's fine until

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he stops and looks down.

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So, as a writer,

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part of your job is not to stop and look

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down and go, there is nothing underneath

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me because then you will fall. It's it's

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a process of just continuing to run

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toward the place, but you have to know

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where you're running to.

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very often

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something that I'm going to want to know

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before I begin

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is what it's about.

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And I'm probably really not going to

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find that out

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until it's over, until I sit there and

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reread it and I go, "What was this

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about?" But I need to have some kind of

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idea of what it's about going in. and

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and that isn't plot.

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If anything, I I guess you could call it

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theme.

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Um, for me, it's just what is this

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about? I'm going to write Neverware.

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I have an idea

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of people living under London, a world

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under London. I have this idea of

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the idea of a hidden London. The idea of

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giving London place names literal

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meanings. So there really will be

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shepherds in Shepherd's Bush.

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That that's an idea.

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Um what's it about?

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What it has to be about? And this is

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what I thought going into it. And it was

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also wasn't entirely what I discovered

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it had been about at the end, but it was

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what I went in with was just going,

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"Okay, I want this to be about

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the people who fall through the cracks.

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I want to write about homelessness.

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I want to write about the mentally ill.

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I want to write about the people who

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have fallen through the cracks in big

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cities and are living rough.

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on the sidewalks

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who are living as they can.

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Um, and I want to do that

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in a way that anybody reading it is

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going to enjoy it and they will come to

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it unconvinced and not necessarily know

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that that's what it's about.

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Because if I sat down and said, "Right,

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I'm writing a big book about

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homelessness." The only people who would

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pick it up and read it would be people

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interested in a book about homelessness.

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What I want to do here is write a book

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about living in a big city. I want to

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write an adventure,

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but I want to write an adventure which

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when people finish reading that story,

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they're going to look at the homeless.

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They're going to look at the people

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um sleeping in the shop doorways.

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They're going to look at these people

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and they aren't going to pretend they're

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invisible

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because and that for me suddenly

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crystallized the metaphor. I mean in for

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me so much fantasy is about making a

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metaphor concrete.

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What it's about for me is the way that

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we treat the homeless as invisible and

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treat them as non-persons. Good. then

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they are going to essentially be

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invisible. They're going to be

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non-persons.

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How do I build up from that? And I have

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my hero Richard, Richard Mayhew, and he

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encounters a girl from London below,

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from this other London that that exists

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beneath and all around uh London. He

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helps her. He saves her. And in so

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doing, he becomes part of London below

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and discovers that people can no longer

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see him. He goes into his office. They

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don't know who he is. Um, ATMs no longer

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give him money. Taxis won't stop for

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him. He has become an invisible

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unperson. And now he needs to go into

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London below. Um, and the plot needs to

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happen. So, a lot of what I'm doing is

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going, okay, I have an idea. The idea is

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this kind of London above, London below

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thing. The what's it about?

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Then carries me a lot further into it.

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What am I trying to say? What am I

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trying to tell here? Um

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there is an old line that you know if

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you want a message you use Western Union

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and and that may be true but really if

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you're writing something you have to

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have something you want to say it has to

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be about something and it has to be

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about something for you. I'm not saying

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everything needs a giant social message,

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but I am saying you need to know what

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your story is about.

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young writers because young writers are

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peaceable souls. Because young writers

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want to live in a happy place. Because

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young writers have had enough conflict

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in their lives already tend to shy away

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from conflict. And you will read short

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stories by them. Um and you'll go but

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but there that's the place where your

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two characters are meant to bounce and

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meant to collide. This is where the plot

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is meant to get tough. This is where

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things are meant to get difficult for

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people, but they'll avoid it.

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And

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making young writers

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face conflict, making them write

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conflict, making them realize that there

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are so many different ways

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you can solve

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problems of conflict, but you have to

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have the conflict first. You can attack

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something headon. You can go around it.

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You can attack it surreptitiously. You

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can deal it with it with with strength.

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You can deal with it with intelligence.

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You can go into it and you can fail. You

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can go into it and you can succeed. You

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can go into it neither succeed nor fail

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but create an outcome that was

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completely unexpected

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um and sends everything off into a whole

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new direction. You can succeed, but in

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succeeding make things worse. There's

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all of these things that you can do in

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conflict, but you have to allow the

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conflict to happen.

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And that is so much of what a plot is.

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If you're building a story, you have a

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whole bunch of building blocks. You have

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the words and the language. It's going

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to be a huge part.

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Just the voice of the story. What does

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it sound like? What is your narrative

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voice? What do your characters sound

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like? That's huge. The next is the

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characters.

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Who are they? What do they do? What do

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they want?

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I'm going to harp on a lot about what

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characters want. I'm going to harp on

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about what characters want because over

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and over again you'll find when you're

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plotting, when you're putting something

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together, it's the only question that

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opens the door to what do you do next?

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If you get stuck, you can ask yourself

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what your characters want and that is

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like a flashlight. It shines a light on

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the road ahead and lets you move

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forward. Somebody once asked me, they

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said, "I I keep coming up with great

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characters

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and great characters and I know who they

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are and I know what they're doing, but I

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can't make a plot happen." And I said,

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"Great. In which case, just have two of

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your best characters

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and have them figure out what they want

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and have them want things that are

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mutually exclusive

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and then set them off on their quest and

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you know that only one of them can have

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the thing, whatever the thing that they

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want is. If they succeed, the other one

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fails and vice versa. Now, let's get

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them going. That's got to give you

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conflict. It's got to give you a plot.

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And sometimes the what does a character

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want will surprise you. You know, it's

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not just they want the money, they want

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the boy.

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A lot of the time it's they want to

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learn,

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they want to grow up, they want to save

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their friend,

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um they need and and so it's what do you

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want? What do you need? And that as a

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driver is always one stage below the

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mechanics of plotting. And it will save

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your ass over and over as a writer if

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you take that as an important thing. And

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remember

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that characters

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always

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for good or for evil

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get what they need. They do not get what

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they want.