Imagine you’re a botanist, and you observe some strange flowers that pop up overnight in an unused corner of a farmer’s field. The next day, you discover that these flowers can harness the power of photosynthesis, turning light into fuel. It’s a stunning discovery! The whole ecosystem seems to have been designed with your discovery in mind: the sun shines through a thin cloud cover, providing just enough light for the plants to thrive, while some pretty impressive tree trunks provide a sense of stability. On what would have been a drab spring day, you experience a spiritual awakening, and you realize that you’ve been given a gift to share with the world.
You can’t share your excitement with those around you, so instead, you describe what you see to a friend on your mobile phone. Let’s call this botanist Josephine; she hears about your discovery, and she decides to pay you a visit, bringing along her field glasses and a sketchpad. You show her the plants, and she marvels at how the whole ecosystem functions. She draws the tree you’ve introduced her to, which she names ‘Josie’ after you, and she makes some notes on her sketchpad. As she’s writing down some rough ideas, another spiritual awakening hits her, and she breaks down in tears. You also cry a little, as you feel that your life has been touched by something greater than yourself, and you give thanks to the universe for revealing these miraculous plants to you.
What do you want to say about your tree that will give it life? How do you want others to feel when they read or hear your message? Perhaps you want to celebrate its ecological importance or you want to stress its role as a powerful symbol of nature’s endless beauty. Your story doesn’t have to end here, as there are so many possibilities, but you need to start somewhere, so here’s where we are: you’ve just witnessed an ecological miracle, and you want to communicate its existence to the world. How do you want others to perceive you, after what you’ve just described to them? How do you want them to feel when they read or hear about your story?
Step one: Choose your starting point
It’s essential to decide where you’re going with this – that is, what you want the reader to know or believe at the end of your story. To return to our example above, you want the reader to feel that they’ve just witnessed a miracle: that is, the birth of a new kind of flower that can change the face of botany forever. You want the reader to feel inspired and thankful, in some ways, for the planet Earth and its capacity to showcase such extraordinary natural phenomena. From here, you can take it upon yourself to introduce the marvels of nature that you encounter on your travels. You don’t need to limit yourself to just one subject matter; you can take inspiration from all around you, and you will not appear clichéd.
Step two: Start a log
The first thing you need to do is to start a log. This is so you can go back and refer to what you’ve written in the future, as you continue to develop your story. It can be very helpful to write down all your ideas, whether they come in the form of a narrative or a collection of poetic images. If you’re using a notebook to make notes, write down all the trees you see and explore how you can turn them into a story. Remember, you’re writing this for yourself, so you’re free to be as creative as you want!
Step three: The forest is a metaphor
The forest is a metaphor. It represents nature, life, and growth; in other words, all the things that we, as humans, believe in and try to understand. It can be helpful to think of the forest as a magical place, where all kinds of creatures live together in harmony. When you’re writing your log, you can explore how the different species interact with each other and how their presence affects the nature around them. What would a troll tell a goblin? What kind of animal would a wyvern befriend? How does the environment of the forest affect the trees’ growth?
Step four: Use concrete, sensory details
It’s important to use concrete, sensory details to bring the reader as close to the experience as possible. With concrete details, you can evoke the scene before your eyes, and you can make the narrative more vivid. It’s like taking a trip to the forest and becoming one with the trees, plants, and animals. You want the reader to feel as though they’ve traveled with you and experienced nature firsthand. Don’t expect that your readers will have the same exact experience as you do; rather, you want them to feel as though they’ve understood your message and have been inspired by it.
As you continue to develop your story, you can return to your log and ask yourself questions about what you’ve written. It can be helpful to look at what worked well and try to develop the narrative further, as well as look at what didn’t work as well and try to understand why. This is a vital step toward becoming a more established writer, as it shows that you’re aware of your weaknesses and try to correct them. The journey itself can be very rewarding, as you continue to discover new things about the trees, plants, and animals around you. You don’t need to be limited by what you’ve written; you can always go back and add more, as long as you keep discovering new things!
Step five: Give it a title
A title is very important, as it will appear at the top of your story when others read or listen to it. It should be something that will draw attention to the story itself, as titles such as ‘The Miracle Tree’ or ‘The Tree of Life’ will do just that. If you’re stuck for ideas, go back to your log and see what you can come up with. You can also ask others for help. Sometimes, a title will suggest the type of story you’re trying to tell; for example, ‘The Wolf and the Kid’ will make your readers think of a fairy tale, while ‘The Painted Beast’ will bring to mind an image of a monster. Be careful not to give away too much information about the plot, as you don’t want to spoil the surprise!
Step six: Create an outline
An outline can be very helpful, as it will help you to determine the structure of your story, and it will help you to keep motivated throughout the process. Some writers find it extremely helpful to write out the entire story in advance, as it creates a sense of structure and direction, and it allows them to see the whole thing from start to finish, in the same way a director will see a film shot from start to finish, whereas a screenwriter might only have to watch a portion of it. Having an outline makes it possible to add new scenes and add or remove characters, as necessary, without completely rewriting everything. It can be very tedious to write out an entire novel from the very beginning, but it can also be incredibly rewarding, as you continue to develop your characters and discover new things about the world around you, while also satisfying yourself with the knowledge that you’ve written a full novel.
Writing a story is challenging enough without having to worry about all the little details that can trip you up, as they might for a very inexperienced writer. Even with careful planning and forethought, things can still go wrong, as you might realize when you’re halfway through, and you have to start all over again, as there are so many details that can go wrong, it’s easy to lose sight of the big picture. That’s why it’s important to use a notebook to jot down everything you come up with; it can be very tricky to remember everything that happened, especially when you’ve been under a lot of pressure, and you might forget crucial details, as you didn’t have a chance to write them down, in the first place. Even the most experienced of writers can end up going through several drafts, as they discover new things about the story and change their minds about certain aspects, as they go along.
Step seven: Flesh it out
Flesh out means to fill in the details of a story, making it more real. The forest is a good example of how flesh out can be used to create more reality, as you’ve got animals walking around, providing you with a sense that the forest is inhabited. When you flesh out a story, you should do so gradually and consistently, as you don’t want to overload your readers by talking about something that might not be relevant to their experience. This is why it can be helpful to write down all the details of what you’ve observed, but you shouldn’t give too much information away, as you don’t want to spoil the surprise!