How I Create a Story

Everyone has their own unique way of telling a story. How you tell it speaks a lot about who you are. I had a difficult time trying to figure out my own way. I had grown up reading Sidney Sheldon and his work was so completely engrossing, I’d be inspired by every page I read. His pattern was unique and his work was beautifully crafted. Everything he wrote was different. He was extremely gifted and I wanted to be just like him.

Trying to figure out my own pattern proved challenging because I wanted to tell a story in the same intriguing manner. I’d write and write and write again but every pattern I utilized was not satisfying.

I realized, later on, I was trying to be like other writers instead of being myself. So I stopped trying so hard and decided to write for myself until I was comfortable enough to let someone else read my work. It wasn’t easy letting go, letting someone else see such a deep part of myself. But I did it and once I did, the rest was easy. I had the stories, telling them was the challenging part.

People ask how can you sit down and write over two hundred pages. I tell them the same way someone else writes seven hundred pages. As long as the story flows inside you, nothing can stop it. It fights to get out. It keeps you awake at night. It won’t let you do or think about anything else. Every part of you lives and breathes that story, you become those people, you feel what they feel and they become part of your life from the moment you write the first page to the moment you write the last.