1. Find the single sentence.
What is this story about? Get rid of every character and every scene that does not answer to that one thread.
2. Write the specific, not the universal.
It will be the experience of this one character and the salient, distinct, unique details of his or her life, which, if done well, will speak to a larger human experience. It doesn’t work the other way around.
3. Self-pity does not a good story make.
You need a certain amount of distance in order to see a story clearly, to be insightful. At the same time, drama comes from deeply-felt emotional experiences. Find the balance. (Giving your characters new, fictional names can help you distance yourself from fact.)
4. Write a beginning, middle, end.
Climax and resolution. Cause and effect. There is a difference between anecdote and Story. True life might not have a clear story arc, but your story needs to—if you want anyone to read it, that is.
5. “Yeah? So what?”
Just because something happened to you doesn’t make it interesting. What did you learn from the experience? What was lost? What was gained? How did you grow or change?
6. Emotional truth before literal truth.
You will most likely need to alter the exact events in order to tell this “one” story. Don’t worry: What you don’t use you can save for another story. That’s the good part.
7. Don’t preach.
Don’t teach a lesson. Don’t try to make someone believe what you believe. Be true to “Story” and let the truth of it be revealed.
8. The writer asks the question, the art gives the answer.
It is not your job to know the answers, just the ask the question. A writer’s goal is to make the reader think and feel.
9. And lastly, but maybe most importantly: Take risks.
Expose yourself. Don’t be afraid to show your character (or yourself, cleverly disguised as a fictional character) as flawed, naked, struggling. You’ll know when you’ve achieved this if you are crying, laughing, or squirming as you type. And the payoff comes when your reader cries, laughs, and squirms.
Good luck. Be real.
Be brave.