I use story notebooks for my writing. Not all writers do this; it's really a matter of preference. Stephen King does not use them. Terry Brooks does, or used to. Both are great writers. I have written both ways, writing a story from a story notebook and writing a story as it occurs to me. I prefer to use notebooks because it helps me work out the book before I write it and I don't forget the ideas I have.
Stephen King once told an audience "not to use notebooks for story ideas. He said the stuff that's worth writing stays in your head" ("Stephen" np). I like this advice, but I have too many stories in my head that I want to remember, so I use notebooks. Sorry, Stephen, I'm just not the master you are. Not yet at least.
After this I write down the story idea. I give the basic idea for the plot of the story, where the idea came from, stuff like that. Pretty general information to begin with.
Finally, I sit down and outline the book. I sit down and decide what will happen in chapter one, then move on to chapter two, etc. Sometimes, actually fairly often, I come up with the end of the book before the middle. I write this down somewhere and then work it in later. The great thing about computers is you can move things around, insert things here and there, and then look at it and it is all in the order you want it to be. You know what I mean?
All of my notebooks follow the same format. I decided on the format; it works for me. You have to experiment and find what works for you. I begin with a title at the top of the page on the left margin. This is not always the final title, it changes. Some titles are generic at first; they look something like this:
Notebook: Android Story
Then later, once I've decided on the title I want I replace it and it becomes something like this:
Notebook: The Android Soul
On the right side of the page, across from the title I put the date I started the notebook. There's no real reason for this other than to show me how long ago I came up with the idea.
Next, I like to get to know my characters, at least the protagonist and major important characters. You need to know who these people are; if they do not become like real people to you, they won't feel real to your readers. If the story takes place in another land, country, world or whatever, I like to get to know that place as well. Again, I want to know it like a real place I could visit.
Sometimes I start writing the story before I finish the notebook and that is okay. I just get too anxious to start writing the actual story, so I write. Then when I get to the point I have not outlined, I outline some more of the book and then write it.
One thing about notebooking is you have to remember that the outline is not set in stone. Sometimes things happen in the course of writing, new ideas occur, that make the story even better. This may require you to go back and change the outline to fit in with the new idea and that is okay. For example, when I originally started writing The Woods of Arreth, Kyra found the bow and Caleb the sword (if you do not know what I am talking about, you will just have to go pick up the book. You can get it on Kindle, Nook, or trade paperback. See the links below). But as I was writing the story, it just worked better to have Kyra use her father's sword and Caleb the bow. It led to a lot of rewriting, but in the end served the story better.
Sometimes these changes occur during the outline process and sometime during the actual writing, and that is okay. Sometimes the finished product looks a lot different from what you started out with and that works too. The notebook is there to help you get your ideas down, work out the details and organize everything, but mostly to help you remember what it is you wanted to say. If none of this makes sense it is because I did not outline it first. I just sat down and wrote.
Now, stop reading and go write something!
Work Cited
"Stephen King Offers Writing Tips to Mass. Students - CBS News." CBS News - Breaking
News, U.S., World, Business, Entertainment & Video. N.p., 7 Dec. 2012. Web. 8 Aug. 2015.
Links to buy my books:
http://www.amazon.com/Woods-Arreth-M-C-Woodruff-ebook/dp/B00UQKESLQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1439050030&sr=8-1&keywords=The+woods+of+Arreth
http://www.amazon.com/Dwarves-Ancor-Book-Woods-Arreth/dp/1630842176/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1439050030&sr=8-2&keywords=The+woods+of+Arreth
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/the+woods+of+arreth?fs=0&_requestid=216676m
