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How to write a story. First you have to decide …. Where and when your story is going to take place. This is called the setting. Past?. Present ?. Future?. Give great thought to the setting(s) in your story. Manipulate the reader with the setting.
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First you have to decide … • Where and when your story is going to take place. • This is called the setting. Past? Present ? Future?
Manipulate the reader with the setting. Use place as well as the weather, time of day and season, to create a setting. After all, a walk along a lane on a summery afternoon creates one atmosphere but the same lane on a dark wintry night would feel very different.
Use detail to bring the setting alive - base this on sense impressions. • What can be seen, heard, smelled, touched and tasted? • If the reader is to enter your world, s/he needs to be able to • see it • hear it • touch it • taste it • smell it
Think of places where you have been. Close your eyes and look at all the details around you. What can you see? Now use your imagination to change the place. Add some interesting details. Do you want details to make your setting seem: dangerous? frightening? fun? safe? peaceful? strange/imaginary? Base settings on places that you know - plus some invented detail.
Use the setting to create atmosphere • For instance, you might use a Victorian house – full of furniture and William Morris wallpaper. The fire is on, so the whole room is toasty and warm, but dark because there is no lights just candles. Why?
Remember: • Do not get bogged down in too much description or you will lose the pace of the narrative.
Use real or invented names to bring places alive • Names help to make your setting more real and more believable. • ‘A boy walked down a street’ tells us nothing, but ‘Charlie O’Neill limped down Butcher’s Row’ starts to catch our imagination.
Next consider … • Who the characters are. • Who is going to be in the story? • What sort of characters are they?
Time for the Problem…. • What is going to happen in your story? • What is the main event? • What type of story is it?
Include Important Events • How does your story develop? • The events in the story • This is known as the plot.
Finally …the Solution/Resolution and ending • How it all ends. • The problem is solved. • What type of ending? Happy? Sad? Cliffhanger?
Think about …… • Who? • Where? • When? • What? • How? • Why?