How to Write a Story – School Education Solutions

Creative Writing Skill

Short Story

Oxford Dictionary mentioned below the meaning of “Story”

a description of people and events that are not real
an account, especially a spoken one, of something that has happened
a description of true events that happened in the past
an article or report in a newspaper or magazine
A story is a description of imaginary people and events, which is written or told in order to entertain. (Collins Dictionary)
The story of something is a description of all the important things that have happened to it since it began. (Collins Dictionary)

What is story?

A story is the telling of an event, either true or fictional, in such a way that the listener experiences or learns something just by the fact that he heard the story. A story is a means of transferring information, experience, attitude or point of view. Every story has a teller and a listener. (Reuters)

Why do we write story?

Reuters explains precisely i.e. “A story is a series of events we either create or remember or imagine which we tell ourselves because we want or need to hear them. Perhaps we create stories because we want or need to know something, or learn something, or answer a question. Perhaps it is the listener within us that demands the story and the teller within us that does its best to accommodate.” (Reuters)

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How-to-Write-a-Story Download

Writing Skill	Competencies	Story Writing
our view or perspective choice of words the comparisons we make the images we use the tone we adopt novelty of ideas. (NCERT)	Creative expression of an opinion, reasoning, justifying, illustrating, appropriacy of style and tone, using appropriate format and fluency. Applying conventions, using integrated structures with accuracy and fluency	Short Story/Story Generally, a short story is beginning, middle and end point/open ending

How to Write Story Step by Step

British Library suggested “Use the Five W’s to help with your story structure:

1. What is happening?

2. Where is it happening?

3. When is it happening?

4. Why is it happening?
5. Who is it happening to?

‘I think that the joy of world building in fiction is honestly the joy of getting to play God. Because as an author, you get to build the world.’‘A lot of what you do in world building is you do your homework. You do your research. Go on walks. See things. All of that – and then take notes.’
Neil Gaiman, author of American Gods and Coraline

How to Write and What to Do for Writing Story/Short Story

If I were a story writer, I would like to think over following points for writing a good story. You can too-

Keep your paper, pen, pencil, a notebook, mobile, tab, computer ready

Sit down and start writing
Story consists of characters
Story should be interesting
Story may be or may not be dramatic/crazy/crazy twist/complex climax
Story consists of some problems, and some kind of resolution for better or worse
Create settings that reflect a character’s mood or circumstances
Keep one Title of the Story
Stick to one theme,
Use one narrative point of view,
Use one situation,
Use two/ three characters
Compose the Dialogue between two characters or 3^rd person narration
Give your reader a space and scope to think about something

How do we sustain the interest of the reader?

Lynsey May suggests in the article “How to start writing short stories”, “This might be a cleverly plotted surprise ending, a moment of conflict between two characters, a moment of revelation for the main character, an exciting inciting incident or simply a new take on a familiar setting.”

If I were a story writer, I would like to consider following points for writing a good story. You can too-

Use of past simple, past continuous, past perfect	Use of adjectives and adverbs- Fantastic, Unexpectedly, Strange, Slowly,
Use Direct Speech	Use punctuation

Use of Simile, Metaphor, Symbol, Expression

When the last of the guests left, I went back into the hall.… (We can begin a story like this)

Let us study the paragraph below

A town is like an animal. A town has a nervous system and a head and shoulders and feet. A town is a thing separate from all other towns, so that there are no towns alike. And a town has a whole emotion. How news travels through a town is a mystery not easily to be solved. News seems to move faster than small boys can scramble and dart to tell it, faster than women can call it over the fences. (from an adapted version of Steinbeck’s The Pearl) (NCERT Example)

Explanation of above paragraph

The topic: A Town

Analogy or comparison: to an animal

Word choice: “has a whole emotion.”

Comparisons: “faster than small boys can scramble and dart, faster than women….”

We find the first element of imagination operating in the way the writer visualises the town. Then he extends the primary analogy.The tone he adopts is light humour, a little sarcastic. (NCERT Example)