How to Write an Original Work, Reev Style

Step 1: Realize that you want to write something original.
Step 2: Put off writing said original thing as long as humanly possible in fear that it will turn out horribly.
Step 3: Get nothing creative done over the next few days due to your little sucker of an idea taking up all the room in your mind.
Step 4: Surrender to the idea before your brain suffocates under lack of fresh mind-stuff.
Step 5: Create your main character.
Step 6: Put the side character you have accidentally created aside and make you REAL main character.
Step 7: Accidentally repeat steps five through six for a while.
Step 8: Try and FIND your oh-so-elusive main character.
Step 9: Check the drawers.
Step 10: And under the bed.
Step 11: And on the bookshelf.
Step 12: And inside the cereal boxes.
Step 13: Good lore, where is this guy?!
Step 14: Put step eight on hold. We'll find that guy. Eventually. Probably.
Step 15: Realize you have no plot for your story.
Step 16: Panic for a little, worrying all you efforts to be for nothing and that your livable characters will now be story-less and thus practically orphaned and homeless and sick and cold and moneyless and need to live off canned beans for the rest of their life - !!
Step 17: Find your idea again. Realize you might have been a BIT hysterical on step sixteen. ...just a bit.
Step 18: Let writing the plot completely overtake your need for nourishment, sleep, and family time.
Step 19: Pause the plot halfway through to eat, sleep, and inform your family that you ARE still alive. Just busy. So they better leave you alone.
Step 20: Continue slaving away - I MEAN writing the plot.
Step 21: Proofread. Looks good! Let's type this!
Step 22: Get to chapter three and realize that this is exactly what you feared would happen in step two.
Step 23: Rewrite the plot. Be sure to come up for air every few days. (And keep count of how many times your family shouts "THAR SHE BLOWS!" upon seeing you exit your room.)
Step 24: Finish your plot and bask in the glory you've achieved with it.
Step 25: Put that sucker into detailed writing. And tie down your main character this time. Don't want them running off again...

OPTIONAL STEPS:

Step ADHD: Get distracted several dozen times during the writing, creating, thinking, and typing of your wo - hey look, a butterfly!

Step OCD: Organize all your papers concerning the plot into neat stacks, binders, folders, etc. In other words, start looking like a typical business office. The less distractions and more symmetry, the better...

Step Gamer: End up playing your DS more than you write about the plot.

Step Cat: Get your cat off the papers. You will find yourself repeating this step often if you have one or more cats. Cat removal every half hour is the average depending on your brand of paper.

Step Parents: "RENEE! GET UP HERE AND UNLOAD THE DISHES! AND GET SOME FRESH AIR WHILE YOU'RE AT IT, YOU'VE BEEN IN THERE ALL DAY!"

Step Parents part 2: "How long have you been in here? Have you eaten lunch? How can you write when it's so dark in here? Don't you have school today? Did you stay up late writing again? Will you make this place look like a paper tornado DIDN'T throw up on it? What do you mean, you need more linned paper? Don't you have enough?"

Step Parents part 3: "So what ARE you writing about? Wait, you're making even MORE characters? How much research does one novel take? ...oh. ...oooh...oh my goodness. ...wow. What's the story about? Where are you going to publish it? Will this count as a creative writing credit? You should make art for your book. ...hey, you thought of these designs, you should be able to draw them!"

Step Relatives: "So, I heard you were writing a book...?" Repeat Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, and every birthday gathering.

Step Disease: Catch something nasty halfway through writing a book and end up taking half a year longer to get it finished.

Step Vacation: Haul the folder with all your characters/plot/setting on vacation and end up getting nothing done with it because... vacations, man.

Step DA: Write on DeviantART about how to write a novel instead of working on your novel. ...wait a minute.