I have to say that writing a story is like those adult coloring books. You probably have heard that the latest trend now is coloring books made for adults. I have a book myself, and I find it so addictive! It certainly helps me focus when I feeling stressed.

Image by Maxime De Ryuck via Flickr

Image by Maxime De Ryuck via Flickr

Anyway, as I color and as I write, I notice how the two are related. When we color in our adult books, we are filling in the blanks with the most appropriate colors for a specific drawing, or the best color that blends well with another.

I feel it is the same with writing a story. You have a blank page, and then the outlines are put in. Then slowly, bit by bit, you color in those outlines with the best colors to detail the story. Once all the colors are in, you’ve got your story fully done.

What I mean by that is, the outline of a drawing in a coloring book could represent the basic outline of your story. It could be a literal outline, or the first draft. The colors, especially the main ones to fill in the large blanks, are the major factors of the story. They include character development, climax, resolution, and all the others that make a story a story. Finally, when you color in the smaller blanks, you are adding specific details, such as a description, background information or brief dialogue. That is what I mean by a coloring book being like writing a story.

Of course, unlike coloring books, you are free to delete certain scenes or re-do them with different…colors, so to speak!

Writing a novel is not easy. There’s a lot of blanks to fill in and the outline has to be well-done in order to proceed with those blanks. But if done carefully, you can create a beautiful story.