Before starting to write, before even planning anything, there is imagining. In literature, imagination is the creative part of writing; it is represented by the ideas that emerge from someone’s mind. Writing allows those concepts to materialize and transform into a story. However, what’s important to understand to know is that every story may comes from an idea, but an idea is not a story. Ideas are extended and transformed through a process to become a story. The question then is, ‘What is this process that turns an idea into a story?’ To answer this, a retrospection on how ideas are born is needed.

By nature, people are curious. They praise and criticize the things that catch their attention—a captivation that can turn into inspiration. From existing material, someone then wonders about a ‘what if’ scenario, perhaps something never done before—namely, an idea. The more they think about it, the more the concept grows on them, to the point where they believe their idea can resonate with other people as well—a conviction that has yet to be tested. The aspiring writer now has an important goal in mind: to prove that their idea is worthy of praise, whether for the world or themselves.

However, ideas alone are not enough to convince someone. The writer realizes they need arguments to make their point. And so, they add elements around their concept that the reader would understand and agree with. Famous examples of these elements are named ‘plot,’ ‘character,’ and ‘lore.’ These can be viewed as ideas as well, but their sole purpose is to accompany the main one. As time goes by, more ideas are added to form the content—a gathering of ideas surrounding a themeThe initial and main idea.

Once the content is established, the next step is to present those ideas in a compelling manner. While the content might be coherent, it doesn’t mean the reader will enjoy it. It requires a presentation for the reader to be truly invested. The presentation is defined by narration, a writing technique that sets how the content is told; its purpose is to guide the reader from idea to idea at a pace that would be considered engaging.

Thus, this process is what turns a single idea into a story: from imagination, many ideas are gathered to form the content, which is then narrated for the reader to enjoy.