How do I develop skills at writing and planning plots and characters? [closed]

I currently earn a little extra money by doing freelance journalism on the side, in addition to working a day job. This is professional, paid work from more than one outlet so I would hope I could claim to be at least a reasonably proficient writer.

Increasingly I feel I'd like to try my hand at a little fiction. Nothing fancy - a few short stories just to see how I manage at the form. In the past I've done this by "fictionalising" real-world events and I've not been unhappy with the results. But I've got some more free form ideas that I'd like to try turning into tales.

My problem is simple, yet vast: whenever I start on something, I realise that I have very little idea how to write convincing characters or sufficiently structured plots. I'm happy with the narrative, description and pacing of what I create, but they tend to be highly predictable affairs populated with stereotypical protagonists. That won't do.

In my "fictionalising" these things are taken care of for me: I can draw on the actual events that inspired me. But I can't do that if I'm creating more or less than scratch, stories about things that I have no useful real-life experience to build with.

So the question is - what can I do to "learn" to write better plots and characters? Reading stories and novels obviously isn't enough as I do plenty of that already. Or should I just stick to my existing skills and carry on with my real-world fictions?

posted almost 10 years ago

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Bob Tway‭

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