How to Write a Good Story

Before putting pen to paper, flip your pages to the last page of your notepad. Here make two or three circles, and write a few words directly concerning your topic inside them. For example, if you’re supposed to write a story about an event in which you were forced to do something that you weren’t supposed to, make one circle and write “occasion”, another “person/circumstances that forced me” and third “Ending”. Then make lines coming out of these circles and make more, smaller circles. Inside these circles write the answers of your previous questions, like connecting “friend” with “person”. Keep doing this until you have completely thought out your story. This is called “Mind-Mapping” or “Brain-Storming”. Take about one-fourth of the time you can use writing your story at this part. 

Come up with a strong beginning. In your opening paragraph, you should use good words and completely show your skill. To do this, you must carefully think of what you’re going to write before actually writing it. A nice, common beginning is to include mentioning what you think would happen the following day (which would completely contradict what will actually happen).

Your body should contain a wide vocabulary, so that the reader doesn’t get bored and judge hastily. There should be frequent events which would excite the reader and make him want to reach the end of your story. Using idioms in this part would be a good idea. There should be varied sentence structure, so that the reader is confident that you will provide an exceptional ending. As this is the main part of the story, most of your material you thought of while “Mind-Mapping” should mostly be used here.

Your ending is the most important part of your story. This should be satisfying and conclusive. It should be so perfect that the reader should sigh heavily and close his eyes thinking of what a good story you wrote. Closing idioms or quotations such as “All’s well that ends well” or “All in a day’s work” would really impress the reader/examiner. All questions and mysteries that arose in your beginning and body should be well answered in this part. Giving a moral would also be helpful.

Helpful tips:

A good story contains the following things:

1. Characters with different personalities

2. A plot (usually)

3. A moral

Good use of punctuation, a wide range of vocabulary and varied sentence structure will always impress your reader/examiner. If you’re going to give an examination/test, while practising, don’t be afraid of using big and new words in your story. Experiment a bit. During your examination/test, however, only use words that you have mastered and that you have used successfully previously. Your characters should be different from each other. Giving details of voices, smells, habits and appearance is what actually portrays a character in your story. For example: “Our old, slightly fat and immensely rich aunt always walked around with her nose in the air, wearing a red dress and talking in her shrill voice.” It appears that the aunt is a snobbish, wealthy woman who thinks more of herself than anyone else. Try impressing the reader of your story. Read literature and classic novels to improve your vocabulary and your idea of what should be in a story. Cross out your “Mind-Mapping” at the end. Re-check and double-check your work, make it attractive and don’t forget that mastery in story-writing is only attained after long hours of practice.