Storywriting: Square One

 So let's say you want to write a story. You want it to be about Jack the Pirate who finds a secret golden city on an island, but where to go from there? Here are some general ideas to help you get started. 

Character Development

The way Jack develops, what he learns, and what he encounters is what the story is going to be about. A character that people can relate to is usually going to be the best. Not many people can relate to being a pirate, but that doesn't mean we don't write about pirates. Try to give Jack some kind of moral or emotional struggle that people can relate to. Say if Jack took the treasure from the city the city's inhabitants will die, and he has to decide whether he will become rich at the cost of taking life. Or maybe Jack's best friend Bob wants to take the treasure and Jack doesn't and they have to fight each other, even though their friends. There are infinite possibilities! Failure is also a good thing to take into account here. Humans fail, they don't always do what they think is right. Jack should fail too, this makes his eventual success at the end of the story more satisfying because it feels like Jack actually had to fight for it. 

Villians

There are a lot of things you can do with villains, and a lot of them are good. In fantasy stories, a Dark Lord is often used as a representation of evil, such as the White Witch from The Chronicles of Narnia and Sauron from The Lord of the Rings. Maybe the city is being controlled by a Dark Lord-like person. The Dark Lord's actions should reflect your idea of evil. For example, Tolkien's idea of evil was that power corrupts. His villains had great power and became greedy wanting more. His heroes refuse power, knowing it's temptation. That brings up another point, Villians should reflect the opposite of what the Hero's believe in. Maybe Bob is greedy, and Jack cares more about people than gold. Remember that the villain is a character in your story, and needs his/her own development. Maybe your villain becomes a good guy at the end of the story, like in Treasure Planet. If this is the case, remember that the villain should fail sometimes too. He's a character as well. 

Worldbuilding

Even if your story isn't set in a fictional world, this is important. Worldbuilding is super fun but can be very difficult. There are so many things you need to take into consideration to make your worldbuilding feel real whether you're making your world's geography, history, culture, etc. There's so much I can't really do much more than point you in the right direction. HelloFutureMe's YouTube channel has something for pretty much everything you need for this.