Create a main character or protagonist that will bear your name. Make a list of all the characteristics your main character will have, including temperament, life history, likes and dislikes, fears and dreams. You can choose to make the protagonist reflect yourself, if you desire.
Generate a conflict or conflicts for your character. Write a list of ideas of conflicts your character must face in the story, using his or her characteristics and history as inspiration. What will your character achieve in this story? What hardships will he or she overcome? Is there an antagonist in your story that your main character will have to face? Choose your favorite conflict or conflicts to include in the story.
Create a plot outline for your story. What will happen? Plot the main events in the story, creating a story arc or sequential outline. Creating a story arc is a great way to visually demonstrate how the story will work overall. Place main events on the story arc. Each event should contribute to the story as a whole, building tension and plot until the story's climax and eventual resolution.
Create secondary characters for your story, generating a characterization list similar to that in Step 1. If your story has an antagonist, make sure to generate an especially detailed list of that person's characteristics to prevent creating a two-dimensional villain.
Choose whether you would like to write your story from the first-person point of view (from the "I" perspective, where the story is told directly by the narrator), the second-person perspective (the rare "you" viewpoint, which allows the reader to directly partake in the plot), the third-person limited perspective (the "he said, she said" perspective where everything is told through the main character's eyes in past tense) or the third-person omniscient (still the "he said, she said" perspective, but the story can be told from many different viewpoints).
Weave each aspect of the story that you created in steps 1 through 5 together to create a coherent plot. Use an active voice when writing, and carefully integrate dialogue into the storyline to create a smooth transition between dialogue and narrative voice. Shape the story so that each event from your story arc builds to the climax, followed by a resolution.