How to Write a Story

How do you write a story? When I talk with people about writing, I found the majority have a story to tell, but don't know how to begin. I'll be honest with you, writing is difficult. But! Not impossible.
How I think of and develop a story is by asking a lot of questions. Think of yourself as a historian and you are looking for a detailed account during such and such a time, in which your story took place (AKA view your story as history, not some tale you came up). It is up to you to discover it for only you can write it! Discovery comes with questions.
First, there is initial inspiring question (which I call the What If Factor); the question that the story is built on. Throughout the creation of the story, this question holds all things together. Examples of this are: What if buried treasure was cursed and those who stole it never die? (Pirates of the Caribbean) What if vampires are real and a normal high school girl fell in love with one? (Twilight) What if toys came to life when children left the room? (Toy Story) This is the first building block that is set on the foundation of the story. It also is a very cool question to come up with. I like to sit back, on a long drive or something like that, and let my mind ask anything it wants. Most of the time its crazy, but unique ideas are what people are looking for. Something new. Something fresh.
Once you have the What If Factor, start asking more questions. For teaching purposes, let's say my what if question is: What if animals suddenly could talk? (Oh! wouldn't that be cool!) My next question would show me the bare bone outline of the story. What are people's reactions to animals talking? Would people hate them? Love them? Worship them? Would a few want to kill them all? Would others want to bring them into society as if they are equal with humans? Would their be animal prejudice? What about the animals? Are they surprised they can talk? Are they happy? Sad? Afraid? What do they say? Do they want to be equal with humans or do they want to still live in the wild? Basically, what is the effects of animals talking?
Let's say the world is divided; some people think animals should become equal to humans, and others think animals are just animals and should be treated no less. Great! Division! Without conflict, there is no story, so stir up the chaos, the revenge, greed, tension, whatever's going to make your conflict. Now that we know there's division, how does that effect the world? It's all about cause and effect, cause and effect, and with every cause, there is an effect that should further the conflict in the story to keep it going.

Zoos would have to be shut down. Everyone would become vegetarians and millions of people in the meat industry would be out of a job all over the world. Animals, now with a say, could decide if they wanted to work in the field or in an office. Homes, buildings, transportation, businesses, and day to day living would be made differently as to accommodate animals' size, abilities, habits, and needs (and, being the amazing writer you are, you have to come up with different jobs, transportation, building designs, and so on. Don’t just say things have changed, show what specifically and how).
Hunting would be illegal. What if the people who don't see animals as equals hunt them anyways? What is the penalty? Would the people who threw out unwanted puppies, hunted, flushed goldfish, and so forth before animals could talk going to jail? Are the animals mad at the people who neglected them, beat them, used their family as food? How do they respond?
Can you see the hostility? The tension in the air? Good. Next you ask yourself a very important question. Why? Why write this story? What is the point you are trying to make? Do you want to convince your reader animals are not treated fairly? Is this a book about rights as a whole, not just animal rights? What are you trying to teach, say, persuade? A story without a hidden message is fine, but if there is meaning behind the plot, it will stick in the readers mind even more.
Now that the bare bone outline of the story is figured out, we dive even deeper. Who is the main character? Is it an animal? A human? Is there two main characters, one human and one animal? What is their opinion of the situation? How do they respond to the chaos around them? Are they angry? Overwhelmed? Unsure? What do other people/animals say they should do? Do they agree or disagree? Do they brake the law and kill the humans/animals who have hurt them in the past? Do they riot? Do they hide in a cave/house? Remember to make the characters as realistic as possible as to make the story believable, which you can read how to do in my How to Make Unrealisticness Real blog post.
Once you have the characters, the setting, the conflict, its time for the nitty-gritty details. What are the detailed effects of the character(s) small discussions? How far will they go to follow what they believe? Do they doubts what they believe? What makes them doubt? What or who blocks their goals, believes, way to success, survival, etc. How will they overcome the obstetrical (i.e. villain)? Will they overcome?
To find the end of a story is not by picking a nice, warm fuzzy scene where everyone rides off into the sunset. The end is where all the causes and effects come to a close, no matter how bad or good it is. Yes, its good to end a story in a happy way, but some story were never meant to end in a happy light. In my Hearts of Glass series (which the first book will be published by the end of this year) ends in a odd way. I tried to write it so that everyone good wins, but all the causes and effects said no. The effect is not a typical ending. Sometimes the ending is bad, but you can still make it good. The very last feeling you give your reader is what they will remember. Think of Braveheart, Titanic, or Gladiator. All of the heroes die in the end, but the movies end by giving the audience a happy feel. Braveheart and Gladiator end with the heroes dying to be at peace with the woman they love. Titanic ends with Rose making peace with Jack’s death.
This is a brief  overview of how to create a story. If you can't seem to discover an angle to your tale, keep asking questions. The answers are there, just keep looking. The more you ask, the more you will discover, the more you'll know, and the clearer your story will be. Yes, it takes work, but everything beautiful takes time.

Happy writing!