So, you've got your idea. What's the next step?

PLAN. PLAN. PLAN. AND MORE PLANNING.

This step is really close to my heart because I always end up discontinuing a story when I don't plan it out.

You know when you're really excited for something and after a while, the excitement fades away and you have no idea why you were even excited in the first place? That's how I feel every time I don't plan a story out.

Especially if you're new to writing, I assure you that planning will make life so much easier.

So, what do I mean by planning?

I mean, decide what will happen in your story, in the beginning, middle, and end.

You must decide what will be the problem, how will your characters go about fixing the problem, and what happens once the problem is fixed.

Generally, in every story, there is always some kind of conflict. It can be a conflict with oneself, it can be conflict with another person, conflict with the outside world, conflict with technology and so forth.

Part of what makes a story a story is the fact that at least one of your characters will change or grow from overcoming aforementioned conflict.

Keeping that in mind, let's make a short little story, shall we?

My story is going to be about the football star falling in love with the nerd.

In the beginning, they'll probably hate each other. Somewhere in the middle, they'll realize their feelings for each other. At the end, they'll end up together.

Even doing that can go a long way. You don't have to plan every single detail! As long as you do something that shows you've put some thought into it, you'll be okay.

Okay, now moving on. What's my conflict in the story?

Hmm, well let's say Mr. Jock cares a lot about his image and falling in love with a nerdy girl would be uncool. So it causes him to degrade her in public.

Here, Mr. Jock will have constant battles with himself over whether he should be cool and ignore the love of his life, or give everyone the middle finger and sweep her off her feet. (Hey, that's conflict!)

Say he chooses to put his image before the girl. Now Ms. Nerd will be very upset that he doesn't show his true feelings in public. She might even ignore his text messages. (Would you look at that. More conflict!)

These types of conflict are what make a story worth reading. If everything was perfect and happy all the time, then it'd be boring!

When planning some of the details to your plot, always consider potential conflicts your characters will face. What challenges will they overcome? What setbacks will anger them? How will these events affect their character??

Which will bring me to my next point: characterization.