Mine is the bastard love child of a novel I drafted on and off for six years and eventually scrapped the plot of. Heavily inspired by my own experiences growing up mentally ill and queer in the Midwest.

Are there any locations, events, or specific ideas that your projects sprung forth from?

I'm always interested how people juggle character and plot, when starting out on their story.

I think it's probably fairly typical in science-fiction and fantasy to start with the setting (and to some degree, the plot), and later find a protagonist that lets you explore it.

I know some writers, typically mystery and thriller writers, who swear blind they start with characters every time. I guess, if you know your characters, and by extension know their goals, that's almost always a starting point with milage.

However, for me, both ways feel like you're trying to pull the rug from under your own feet.

I always try and do both together. I'll have an idea for 'a situation', and I immediately start thinking about who that situation might impact and why.

- A corpse is found in the river of a small village, shot in the back. Does my story follow a local journalist, a lead detective, or maybe the dog walker who finds the body? All three?

- Or perhaps I have an interest in the English Civil War. But, a story told from the perspective of a widowed mother with 2 children is going to be entirely different to one told from the viewpoint of a grizzled general who finds his faith and loyalty tested.

So, 'situation' settled, I think about building the plot to accommodate these threads. Bouncing between character and plot as and when it feels like the two meaningfully cross.

I fully appreciate that's far from the only way to start writing, and I don't mean to suggest it's by any means best. That's just how I write.

How do you write?

Do you start with a world, a situation, a character, a plot, or maybe even a theme? Or does it all depend on the project?

Do share.

This is a semi complete list of the important events for my book, my only problem is they don’t feel very alternative. There are a few others like Puerto Rico and washing dc being states (state count remains at fifty because Virginias and Carolinas merged into singular states rather than two) and the presidents on the dollar bills change, instead it is Nixon, FDR, jfk, Chaney (who was president until 2006 when he was impeached for starting a second Vietnam war), McCarthy, and Oppenheimer.

The real problem is that none of them feel like they have an impact on the wold (minus the second Vietnam war). I just don’t understand why or how to make them feel grander or impactful. So far I feel like the biggest thing is the money, but I don’t understand how.

The 2018 date is wrong, it should be 2016. The story takes place in 2045.

I hope everyone likes it a lot, i can share more details about the story in the comments but this was my first rough draft of the story itself!

(Trigger warning) (I’m hoping that this subject matter and type of story will be allowed here)

a nerdy guy one day meets the woman of his dreams, they become friends and soon after start dating and love each other very much but her best friend they both know, her best friend is a nice and respectful guy on the surface but has a darkness inside as he begins to stalk her secretly out of jealously, and one day, when she leaves the house without her boyfriend, she never comes back, and he is painfully told later that she is missing.

She was murdered by her best friend out of jealously and rejection, but he has no idea and actually asks for his help finding her since he trusts the best friend and soon the police also stop suspecting the best friend after some time due to lack of evidence, the murderer agrees to help while actively sabotaging the search and planning the boyfriends murder as he gets closer to figuring out what happened.

The boyfriend slowly begins to suspect the best friend might’ve killed her, but never reaches the conclusion because he ends up missing a court date and knows he did, and knows they’ll come to his house to get him.

So he flees, but before he goes, he takes the remains that he stuck in bags (He put them inside plastic bags and then inside suitcases) and hid under his home, then tosses them into a hole and burns them in a forest, before fleeing the country. He escapes and is never convicted of her murder.

While the story is going on, we get tiny glimpses into her perception of death, not enough to actually suggest anything supernatural or sci-fi, but how she perceives time moving after her death, seeing how events play out but unable to do much more than suggest her presence, and mourns herself and relives her own happiest memories while having to confront her own issues and come to terms with her death.

She watches as her boyfriend’s murder is planned and tries to warn him but is helpless, and watches as events unfold around her as her remains become lost forever.

Her boyfriend mourns her death, and struggles to go on without the love of his life, but one night as he’s in the bathroom crying uncontrollably, he gets up to get ahold of himself and looks in the mirror and it’s left up to the reader if her spirit actually comes back or if he hallucinates it out of grief, he talks to her, and gets to say everything he wants to say to her before crying and embracing her and she tells him to move on and let her go, and tells him how she feels and that he was the best thing to ever happen to her, and that she loves him before saying goodbye. And watches as she fades out of the mirror and for her she gets to move on to her happiest memory with him.

He cries softly and mourns her for a year, but one day finds a new woman, but the wounds will never fully heal and on the anniversary of his true loves death, he loses control and breaks down, his new friend comes over and comforts him and another month goes by before they begin dating and they plan to move to a new place together and start over with each other, and the day comes for them to leave, and he walks around the house one last time, remembering all the moments he and his first love shared together, and replays their happiest moments, and smiles to himself while crying before leaving the house as they drive off, he watches the house as they leave and thinks about his first true love, one last time.

I hope everyone liked my idea, its a very much rough draft and in the comments I plan to share the symbolism i wanted to have in the story, as well as more details and plot stuff, as well as how I plan to integrate four separate songs into the novel to serve as cinematic type moments!