HOW TO WRITE A

STORY
What is a story?
• A story tells about invented characters, human or not.
• A narrator always tells the story. The could be 1st or 3rd
person.
Which is 1st and which is 3rd?
- My heart was racing and I was so scared.
- Jack looked at the door. It was a ghost!
Which narrator is speaking?
• The teacher walked in. She was a middle aged woman
with blonde hair and she had a long blue dress.
• In that moment I didn’t know what to do. Should I run?
• It was the most incredible thing that had ever happened to
me.
• The country was green and Tom was surprised by how
many mountains he could see.
Setting
• The setting is the place or places where the stories
happen.
• Settings can be real or imaginary places and can be in the
past, present or future.
• Settings can be important in many stories – just as
important as the characters.
• We can learn about the setting from the Narrator’s
description
Setting
- Planet Zoom was full of volcanoes and it was a very
dangerous place for those who didn’t know the landscape.
- New York in 1980 was full of life and Jenny loved to spend
her days finding new activities to do.
Can you think of other settings?
Plot
• The plot is how the story develops.
- The story follows Harry, a man who falls in love with a girl
on a cruise ship. When the girl is captured by pirates, Harry
must do all he can to save her.
- The story is about Max, an explorer who travels to
different mysterious areas to find lost treasure.
What is the plot of your favourite book?
Dialogue
• One key part of any good story is dialogue, or
conversations between two or more characters.
- ‘Why did you do that?’ he asked angrily.
‘I’m sorry it was an accident’ she said beginning to
cry’
‘ You need to be more careful with things like that’ he
replied.
• What is special about dialogues?
Descriptions
• It’s important to describe the setting, characters and any
details that happen before the story.
The valley had been important to the people for many
years. Full of trees, rivers and wild animals, it was
considered a mysterious place by the people of the village
and stories of fairies, witches and mysterious figures were
common
• How would you describe where you live?
• Windy
• Mysterious
• Lively
• Bright
• Hot in summers but dark in winter
Description of characters
• Describe the character in different ways
- Personality or attitude
- Appearance
- Special qualities
- Other details (age, family background, etc.)
• Mr. Toms was an old man with grey hair and wrinkles on
his forehead. He had come from a rich family and this
could be seen in the style of his clothes, which were
extremely elegant. Although old, he spoke to all ages of
people and on many occasions seemed like a teenager.
• Mr Toms was a nice old man who was friendly and rich.
Characters
• It’s good to have
- Relationships between characters
(Many times characters act because they want to save
other characters, protect them or help them)
- Conflicts between characters
(Many times characters do things to hurt other characters,
or be better than them).
- Characters can also have inner conflict. (Problems with
themselves)
Parts of a story
• Beginning
You should introduce your characters and setting, before
the drama starts
• Middle part
Rising action – this is where the plot begins and you
discover the story
At the end of the middle part you normally have the climax
– the important part of the story.
• Final part – The climax is resolved and the story general
ends with all of the problems solved and the main
character happy with what has happened.
Time expressions
• Then
• After that
• Not long aftewards
• As soon as
• While
• Meanwhile
• As
• Some time later
• A little later
• ____ minutes later
• a moment later
• Later (that morning/afternoon/day/night…)
• Just then
Suspense
• Suddenly
• All of a sudden
• Without warning
• Just at that moment
• Unexpectedly
• Out of the blue
• Out of nowhere
• Right away
• Straight away
Tenses
• Past simple and continuous:
It was midnight and I was trying to sleep.

• Past perfect and simple:

• Past simple:
This time I picked up the phone quickly and shouted,
‘Hello?’.
Short story
• Short stories range from one page to 10,000 words.
• They can generally be harder to write than longer stories
as we have to try to create a story, a dramatic point and
be able to give the story a good ending with fewer words
than normal.
• Short stories normally talk about a small event or a small
part of a characters life. It is usually a snippet or portion of
a characters life or place.
Why write a short story?
• It’s less time-consuming but more difficult than story
writing.
• It’s a good way to practice story writing.
• Maybe we find it difficult to write a full manuscript and we
feel like writing many shorter unrelated stories.
Short story
• Know your character – develop your character.
• Give your character strengths and weaknesses.
• Avoid making a ‘perfect’ character.
• Give your character realistic motives that can be
completely within a short story.
• Give them a unique feature.
• Create something impactful in the character’s past.
• Make secondary characters compliment or contrast the
protagonist.
• Give them a unique way of speaking.
• Avoid stereotypes.
Make an outline
• Making an outline will help you to structure the story,
especially one that is so short.
Start
• Start with something interesting or strange.
• Don’t start by describing a place, you don’t have time.
• This will help you draw in the reader.
Why is this an interesting start?
• Margot met Robert on a Wednesday night toward the end
of her fall semester. She was working behind the
concession stand at the artsy movie theatre downtown
when he came in and bought a large popcorn and a box
of Red Vines.
Why is this an interesting start
• This was it. She couldn’t run anymore. She heard the
hounds in the distance and the sirens somewhere nearby.
Maybe they were on a road. Maybe there was town.
Hope. If she could only get there without being caught
then maybe she would be free. ‘I found her!’ he shouted.
• He opened his eyes and saw the doctors. They were
speaking in a language he could not understand. In the
corner of his eye he saw white candles connected to the
wall. There was a magic box with moving pictures and
sounds connected like the candles. What was going on?
‘Dr. Blackwater…’ said one of the doctors ‘Welcome to the
21st century’.
• Lavender blinked. Why was this animal speaking to her.
Not just why but how? ‘I’m your guardian Lavender, we
were separated at birth. I have always been yours and
finally I have found you’. The otter transformed in the blink
of an eye to a parrot which landed on Lavender’s
shoulder. ‘There is a world to which you belong but one of
yet you have no idea’.