Well, you don't. You write a few sentences. They make paragraphs and pages. Pages make scenes. Scenes make narration point of view, chapters. Chapters add up and make a book. When I sit down to write, I start out with sentences, searching for ways to write out an idea. Sometimes a sentence may have a character or characters in it. Sometimes, not.

I write almost every day, although on weekends, I don't write as much or as often. During the week, I work starting about nine or ten o'clock in the morning. If you're a student, it helps to write a half a page or a page a day. Write anything, about what you see and hear. What you think and feel.

Don't think about ideas. Think about writing down what's in your head. If you stop, listen and "watch" what's in your mind, you'll find there is a lot of stuff going on that you can write down. Look at what's up there in your mind. Be in touch with your head and what goes on up there. You see a pretty out-door scene, try to describe it from memory and write it down.

J.C. was tall and sad. She was a good student but didn't have many friends. She always looked like something was on her mind. She ran into walls and tripped over her feet. One day, she wasn't looking where she was going and she fell down a flight of stairs. J.C. lay at the bottom of the stairs all crooked and still. She was....... (finish the story in fifteen or more lines.)