How to Start a Story:
It probably goes without saying that the first step in developing a story is an idea. What that idea is can be just about anything. A character, a scene, a scenario, a question. Tolkien famously created an entire world, spanning multiple books, all to develop a place for his self-made languages to belong in. But whatever the nature of the idea, there are steps that follow it which, if ignored, can turn the best starting point into disaster.
Managing expectations. In this case, not so much the expectations of others as the expectations of yourself. Specifically, it comes down to the question of what the best way is to get your idea from your head, onto the page, in a way you will be happy with. A frequent issue for stories is overextending the scope to the point where one forgets what story they are trying to tell. If your idea is for a romance, the focus should be on the romance and trying to make it a complex fantasy story or a political thriller on top of that only works if the fantasy or the politics serve your central focus and contributes to the romance. That focus might evolve, your ideas might change, but it pays to keep your brainstorming centred on your key aims and make sure that if your ideas do drift, it's in a way you are aware of. If it starts as a romance and doesn't end up as one, just make sure you don't have a stunted half-romance which doesn't really work in the story anymore left behind.
Of course, this also applies to starting roleplays, but far more literally. Make certain you aren't promising things which you will not be able to deliver on. If your replies are short, be upfront about that. If they're long and you expect the same, be open about that too,. All the brainstorming in the world won't get people whose expectations are wildly different a functional story at the end. Roleplaying as a medium fundamentally requires honesty—stringing someone along with false expectations in the hopes they will play along with your desires when the time arrives inevitably results in disappointment on all sides. Having clear expectations and an idea of what you want out of a story from the start ensures that, even if (and when) the story evolves in unexpected directions, you have a base intent to compare it to. Putting in too much or trying to be too many things just leaves some aspects looking neglected and underutilized.
The Holy Trinity: Character, Setting and Plot.
Now, these are collectively an important part of starting any story, but at the same time, too large a topic to cover in detail. Each of them is likely a whole series of discussions all on their own and their importance in any specific story varies wildly. Instead, I just wanted to focus on the relationship between them and how it should shape your thoughts as you go from 'idea' to 'story'.
It is, I would say, the cardinal sin of writing (and especially of roleplaying) to separate these three into isolated topics and consider them on their own. In order to end up with a coherent story at the end, each of the three must play a vital role in informing the other two. Your plot changes your characters, your characters affect your plot, your setting shapes, informs and limits both, and so on. The best stories are the ones in which these three elements are most in harmony. Dropping Iron Man into a romantic comedy set in Westeros will probably not give you an especially clear, coherent story.
What does this mean for each of the three in practice?
1. Characters should exist within the setting. Their values, attire, actions, relationships, knowledge, powers and so on shouldn't be strange anomalies in an otherwise uniform world (unless there is a very good reason for it). Having a radical abolitionist in a setting where slavery is commonplace and accepted is possible, but only if something about the character or plot leads to it. Having a character who is always morally "right" in a society that is morally "wrong" is a decent (though not universal) indicator that you're designing a Mary Sue. The way to avoid that is build beliefs from background, not use background to justify beliefs. It is entirely possible to take concepts for characters and fit them within a wildly different setting, but taking a character who is fully formed and putting them unaltered in a different setting will undermine the character, the setting or both.
2. The setting should exist outside of the characters. Detail isn't always required here; but a setting should be designed as a landscape in which characters move, not a bubble that moves with them. Things they don't like about the world, things the world doesn't like about them, as well as a general sense that other characters didn't just appear from the aether to offer your character a quest all create a more fleshed out, real feeling world. Things characters don't understand, things they understand that others do not—imperfection acts as a lens to add more dimensions to a world and make it seem more alive.
3. The plot should be affected by the setting. Events in a high fantasy world won't turn out the same way as ones in a sci-fi setting—the problems that arise will be different, as should be the responses to them. If they aren't, it can frequently indicate issues with uniqueness in worldbuilding. There should ultimately be a sense that this plot is a result of forces within this world acting as they are meant to act, not because the plot needs it to happen.
4. Characters and plot should reflect and offer insight into each other. The challenges a character faces should be ones that reveal something about their nature and the more we understand the character, the more we should understand why they will handle a certain situation a certain way. Challenges which reveal a character's flaws, vulnerabilities and fears are fundamentally more interesting than them cutting their way effortlessly through a horde of screaming goblins, even if the goblins seem more "exciting" on paper. There's a reason why Batman fighting the Joker works better than Batman fighting a dozen anonymous criminals—the latter is a fight with no stakes, the former a fight in which aspects of the character are revealed. Threats or challenges that exist for the sake of having threats are never actually threatening.
Now, you might have noticed that some of this goes WAY beyond the start of a story—but fundamentally, it's something that needs to be in mind when laying the groundwork for all three of these aspects. Saying "Does this character trait make sense with their upbringing" and "would that actually be a problem in this world" early will let you establish solid foundations on which the rest of your story can be built, whether you are writing it alone or roleplaying it with someone else. If there is tension between these elements right from the start, they might well create cracks later on that are far harder to repair.
It probably goes without saying that the first step in developing a story is an idea. What that idea is can be just about anything. A character, a scene, a scenario, a question. Tolkien famously created an entire world, spanning multiple books, all to develop a place for his self-made languages to belong in. But whatever the nature of the idea, there are steps that follow it which, if ignored, can turn the best starting point into disaster.
Managing expectations. In this case, not so much the expectations of others as the expectations of yourself. Specifically, it comes down to the question of what the best way is to get your idea from your head, onto the page, in a way you will be happy with. A frequent issue for stories is overextending the scope to the point where one forgets what story they are trying to tell. If your idea is for a romance, the focus should be on the romance and trying to make it a complex fantasy story or a political thriller on top of that only works if the fantasy or the politics serve your central focus and contributes to the romance. That focus might evolve, your ideas might change, but it pays to keep your brainstorming centred on your key aims and make sure that if your ideas do drift, it's in a way you are aware of. If it starts as a romance and doesn't end up as one, just make sure you don't have a stunted half-romance which doesn't really work in the story anymore left behind.
Of course, this also applies to starting roleplays, but far more literally. Make certain you aren't promising things which you will not be able to deliver on. If your replies are short, be upfront about that. If they're long and you expect the same, be open about that too,. All the brainstorming in the world won't get people whose expectations are wildly different a functional story at the end. Roleplaying as a medium fundamentally requires honesty—stringing someone along with false expectations in the hopes they will play along with your desires when the time arrives inevitably results in disappointment on all sides. Having clear expectations and an idea of what you want out of a story from the start ensures that, even if (and when) the story evolves in unexpected directions, you have a base intent to compare it to. Putting in too much or trying to be too many things just leaves some aspects looking neglected and underutilized.
The Holy Trinity: Character, Setting and Plot.
Now, these are collectively an important part of starting any story, but at the same time, too large a topic to cover in detail. Each of them is likely a whole series of discussions all on their own and their importance in any specific story varies wildly. Instead, I just wanted to focus on the relationship between them and how it should shape your thoughts as you go from 'idea' to 'story'.
It is, I would say, the cardinal sin of writing (and especially of roleplaying) to separate these three into isolated topics and consider them on their own. In order to end up with a coherent story at the end, each of the three must play a vital role in informing the other two. Your plot changes your characters, your characters affect your plot, your setting shapes, informs and limits both, and so on. The best stories are the ones in which these three elements are most in harmony. Dropping Iron Man into a romantic comedy set in Westeros will probably not give you an especially clear, coherent story.
What does this mean for each of the three in practice?
1. Characters should exist within the setting. Their values, attire, actions, relationships, knowledge, powers and so on shouldn't be strange anomalies in an otherwise uniform world (unless there is a very good reason for it). Having a radical abolitionist in a setting where slavery is commonplace and accepted is possible, but only if something about the character or plot leads to it. Having a character who is always morally "right" in a society that is morally "wrong" is a decent (though not universal) indicator that you're designing a Mary Sue. The way to avoid that is build beliefs from background, not use background to justify beliefs. It is entirely possible to take concepts for characters and fit them within a wildly different setting, but taking a character who is fully formed and putting them unaltered in a different setting will undermine the character, the setting or both.
2. The setting should exist outside of the characters. Detail isn't always required here; but a setting should be designed as a landscape in which characters move, not a bubble that moves with them. Things they don't like about the world, things the world doesn't like about them, as well as a general sense that other characters didn't just appear from the aether to offer your character a quest all create a more fleshed out, real feeling world. Things characters don't understand, things they understand that others do not—imperfection acts as a lens to add more dimensions to a world and make it seem more alive.
3. The plot should be affected by the setting. Events in a high fantasy world won't turn out the same way as ones in a sci-fi setting—the problems that arise will be different, as should be the responses to them. If they aren't, it can frequently indicate issues with uniqueness in worldbuilding. There should ultimately be a sense that this plot is a result of forces within this world acting as they are meant to act, not because the plot needs it to happen.
4. Characters and plot should reflect and offer insight into each other. The challenges a character faces should be ones that reveal something about their nature and the more we understand the character, the more we should understand why they will handle a certain situation a certain way. Challenges which reveal a character's flaws, vulnerabilities and fears are fundamentally more interesting than them cutting their way effortlessly through a horde of screaming goblins, even if the goblins seem more "exciting" on paper. There's a reason why Batman fighting the Joker works better than Batman fighting a dozen anonymous criminals—the latter is a fight with no stakes, the former a fight in which aspects of the character are revealed. Threats or challenges that exist for the sake of having threats are never actually threatening.
Now, you might have noticed that some of this goes WAY beyond the start of a story—but fundamentally, it's something that needs to be in mind when laying the groundwork for all three of these aspects. Saying "Does this character trait make sense with their upbringing" and "would that actually be a problem in this world" early will let you establish solid foundations on which the rest of your story can be built, whether you are writing it alone or roleplaying it with someone else. If there is tension between these elements right from the start, they might well create cracks later on that are far harder to repair.
