Mini Stories and One Shots

How to Write a Story (The Basics)

How to Write a Story (the basics):

Introduction:

I have read a fair amount of terrible stories in my time. But I’ve also read a fair amount of good stories, with good plotlines, just...Terrible characters, terrible grammar, terrible punctuation and all that stuff.

Tip One)

Getting to know your characters – if you’re writing a modern fairly realistic story, you need to make your characters modern fairly realistic people with personalities that actually exist. We need no Mary-Sues, the perfect characters. You know the type: skinny, but curvy in all the right places. Boys check her out. Girls look at her jealously. These annoy the heck out of readers (unless you have childish readers that just like reading crap, do NOT let them lead you on). Sit down at your desk, or on your bed, or in your favourite place – whatever. I don’t care. Just sit down and review qualities. Write their personalities, likes, interests, appearance and things, down. You don’t need to put it in a huge list in your story (“She had beautiful brown hair that cascaded down to her shoulders, big pouty lips and an amazing—”), just put it in subtly:

She tossed her brown hair over her shoulder.

A few chapters later: I really wish I had her lips; they were such a nice shade of pink.

A few chapters later: I stared at my pale friend and grinned. “Game on.”

Tip Two)

Punctuation is a BIG factor in your story. Without it, your book will crumble into a puree of hopelessness. Here are some incorrect sentences.

I hate life !

She is ugly ...

What?!?!?!?!!??!!?!!?!??!??!?!?!?!?!?

Why is she still talking?????

I hate my teacher!!!!!!!

 Big no-no, guys! Change it to this:

I hate life! (And proceed to explain why. Plus, there’s no need for a space between the sentence and the punctuation).

She is ugly... (This is a fairly bitchy sentence that will probably make your readers dislike your protagonist.)

What?! (There is no extra amount of punctuation needed. The required amount does just fine!)

Why is she still talking? (Note: Never put more than one question mark at the end sentence; its immature writing.)

I hate my teacher! (A very understandable thing, but please explain why you hate your teacher, and make sure to not add more than one exclamation mark. We get the point.)

Tip Three)

Just because you capitalize your sentences, doesn’t make it shouting. ‘“I HATE YOU!” I screamed” makes it look immature.

Don’t capitalize sentences just for the sake of it. 

Tip Four)

Do my sentences actually make sense? Well, Word (the document I’m using now, coincidentally) will help you with that one. If you get multiple red squiggly lines and green squiggly lines, you should go back to school. 

Sidenote: You can actually ignore green squiggly lines sometimes. When is key. In Dialogue and in sentences for effect are the only times you can ignore the green squiggles. Obviously, when you're talking you're not going to be speaking as though you would write. 

Tip Five)

Spelling. Use spell-check. It helps a hell of a lot! Spell-check is a writer’s best friend, along with their characters. Spelling is a big thing in a story. Don’t be lazy and not click it.

Tip Six)

Inspiration – music is your saving grace. Different types of music will lull you into different moods.  Seriously, it does!

Tip Seven)

Just learn! Are you just writing for votes, or do you actually put your heart and soul into your work? Do you actually pay attention in English class? Or are you just doing it because it’s cool. If you like writing, learn more of it! Hit the books; listen in class, and read-read-read! However, there is no: How to Be a Great Writer book. And if there is... Well, they're probably teaching you how to write correctly, not how to write well. There's a difference.

Well, I’ll add more when I think of more. Feel free to drop me a message asking a question. I will (probably) answer! 

Thanks for reading. Vote if you agreed with any of these tips, and comment if you think there's any missing! :D