3.5 Methods to Craft Great Fiction

“Begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop.”
— Lewis Carroll
Stories. Our favorite form of communication. Human beings are not just storytellers, though, we are natural born story-makers. Don’t believe me? Talk to any child and tell me they don’t have the gift of creating. Why then do so many adults struggle with how to create a story when the time comes to begin writing?
The skill of creating isn’t learned, it is unlearned. As children, we are told to get our heads out of the clouds, not to let our imagination get out of control. For most of us, this training works, and we find ourselves as rational, unimaginative adults. Imagination shouldn’t only be for the young.
Below are 3 (and a half) methods to begin your story, the advantages of each, and when they might prove useful. Depending on your proclivities for control, you likely already adhere to one of the three techniques below. Some people struggle with how to structure a story, with where (and when) to start filling those blank pages. Perhaps you’ve started a new type of writing project and your old technique isn’t working as well. Maybe you aren’t having any problems but are just curious about how others work on the process. Learning about other styles will give you some insight into what works and what doesn’t work for you.

The Lock & Chain Method
The Lock & Chain Method (LCM) is the most premeditated of the three techniques. Practitioners of this method plan out, often in excruciating detail, the beginning, middle, and end of their story before they begin writing, locking the plot line into place. This involves some serious note-taking and outlining as you work through the entire story arc before writing a single chapter. Once you begin typing the first draft, you aren’t creating the story out of thin air but describing the story that already exists in your head.
The Good
Using this style can help relieve the anxiety caused by all of those blank pages. There’s a security in knowing where your story is headed. You will also have the opportunity to examine the theme of your work and tailor your story to emphasize it.
This method can save you from rewrites. With the other techniques below, you might learn something new about your characters or plot halfway into writing. You won’t have that issue with LCM. This is a lifesaver if you are writing a 200+ page novel. Hit a surprise roadblock at page 150 and you’ll break out in cold sweats; realize that you need to rewrite the last 50 pages to fix the problem and you’ll be pulling one of these…

Complicated plots and long stories benefit from the Lock & Chain Method. This is also the “safest” way to write a story if your definition of “safe” is to minimize your chances of getting stuck on a bad case of writer’s block halfway through.
The Bad
This method does have it’s downsides, though. A ton of work is required before you actually start putting pen to paper, and there are a few dangers in that. Giving up on a 150 page project when you’ve completed the first 50 pages is hard. Giving up on it when all you have are notes is quite a bit easier. Delaying the process of writing can reduce your drive to finish and serve as a distraction from the real work at hand.
Despite your planning, you’ll often find that your characters will evolve as you tell your story, transforming as you learn about what makes them tick. This is good; you’re understanding who they really are, not just the preconceived role you made for them. This isn’t so good if you’ve spent two months planning exactly how the story would take place, because now you’re in danger of committing a serious writing blasphemy:
Making the characters do what you want instead of what they want.
What do you do if you realize your climactic betrayal doesn’t fit your main character anymore? You have two options, and you won’t like either.
1— Keep your story. Force the character to do what you had planned for them. This is the most basic ingredient for bad storytelling.
2 — Let the character be themselves… which means your mammoth plot outline has just been revoked and your story just wriggled out of your hands.
This method might be right if:
Your characters are already developed. Maybe you’ve used these same characters in the past, are basing them off of people you know, or are borrowing from established canon.
You trust yourself to follow through and finish your work, come hell or high water. Most new writers underestimate the value of getting started and overestimate their ability to stick to a project. What appears to be extensive planning can be a deceptive form of procrastination.
You need to express a specific theme, principle, or moral.

The Director Method
Take the LCM, dial back the need to control, and you’ve discovered the Director Method. Directors will have a detailed beginning laid out but only a vague idea of how the story will progress and end. Outlining is still used, but not nearly as detailed as with the LCM. With this method, you set the stage and envision where the story will go, but you give some of the control back to the characters. The story won’t necessarily evolve as you imagined, but that’s OK.
The Good
With this method, you can preserve some of the safety of knowing where you are going while avoiding the danger of forcing your characters to follow a prescribed path. True, you won’t have everything spelled out. You will find yourself pausing (perhaps for extended periods of time) to figure out what happens next, but your story will feel more natural because this mirrors life. We know the present and we have a direction, but where that takes us can require some pondering.
The risk of wasting time outlining is still present, but the amount of time is drastically reduced. Getting started writing sooner means committing yourself to the project faster, and that reduces the odds that you’ll give up.
You’ll be able to consider the big picture and steer the story in your chosen direction, but because you haven’t made the extensive commitment to planning that the LCM requires, you will be able to make changes and course corrections. At Smug Savant, this method is our bread and butter because our stories respond to each reader. Our readers control the story, not us, but we still need some control over what happens next.
The Bad
The blank pages that allow your characters room to fly and grow can be your obstacle to overcome. Often, turning points and major scenes in your story will take longer with this method. You will need to think ahead (since you haven’t plotted the rest of the story out) and reexamine your characters/world to determine what direction to take.
This method is the middle way. Splitting the difference means the Director Method has minimized versions of the problems of both the LCM and the Sandbox Method (see below). Outlining, rewriting, mid-project brainstorming, mental roadblocks. Each of these pop up in the Director Method, just not to same magnitude as in the other methods.
This method might be right if:
You’re a first time writer. If this is your first major project, the Director Method will get you started ASAP. Procrastination is the enemy, and action begets action. Getting your first few pages down will give you momentum!
You aren’t committed to a specific ending. Your story will change as you write.
You don’t have the patience required for LCM but still need to direct the story towards a particular theme or ending.

VARIANT : The Archaeologist Method
Similar to the Director Method, the Archaeologist Method utilizes the same principle (set the stage and guide the action), but in reverse. Rather than detailing the beginning of the story, the Archaeologist starts with a detailed ending and a rough vision for how the story started.
This is most used by mystery writers, but is valuable for any writer with a very specific or complex ending in mind. By setting this finale in stone immediately, you can ensure that the events leading up to it correspond appropriately.
When you read a story in which countless byzantine plots all tie themselves up in one succinct conclusion, chances are the writer used this method.

The Sandbox Method
If you classify yourself as a control freak, this method isn’t for you. In the Sandbox Method, you place some characters in a situation, step back, and watch what they do. Your job as writer (according to this technique) isn’t to figure out what an amazing ending would be or to come up with a surprising twist. It’s just to create genuine people, plop them into an interesting predicament, and describe what happens while they try to get out. The story develops organically.
To begin your story, you will need to have a deep understanding of who your characters are, what drives them, and the world they live in. Character studies and doing some detailed world building can be especially useful.
The Good
Dropping your characters into a sandbox and watching them play will produce realistic stories, that much is for sure. LCM stories can feel contrived and planned, while Sandbox stories naturally feel more genuine. Each chapter or scene is derived from you asking, “What would these characters do in this situation?”. There isn’t any room for you to plan juxtaposition, irony, or romance.
You’re not in control anymore.
While the Archaeologist Method works well for mystery writers, the Sandbox Method is an excellent option if you plan on surprising your audience. If you don’t know what is going to happen next, chances are your readers won’t either.
What other benefits are there? Once you have a solid vision of who your characters are and what the situation is, the story is self perpetuating. It is also great for unique mediums where the readers take part in the action like improvisational theater or tabletop gaming.
The Bad
If you find yourself struggling when your story comes to an impasse, you will hate this method. You’re going to spend a ton of time climbing inside your characters’ heads and looking around. If it takes you a while to do this, this method will drag your writing pace down to glacial crawl.
The lack of structure isn’t for everyone either; some authors can’t stand to give over control.
Writers who aim for their work to demonstrate a certain moral or principle would do well to avoid this method as well. Once you give up control of your story, there’s no predicting where it will end. What you might have envisioned as a passionate love story might devolve into a novel about icy revenge. Both are good stories, but if you’re aiming for a certain destination, you might want to keep your hands on the wheel.
This method might be right if:
You’re good at getting into the minds of your characters. You’ll need this skill to keep the story moving along with this method.
You aim to create a story that is as real to life as possible.
You believe that the journey is the point, not the destination.

Conclusion
There isn’t a right method or a best method, only a right method for you and a best method for what you’re working on. Slip on whichever feels best. If you’ve always followed the same routine, trying out a different style may help you discover that you can be more creative or efficient than you thought. Even if you try something new and find yourself returning to your old ways, the venture into new territory will allow you some introspection on how you approach your craft.
Did one of these methods call out to you, or maybe just fit with the project you’ve been planning on starting? If so, try it out and let me know how the results go on Facebook, Twitter, or email me personally at smugsavant@gmail.com.

