Back in October when I was prepping for NaStoWriMo, I thought I had a method for taking story ideas and turning them into full stories. I was going to call it my Story Forge and share that process. I did find a method. It worked for maybe two stories.
In the course of writing fifteen story drafts, I found nearly as many ways to work ideas into something readable. Some are still little more than vague ideas after writing three or four thousand words of description, plot, and action. I still need to find the real story in those.
The story forge has become more like a story reveal. If there is any commonality in the process, it is this: story emerges as you write. You may think you have it all worked out but when you put characters on a page and have them interact with things something else develops. The story is revealed through the writing and revision process.
Fifteen stories is not a lot of experience. Still, it has shown nothing but diverse methods of finding a story contained within an idea. The only conclusion I can draw so far is that a story will reveal itself through writing and revision.
Kevin J. Fellows 