What comes first on a new story of yours?

[HourglassMemory]

The theme or the story?
What I mean by this is if what you get in your head first is images and scenes from what you immediately transform into a potential story...or do you start with "A story about growing up" or "Love sees no boundaries".
I seem to always start my stories with images and only later do I start to understand what the story is about.
I seemed to write my main story as a seuqence of scenes which would lead me to more exciting scenes. Only recently did I find a "deeper meaning" to my story.
I think I don't have it all very clear in my head yet. What would you advise, and how does this issue go for you?

[Devil Ledbetter]

I start with a character or two and let them interact.

[TrickyFiction]

Characters come first for me also, then story. Theme comes last. I usually just sort of realize what it might be half way through writing the thing.

[kristie911]

It usually starts with a character and a problem. Then I just start with the first word, and the second...pretty soon I have a sentence or two and there you go. :)

[wayndom]

I can't imagine starting with a theme -- it seems that could only lead to a stilted, artificial work, more like heavy-handed propaganda than a story.

[lkp]

I definitely start with a character and/or a situation, but themes start popping almost immediately after. Them, plot, characters, and setting all grow together to make the story.

[Hummingbird]

I start with a character or two, a situation, and a couple scenes. Yay :D

[JamieFord]

Story first. All the way.

[TurkeyLurkey]

I start out with a scene or visual notion. Then I get out a pencil and paper and do a rough outline of where I want the story to go. ( I will also draw pictures of scenes or characters that really stand out in my mind) After that, I need to make sure there is a character arc, plot out some main points, then start typing to connect the dots. (bringing those main points together.) But I don't think I write like most. I have to go back after every chapter is completed, and polish it before I can continue to write another chapter. For me the rough draft needs to be really polished before I can jump into a second draft. But at least, all my original scenes and visual concepts are down on paper, so I don't loose sight of them while spending so much time writing the rough draft. (A lot of writers like to get everything out into the rough draft quickly before the story in their minds die. Which is a great tactic, but one I can't seem to do)

[nevada]

I guess I work backwards. I always start with the feeling that i want to resonate with the reader after he/she finishes the story. Happiness, love, betrayal. Some feeling. and then i work back from there. Who would feel that? So first feeling, then characters. then i just write. That is for my short stories. My novels are a little different but they are roadmapped by feelings again. Always feelings first. I like to mess with people's emotions. lol

[kellytijer]

characters and story have been first for me so far.

[Wolvel]

My current wip started out as nothing more than a paragraph stuck in my head. Now I am three chapters into it.

The theme did not come until I understood the first paragraph. Weird hunh?

[Manderley]

First novel: Theme (it was shite and quickly binned)
Second: Concept (unfortunatly, it was a short story concept, not a novel length concept.
Current WIP: Character.
Next book: Setting and genre.

[Enzo]

A scene, an event.

Say, a man jumping off a cliff. A car exploding in the narrow streets of a Central-European town. Two women fighting at a tearoom.

Ok, so I write action thrillers. I see some huge action scene, and after that I wonder about why things are happening, who's involved.
By the time I have the outline for the story figured out, the first thing I thought of is only going to be a small part of the whole anymore.

[Ageless Stranger]

Always the character or setting. I work up from there.

[JimmyB27]

I usually start with a cool idea. Like, say, what if someone was using magical drugs to gain control of the population? Then I sit back and wait and see what sort of character would do something like this, and Natasha Slee pops up and says "That would be me.".
Then I think, right, who's going to stop you then? And Cornelius pokes his head around the door and says "Um...well, I might have a little try...but I'm not nearly as powerful as she is."
So I say, don't worry my friend, you're going to learn a whole new way of controlling magic that's going to make you much stronger. And he says "Cool! Will I be famous?" And I say, yep, but only for all the pain and anguish you inadvertantly cause. And he says "Oh." and then goes away to sulk for a bit.

[Evaine]

I started off my latest story with a character I'd used before, and started wondering what Hallowe'en was like where she lived - and now she's chasing off halfway across the country looking for her mother....

[willietheshakes]

What comes first for me?

Generally, a deadline.

[maestrowork]

Characters and a general idea of what the story is about. The plot and the themes come later.

[Azure Skye]

Character(s) and situation first. Theme comes in a lot later.

[Momento Mori]

I start with an idea (e.g. in a classroom fight between a boy and a girl, the boy's knocked into a coma without the girl laying a finger on him, but she doesn't know how)and then think about characters and story from that. But it takes me a long time to let everything mulch into something that works before I start writing and I find that as I write, a number of themes usually come through.

MM

[nessam]

In my current wip the mc is in complete despair. You have to read it to understand why.
Is that theme or plot? I'm not sure.

[Shadow_Ferret]

I haven't written a theme on purpose since Composition class in High School.

I start with characters and a problem.

I leave the theming for those who read my book and decide to interpret it.

[Perle_Rare]

This is my first attempt at writing a novel but I started out by thinking of a main character, a setting, and a few beginning scenes and situations. I then sat at the computer and it all refused to come down onto the virtual sheet of paper on my screen. Instead, I found myself typing about a completely different character, setting, and situation. The resulting story so far is much more fascinating and satisfying than my original idea.

So what came first? A different story entirely. Where will this story go? Wherever my MC leads me since she's taken over from the get-go and it's kind of fun to follow her and see what she does next. It will be a while before I can report whether the technique (or lack thereof) actually works though... but I'll have had fun trying it out! :D

[Robyn]

Hmm for me it depends but mostly.. an idea will come to me... thoughts, images etc.... and from there it will transform into the story. Generall i won't take just an idea and run with it. I have to 'see' the basics of the story first. But this can be as simple as a image in a movie or something that will trigger a storyidea.

[CaroGirl]

Always character, then story (or problem). A theme generally arises from that. I've never written a story with just a theme in mind.

[GeorgieB]

Ever have a waking dream? One where the content of the dream, an image, sticks with you? That's where I started with a mystery/suspense novel that I'm about 23K into (first draft). The dreamed scenario was one where a hiker finds a human hand sticking out of a snow bank. That single image stuck with me for weeks and eventually led to fleshing out a 5000 word outline.

So, scene or image first, character second, theme (broadly good vs. evil) last.

[Stew21]

For me, it's the first word. Then the second. Then the...

yep. just like that.

[Kate Thornton]

I have the idea - a germ of a story - first, then the characters who can carry or populate it. From there, the subplot ideas are tried out one by one. Subordinate characters are given auditions and the ones who tell the story best get to live in it.

[RickN]

Never theme. I've found it to be irrelevant in my first drafts.

It's almost always a phrase or situation that sparks the idea. For example, one of my recent stories came about when the phrase "Liquidity. That's your problem." popped into my head. Why? Beats me. It became the first line of a comedy/crime story called "Joyride" about 2 guys who were kidnapped and driven to the ATM when they didn't have enough cash in their wallet to please a mugger.

[JohnDavidPaxton]

I usually know I have a story I want to write, and not just some idol daydreaming, when I think "well that would be cool" after thinking of an event.

It's a poor test. Recently, after a few beers, my friends and I came up with the story of a man with metal covered shark teeth who fought Nazi's. Which is kind of cool, but not a very good story.

Once I have the major plot points in my head, I write out an outline (one major plot point for every 1,000 estimated words) or a blueprint (basically a drab, watered down version of the story that goes in order of events). Then I think of themes, motifs, keywords, so on and add them into the final draft.

[Spiny Norman]

Characters, then specific scenes of when the characters interact (beginning, middle scenes, end), then things begin to get fleshed out.

Theme usually finds itself, or the story finds it for itself. Usually it's more about the attitude with which you approach the story than the idea you're trying to make it about. At least, I think so.

[Inky]

Mental flash of a scene. Like a movie. I can't get it typed fast enough, so it's a garbled mess of stilted sentences. I may go like this for several hundred pages, just letting the characters run the show and tell ME their story.
Then I begin the mop up. Example from current WIP...opening scene, chapter one:

The anaconda of terror squeezed sanity from Kit. Death tore after her through the dense forest with depraved vengeance. Even the Alfa wolf sensed this, as he raced down steep embankments, glided effortlessly over moss covered logs, and cut sharply across ages-old migration trails. His small pack yipped wildly; streaming close behind, collectively incensed they wouldn’t arrive in time to save Kit.

[Varthikes]

I find that the story usually comes first for me. I think of a situation and I say to myself, "That would be interesting in a story." For example: in my current project, I started thinking that it would be cool to have Humans come to a planet in a starship from Earth and finding Dragons living on that planet. And that these Dragons were a sentient race.

Next comes the characters.

The theme is usually the last thing I think about. It comes as I write, or as I'm proofreading.

[eodmatt]

An incident that really happened. Like being on board a Thai Air 747 en route Bangkok - London just before Christmas last year and which made an emergency landing at Bacu (Whereu? Azerbaibloodyjan, thats where). The next eight and a half hours were spent as captives on the plane watching Bing Crosby in the original black and white version of "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas", over and over again, interspersed with the same three Christmas carols. No hot drinks or grub cos the generator was buggered and the external one they hooked the plane up to looked like something out of a Chaplin movie, which wheezed and spluttered as it failed to produce enough power to run the aircrafts air-con. I had urges to begin killing and eating the other passengers. The experience is included in a chapter of one of my books, but may become part of a book on travel experiences.

[SilverPhoenix]

I could be doing anything, even sitting, staring, performing bodily functions. And then, suddenly! =P

Usually at first, a very vague idea,
but then it grows and grows
with little plot epiphanies along the way, like a plant inside my mind,
and the flowers that bloom are the characters.

Some bloom earlier than others, and some are prettier, bigger,
but in the end, I have a less vague idea and a full set of
characters and I'm set to go! =D

[J. R. Tomlin]

I start out with a scene or visual notion. Then I get out a pencil and paper and do a rough outline of where I want the story to go. ( I will also draw pictures of scenes or characters that really stand out in my mind) After that, I need to make sure there is a character arc, plot out some main points, then start typing to connect the dots. (bringing those main points together.) But I don't think I write like most. I have to go back after every chapter is completed, and polish it before I can continue to write another chapter. For me the rough draft needs to be really polished before I can jump into a second draft. But at least, all my original scenes and visual concepts are down on paper, so I don't loose sight of them while spending so much time writing the rough draft. (A lot of writers like to get everything out into the rough draft quickly before the story in their minds die. Which is a great tactic, but one I can't seem to do)
That is amazingly close to how I work. I also start with a scene. I have never been able to do a story that didn't start that way. I don't do the drawing part. But I do a very rough story arc--I would hardly call it an outline but the biggest events in the story get at just a general idea. I also find it impossible not to polish as I go. I simply go back and reread my writing from the day before and polish up any obvious rough spots. I find it impossible to do a quick rough draft. My mind just doesn't seem to work that way.

Edit: I don't know what the theme is until after I've written it. Afterwards I go--oh... I knew there was a theme in there somewhere. But that part is totally unconscious.

[tammieofmi]

I usually start with an idea or what if then the characters and theme down the road.

[ishtar'sgate]

I write historicals so it's the place and time that get my creative juices flowing. Once I've done a bit of research, characters and scenes follow.
Linnea

[Selcaby]

A scene or situation. Not really a character. My current WIP started with a powerful vision of a man in a magical trap and a girl who discovered him by chance and decided to help. I knew all about the trap and that he would get freed quite soon and the kinds of problems they'd have afterwards, but I didn't know who the characters were or where the story was going. I worked backwards from that initial scene to find out who he was and how he got into that situation. But the girl? I've cut her out and replaced her twice. I think the trouble with the first two girls was, it wasn't really their story. It took me until girl number three to work out how it could be her story too.