There’s no formulaic recipe for writing a story, but the ingredients that go into the stew are often the same or similar, or come from a generic garden. I would like to talk about Steven King’s ideas as he put forth in his book, ON WRITING: A MEMOIR OF THE CRAFT.
King talks about having a tool box of things writers use to create stories. These are the generic ingredients which are mixed together so that no two stories are the same. The first device in the writer's tool box is vocabulary. King suggest you start with what you already have, using it to the best of your ability. As you become more widely read and more learned, your vocabulary might develop and increase.
Another essential instrument is grammar. King trusts that you learned “the principles of your native language in conversation and in reading.” Or not. English classes basically teach grammatical terms though he thinks it’s important. “Bad grammar produces bad sentences.”
King recommends Strunk and White’s THE ELEMENTS OF STYLE which contains basic information about punctuation, usage and misusage, and the qualities of writing that go into “style,” such as, point of view, you the writer staying in the background, and the careful choice of words.
Not everyone will agree with either King’s opinions or those of Strunk and White, as writing involves very personal and individual choices.
But even if your tool box is crammed full of the utensils of the writer’s craft, you also need the equivalent of the philosopher’s stone to turn your base metal into gold. It’s an elusive quality. It’s what drives writer to write; to revise and improve and to hope. King refers to that indefinable component as “magic.”