Someone asked me about writing this week, and I told her my formula for writing. This won't work for everyone or for every genre, but it might work for you. First, come up with a germ of a story, some concept or idea. You can use my writer's net to brainstorm. You can use a story starter. You can look at your family history. You can read a novel and get a germ of a story. One way or another, you get the basic idea and write down a bit about your story and its characters.
The next step is prewriting. If it's fantasy or sci fi, know the laws of the world you're writing in. Invent them. Know the map or the geography. I then use a character theory like Meyers-Briggs or color theory or the enneagram to get to know my character. Other people have done the heavy lifting on coming up with character theory. You don't have to invent the wheel, just give your characters a sense of life and reality. It helps if you know people like your character, so you can keep their voices in your head. You may want to figure out the characters of all the major characters and their antagonists. A story is only as good as its bad guys. And most bad guys think of themselves as heroes of their own story.
Next, adapt the heroes' journey. There are many versions of it, countless. But most of the best stories, especially adventure stories, from Star Wars to modern Star Trek to Harry Potter to anything Pixar and modern Disney take a cue from the heroes' journey. If you are an outliner, outline the whole think as far as it works for you. If you're a pantser --a by the pants, write as you go kind of person--just keep the heroes' journey in the back of your brain and/or keep it standing buy to give you a rough roadmap.
Then revise, edit, and send it off to your writers' group. You may need additional editorial services.
That's it. The better, the more unique your description, the fresher the voice, the more successful your story will be. If you're running into walls, try it. See how it works.
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