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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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!