Dialogue

Dialogue is the most important thing in a story next to the actual idea itself.  Dialogue is what moves the story along. A story without dialogue is a bad story.  A story with bad dialogue is also a bad story.  There are several common mistakes people make when writing dialogue.  The first is just having too much. The audience doesn't need a description of everything happening. Don't fill the story with useless talking. Another mistake is a long monologue. When someone is talking too much the audience will get bored.  Using names too much is a mistake in stories and in real life. Nobody wants to constantly hear peoples names. Grammar shortcuts are a way to make the dialogue sound more normal. One of the biggest mistakes is having everyone sound alike.  There are many reasons people sound different from one another so if your characters all sound the same the story will not work.  To avoid this fact check. Where are the characters from? What race or gender are they? Theses are some of the big mistakes that can be made when writing dialogue and should always be avoided.

Creativity

When  trying to figure out how creatively put a story together there is a system in place to help.  The first thing you need to do is get out there and hunt & gather for new and different ideas. When you find your basic idea you need to play with it. Try to get away from the first level creativity and come up with a new and innovative idea.  When you think you have what you want drop it. Let it stew for a while. Don't write anything for a few hours or even for a few days and you might not like what you have written or just realize subtle things you can change.  After a while you'll have that Eureka! moment. This will help you complete the last step of just doing it. Writing the story you finally know you can now write with great ideas.

Story Types

According to Joel Jenkins there are ten different types of stories.  At one time or another we've all heard the ten.
1. Romance- We usually see this as a love story, but can also include love between friends or even animals (not in a bad way).
2. Success/Failure- Someone wins or someone loses.
3. Cinderella- One of my favorites in which someone comes from nowhere to achieve greatness. This is usually a sports story, which is why I like them so much.
4. Conversion- A person starts out one way and acts or believes differently at the end.
5. Sacrifice- Pretty self explanatory.
6. Family- Doesn't have to be blood relation, but a big group of close people that is usually a mixture of several     types.
7. Triangle- Person starts out with one person, goes to the other person and then ends up with the first person.
8. Return- A person comes back in the end.
9. Crime & Punishment- Person commits the crime and then gets caught in the end.
10. Heroic- Also, pretty self explanatory.
Many of these stories can be combined and often are. When the story types are narrowed down to just ten and there are countless numbers of stories in existence it shows how the types can be manipulated and told in different ways.

Building a Story

Every story starts with a hook. Something to really draw in your readers. After you have their attention you introduce the characters if you didn't already in the hook.  Now that you're into the story you have your first act break where the story takes a turn to the dark side.  That is followed by the second act break where the story, again, takes a turn for the worse. This is where you introduce the internal conflict for the characters.  The final act break is next where the external conflict is revealed. Now the story is there and you just have to finish strong.  There has to be a good resolution that is quick. This is your last chance to keep your readers into your story. Throughout the story you have to keep asking what your character's motivation is. Why are they doing what they are doing? Does it make sense?  Keeping a beat sheet is a good way to keep good structure in your story.  It is basically an outline for your story that is separated out by the formula described earlier.

Character Control

While writing a story it's easy to just get in a rhythm and your story can begin to take over.  As a writer you have to keep control of your character by understanding why they are what they are.  Characters are always either active or passive.  Generally, the audience always wants the character to be active.  An active character is one that the audience sees and hopes that that's how they would react in the given situation.  Active characters are the heroes that make things happen.  In order to correctly create a character you need to understand Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs.  This is a five tier list that applies to everyone.  1. Exist- The most basic of needs is the need to exist and is the broadest of building blocks.  2. Security- After you know you are here right now, knowing that you will be here tomorrow and beyond is the second need.  3. Love- With security now in place you are ready for the love of another.  4. Esteem- Now that you have the love of another you would like to have the respect of a larger group of people.  5. Self- With the previous four blocks in place you are able to have a great enough self worth to think about more than just yourself.  When someone is only on the first tier they are much more focused on themselves with little room for other's problems and when they get to the Self step people begin to look outward.

Creating Stories

The number one thing in creating a new and interesting story is to avoid cliches.  Cliches are what they are because they have been overdone.  They don't surprise your audience and lead to a mundane story.  One way to avoid cliches is by coming up with creative characters. There are two types.  The protagonist and the antagonist.  The protagonist drives the story and usually the story is told from their point of view.  The antagonist is there to stop the protagonist.  The two of them aren't working toward the same thing, but on their way to their individual goals they cross each others paths.  This causes friction between the two and creates the story line. Another way to keep characters interesting is to not let them be too much like the audience.  If the audience can identify too much with the character they will get caught up in predicting their behavior and possible tune out the actual story.

Character Profiles

Sports agent- Generally agents are very hard working and relentless.  They have to be extremely persistent and willing to do anything for their clients.  Those qualities are probably what got them into their profession.  They have probably always been driven and outgoing people.

Police officer-  There are two types of people that I believe go into this profession.  The first are by-the-book hard asses that hide behind corners to try to bust people for driving 3 mph over the speed limit.  Those guys probably got made fun of in high school and have been looking for revenge.  The other are nice guys that really do want to protect and serve.  They will let little things go, but make sure to take care of the important things.

Grade school teacher-  These people are usually very caring and gentle people.  They have to like children to be in their profession which also means they have great patients.