How does a "newbie" start to write fiction?

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How does a "newbie" with no experience get into fiction and fiction writing? I am not specifically a grammar or language oriented person, but I do occasionally "get" these concept "what if's" in my thoughts. The thing is that I also have trouble putting them into efficient writing tone and prose. I'll probably be more focused on the concept than making sure everything is super correct grammatically. My other weakness is with elaborating or "expanding" with certain ideas. Otherwise, I can have someone else working aside me to guide on that part. I confess I never really liked reading other fiction either. I don't know if that's technically required to write fiction yourself, but I seen that it's strongly encouraged. I don't know what I can do because I have these two conflicting beliefs.

You need to have a degree of familiarity with a medium if you wish to work in it. You don't need to be extensively well-read, but should be familiar enough to understand the tropes that get used regularly. If you're not familiar with them you'd likely benefit more from focused learning about the craft of writing fiction than just from reading a few more stories.

The scale of your ideas matters too. When I've written short stories they're usually set in the same fantasy world I always use as a setting, so a lot of the world-building and planning is already done. The concepts you have might be easier to organize if you write them down, even if it's just on flash cards or similar; you can always flesh things out later if need be. Once you have those concepts written down you can try to see how you might go about connecting them.

If you're writing a short story you really only need a handful of plots at the most (one might be adequate). If you have a longer piece in mind you need to have more storylines/plots, and they need to be different scales. Some might be a decade or more long, others might be a few hours or a few days long. Some of them will be 'in play' before the piece begins, some will be left unresolved when it ends.

Usually I'll start with a timeline of the entire period the work covers and layout major plot altering incidents. I'll usually have a database of characters as well, with brief descriptions and bios. I start spinning those major incidents off into their own documents, with each one getting fleshed out as more story gets written. Referencing between characters plotlines and incident plotlines will lead to things sometimes 'writing themselves' or otherwise occasionally coming together quickly.

You shouldn't worry about grammar, phrasing and readability until after you've got a skeleton that's at least partially fleshed out. You shouldn't make grammar a priority until you're basically ready to start letting other people see it.

On the subject of plots, there are several different philosophies. Some say there are exactly 36 plots in all of literature -- no more and no less. Some say that the only useful plots derive from conflict (e.g., person v. self, person v. society, person v. nature; et cetera). I'm of the mind that plots should be character-driven, in that "something changes, people react".

Have your characters developed well enough that when they are presented with change they will react in certain ways that are generally true for that character. For instance, a stranger comes to town and moves into the haunted house on the hill. One person may immediately send flowers with a business card attached, another may drop by in a day or two and extend a welcome and then spread gossip all around town, still another may organize a luncheon to greet the new neighbor and forget to invite someone important, and yet another may become pensive and try to look up the history of the house. Each one of them reacts in a different way.

Sooner or later, one of them will turn up dead ... under very mysterious circumstances.

And that's just the opening chapter.

For the issue of grammar: Unless you catch something glaringly ungrammatical which would cry out to be fixed, just write first, then go back to take care of any problems. Otherwise you could get bogged down with grammar and spelling, and end up not finishing your project.
Regarding reading: that is essential to being a writer. You can observe how other writers perform their art, and in turn you will be able to do the same.
The best way to write, as with anything else, is to just do it. It will take time for a newbie to learn the tricks of the trade, but nothing helps you do that better than writing and reading.

Writing is like a muscle--the more you practice the better you get. After you get enough works completed, you can reread some of them and think, "Oh, that one wasn't very good and I'm weaker at writing this specific component, so I should work to get better at it." Also try to figure out if you're a sprinter or a marathoner, i.e., if you're better at writing short stories/flash fiction or writing long tales like novels. I suggest trying your hand at flash fiction so you can give different subjects and stories a shot and not spend much time on a single one. And if you like any of them, flesh them out and make them longer pieces.

Depends. Would you like to write purely for fun or eventually get your writing published? If the former, it doesn't matter where you start; you can just start with whatever feels like a good idea. You don't need to do any preparations, either. But if you want to become a published author, it'd be good to read some books from the genre you want to write about to get a feel of things. Grammar, as long as it's good enough that people will be able to tell what you're trying to say, won't be much of an issue: if it gets published, someone will check it over and fix the grammar for you. Of course, if you sent something to be published and already the first few pages are full of mistakes, it's likelier to be set aside unfinished, so do pay as much attention to grammar as you can.

1. Start with short stories. A short story is much easier to write than books. Most short stories can be 25-75 pages. Many of the popular movies came from short stories. A few examples include:

2001: A Space Odyssey based on a short story by Arthur C. Clarke called The Sentinel
Minority Report based on a short story by Philip K. Dick of the same name
Total Recall based on a short story by Philip K. Dick called We Can Remember it For You Wholesale
Blade Runner based on a short story by Philip K. Dick called Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
Johnny Mnemonic based on a short story by William Gibson of the same name
Arrival based on a short story by Ted Chiang called Story of Your Life and Others

2. Use a three-act structure to help you create a basic outline for your story. All this does is act as a guide to help you track where you're at in your story. See the image below.

3. To keep yourself engaged write about topics or subjects that interest you. You may find that non-fiction is more interesting, or you could get excited by mysteries or thrillers, or thriller-mysteries! In other words, try different genres until you find one that you like.

4. Write, write, write. Don't worry about grammar or typos. Just engage in stream-of-consciousness writing. What that means is as thoughts come to you, write them down. Don't worry if they appear disjointed or haphazard.

5. Read, read, read. I recommend reading many short stories, especially those by the masters mentioned above. Here's a list of 81 total short stories that became films. What this does is helps you understand how these masters structured and authored their stories. Perhaps you can start to mimic some of their styles as training wheels until you find your style.

6. You can get involved in cooperative efforts with other writers on hitrecord.org. Unlike DeviantArt, this website, created by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, provides a channel for artists, musicians, writers, and the like to come together and help each other develop things. I highly recommend it.

7. Lastly, if your story reaches completion, Grammarly is a fantastic service to help you clean up the grammar and typos. It's a proofreading tool that isn't too expensive. To help you save money, I recommend only subscribing when you need the service.

Hope this helps and happy writing!

I'd like to add, find a good writers group. You can get constructive criticism and learn your strengths. Try to avoid those groups that have members that only want to tear you down for their own amusement, as such cruel reactions to your art can be soul shattering.

Are you into worldbuilding at all? If you're not familiar with the term: are you interested in creating fictional settings? If so, then maybe you could get into writing for tabletop RPGs instead of writing prose fiction or screenplays. Most of the other stuff: grammar, etc. can be improved upon with practice.

I have heard about worldbuilding. I actually first heard about it from the browser game NationStates on it's forum. Fantasy/medieval isn't really my interest though, as for tabletop RPGs. If anything, I see myself as more interested in writing screenplays because I might be more visual minded. That might be why I tend to be more attracted to visual media than regular books for fiction.

World building isn't only relevant for fantasy/medieval settings; it's relevant any time you have multiple stories with a shared setting. It's basically just creating a setting that's broader than what a single story might show, essentially leading to a fleshed out and lived-in world that feels real and bigger than a single story.

 

Read, read, and read some more.

I have just started myself. I've found that the most important thing is to just start writing. Write anything that has to do with your story. Start at the beginning, start at the end, start wherever, but just start writing. That will get your creativity flowing, and you can worry about details later (or you can write only details to start and worry about the main storyline later).

It doesn't have to be perfect or even good at the beginning. You might keep only some of it and you might change some of it later. But you need some writing to start working with, otherwise you'll have nothing to keep or change.

Even professional writers leave stuff like grammar til the end of the writing process. The first most important thing is for you to build the story.