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2. Your story opening: • should grab your reader’s attention. • keep the number of characters to a minimum- only 2 or 3 • bring your characters to life through descriptions of their appearance and personality. • create some interaction between your characters. • Something has to happen in your story; the problem. • To finish your story - resolve your problem. We will go through each section of the story now. Planning is vital!

3. Beginning Your story can begin in different ways. “Don’t move! It’s right behind you.” The boy slowly turned and gasped in horror! This opening puts us right into the action. This is a good strategy for adventure stories.

4. The first place that I can well remember was a large pleasant meadow with a pond of clear water in it. Some shady trees leaned over it and rushes and water lilies grew at the deep end. This opening begins by describing the scene. Your descriptions have to paint a vivid picture for your readers. Black Beauty by Anna Sewell begins like this.

5. Granny Smith, an ordinary, little, old white-haired lady, resting on a seat in a public park, began to feel decidedly peculiar… Granny Smith was old and her eyesight and hearing were not as good as they used to be. Suddenly a beam of blue light shot out of nowhere, it seemed, and struck the little old lady. This story begins with a description of the main character.

6. The iron man came to the top of the cliff. How far had he walked? Nobody knew. Where had he come from? Nobody knew. How was he made? Nobody knew. Taller than a house, the Iron Man stood at the top of the cliff, on the very brink, in the darkness. This story starts mysteriously with a simple sentence followed by questions.

7. Recap You can begin your story in different ways, depending upon the type of story you want to create. By beginning in the middle of the action. By describing the setting. By describing the main character. By starting mysteriously with questions.

8. Main characters Most authors have the luxury of several hundred pages and many chapters to create their characters. You however, are limited by the amount you can write. Because of this it is advisable to have no more than two main characters. Other characters can of course be mentioned in your story, but you must concentrate on developing your main characters. To bring your characters to life, you must describe them: their appearance; their personalities; their strengths and weaknesses. Most important of all, your characters must interact! They must talk to each other just like people do in real life!

9. Middle This is where something has to happen. This is the problem in your story that has to be solved. Think of some stories you know and say what the problem was.For example:In Magnus Powermouse the problem is how to feed Magnus and all the adventures are connected to this problem. You can only have one problem! In a book there are lots of pages and chapters to write about lots of problems. You haven’t got the time for more than one.

10. Resolution This is where the problem is solved. There are different ways of doing this, just as there are different ways of beginning your story. You can have a happy or sad solution or you can leave the problem unresolved as a cliff hanger. A lot depends upon the type of story or genre you have chosen.

11. Ending Finally, it’s time to end your story. You have begun it, created and developed your characters, had a problem that has been solved, now it’s time to bring all your loose ends together and finish your story. Is your ending going to point to the future: the girls wondered if life would ever be the same? Are you going to make a moral point: the boys knew that they had had a lucky escape and would never meddle in other people’s problems again! Just as you have done (hopefully) throughout your story. Include detail, description and build up an atmosphere. How do your characters feel for example.

12. Remember. The opening must grab your readers’ attention Your characters must be interesting and fairly realistic They must interact with each other like people do in real life. The main part of the story is the problem. What is actually going to happen in your story? You have to resolve the problem. How will you choose to do this? Finally, you end your story. Just like you did in the beginning, keep your readers attention by having an interesting ending. A good plan is vital!