Write now!!!

Before you write, you must decide to write.  Writing requires a commitment for finish what you start and to start!  It's like exercise, the hardest part is starting, once you begin, you love it, you see progress, you get excited, and your dreams is manifesting before your eyes!

Like going on a hike, you need a path to follow.  To begin your writing journey, you need to know what form you want.  Is it a short story, a novella, a novel, a series, a script?  There are various forms and shapes your story can take.

It helps to have a sounding board to help you organize your thoughts and your direction.  What genre is your story: suspense, love story, drama, personal experience, etc.  Is it a blended genre: romance, adventure, and mystery?

What is your point of view?  Who tells your story?  Is your story set in modern day, does it take place in the past and move forward?  Where does the story take place?  What is the mood and tone of the story?  What do you want your reader to feel or think.  What about the movements?  Is it fast paced or slow moving?

You need a protagonist, and antagonist, and helpers and villains.  How will your story be told? Through a narrator first person "I?"  Does the narrator tell the thoughts and feelings of one main character, all characters, or no thoughts and feelings, only the events..  Characters must be unique - each one has his or her "signature" trait.  Character Arc: how do you characters grow or decline?

What structure will you use.  Short and fast chapters?  Stream of consciousness, past, present, and future?  Will your chapters have sub-chapters?  Will there be flashbacks, flash forwards?

The journey itself.  What happens to set the story in motion?  What are the incidents along the that happen to the main characters to  create conflict, obstacles to resolution, and more complication.  What is the climax to the story, the peak where all elements come together and its do or die.  Success or failures.  What is the outcome of that climax; what happens next.  How is the story resolved?  The audience needs closure.

As a narrator, show don't tell.  Create vivid pictures for the reader.  When characters speak, they must sound realistic.  Do they have accents?  Do they repeat phrases? Are they poetic or plain?  Three main ways  we understand a character:  what he'/she says about him or herself.  What other's say about them, and what they do.  A villain can be lovable and a hero can be unlikable.

Do not write a theme.  But you need a theme.  A Theme is what the reader learns, the lesson taught.  What is the moral to the story.  If you write well, develop good characters,  have a solid plot, the them will come about naturally.  If you try to write a theme, it may come out as preachy and lecturing.  Let it happen naturally.

In today's world, it is easier than ever to get Published.  You no long have to wait for permission from publishers.  Amazon will b=publish you for free, and it owns 75% of the Ebook market.  You can even have your book printers and turned into an audio book.  I can help you from step one (writing it) to the conclusion (publishing it).  The time is WRITE NOW!

I have a master's in English Literature, spent 20 years teaching college students at East LA College, The University of West Florida,  Pensacola State College and several other colleges.  I taught everything: Scriptwriting, Creative Wrting, Critical Thinking, Writing a Personal Story, and more.  Prior to being a Professor, I was in showbiz in Hollywood, CA. for nearly 40 years.  Currently I write and produced-mostly documentaries ,and I help others write their  stories.