Bolanos

I'm obsessed with fugues, all I ever listened to in highschool (that was non-popular music) was Bach's WTC- it's quite amazing.

I would begin piece by piece: don't try to write the whole fugue out at once. Focus on the exposition:

How many voices (and thus, entries) do you want? I would recommend 2 (maybe 3), as it's easiest to work with at the beginning (I have yet to write a 4-voice fugue, they're quite impossible).

Write your subject, then transpose it up a 5th or down a 4th. This transposition will be your answer, which will be introduced by a second voice once the subject has bee stated.

Do not change the rhythm when you transpose it. You may change a few (very few) notes by a step or a half step to keep a certain level of consistency, but it should sound as almost identical to the subject.

Then, write a contrapuntal accompaniment to the answer: it should be rhythmically distinct and melodically different: it must almost be contrary to the subject and the answer.
This is your countersubject. So you have three basic building blocks so far that constitute the foundation of your fugue:

1. Subject
2. Answer (same as subject, transposed to the V)
3. Countersubject (contrapuntal accompaniment to the answer, different from the subject and answer).


So your first voice states the subject, and immediately states the countersubject when the second voice comes in. Then the second voice states the countersubject as the third voice comes in (if there is a third voice).

I'm sorry if this all sounds repetitive, but I'm trying to be as clear as possible. Perhaps you can start with this and post the beginning of the exposition, then we can work from there.