Sometimes, my first inclination when writing a story is to sit down and just start typing it out. That isn’t, I’ve found, usually the best option. I’ll get started on a story and be writing well into it, but then I have to stop. I think to myself, that’s fine, I know where this is going. Twenty minutes later, I come back and re-read the last line. Then the line before it. Then the line before it. Holy bibimbap, I’ve forgotten where this was going. I’ll re-read the entire thing and sit there with a look of astonishment on my face because I’ve no idea what to do with this. Five days later I’ll be sitting, eating a bowl of puttanesca, when suddenly I’ll remember the next part of what I had envisioned. Rinse and repeat until the story is done. It’s an awful way of writing.
Putting in just a bit of structure can help create a more streamlined writing process. Start by coming up with the scenario, then mark out plot points, make character sketches, create settings, and then start writing. It’s a pretty simple process that will help things flow from your mind out of your fingers, into the world. Here’s the even better thing, you don’t have to start with the scenario. Is there an image you want to capture for your story? Then start by writing that out. Is there some integral piece of dialogue that just came to you? Bam, start there. Is it coming so fast that you’re afraid you’re going to miss it if you don’t start writing immediately? Then start writing immediately, even though that seems to be the thing I told you not to do.
The thing is, there is no correct way to write, and styles of writing will vary incredibly between different people, cultures, languages, etc. Having good bones will help some, if not most of the people who read this, but it may not be all of you. If you ever find yourself stuck in a story, though, go through the list of things that make up its tent poles and figure out where you’re getting stuck. It’s as simple as that.