There is a huge variety of ways in which, so they tell us, writers start a work of fiction. Some say that they don’t write a single word until they’ve worked out the complete story in their head. Others will have a indistinct idea of the outlines of their story and will “discover” its complexities and finer details as they write. Still other writers start with a character and allow the storyline to grow around that character’s development. Others will begin with an incident and then find that other events follow naturally; or they may have found a pattern which may be repeated, with variations, to produce a book of short stories.
Often, by looking at the end product, we can guess which of these different methods was applied by a certain author; but often we have to rely on direct information from the writer themselves. It is probable that Richmal Crompton embarking upon her first story about “William”, A A Milne with Christopher Robin and Pooh and Dorothy Edwards with her “Naughty Little Sister” stories realised that they had hit on a recipe for enjoyable tales which when varied, could be used over and over with enormous success.
The successful formula or recipe in all of these examples depends upon a central character whose main characteristics dominate any scenario in which the author chooses to place him or her. William is the naughty schoolboy, manipulating his environment, when possible, to his own advantage; Pooh is a bear of very little brain, with a fat stomach and a large heart; and the little sister’s behaviour goes against the expectations of polite society. An extra bonus is that in Richmal Crompton’s and Dorothy Edwards’ tales the disruptive behaviour with which the child reader can easily identify, is presented as amusing rather than unacceptable.
Sometimes the idea of a clearly defined character can bring about not repetitive incidents but in a long narrative with a beginning, a middle and an end. Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote: “One day I had an idea. I will write a story about him, I said, I will put him in a world quite new to him and see what he will do.” It was a inspired idea and, because she was already an experienced storyteller, Cedric Errol, the character based on her charming small son, accumulates around him the other characters and events that make Little Lord Fauntleroy a fascinating, if now unfashionable read.
The above passage from Frances Burnett’s autobiography leads us to think that she was one of those authors who begin with a vague idea of the plot, but who have an idea of a situation which demands development. Without being aware of exactly how the narrative ends, the author must have thought of Sara Crewe, the generous little rich girl who is suddenly reduced to extreme poverty, but behaves throughout like “A Little Princess” or, in her best book, “The Secret Garden” of plain spoiled little girl Mary Lennox, transported from her luxurious existence in India to silence and a harsher reality in cold Yorkshire.
