Tips on Writing a Story

Sometimes a great way to write stories is add additional details and start with a setting. Descriptions are a major part of the writing and focusing on the main meaning is as well. Here are some quick Tips that I learned in school and took notes on. (I will add more)

1. Magic Three:
There parallel groups of words, usually separated by comma. they create a rhythm or add support for a point (especially when the three word groups have their own modifiers)

Ex: First grade is the place where you learn that its ABC, not AQZ, where you learn that there are numbers past ten, where you learn that "see Jane run" isn't the most complicated sentence in the world. Ah, first grade, I will always remember that that was the year a war was fought. (student example)

During first period I talk to student, look out the window, and drink my coffee. (All must be the same part of speech, or you can actually repeat the word(s))

2. Figurative Language:
Non-literal comparison such as similes, metaphors, and personification. These add "spice" to your writing and can help paint a more vivid picture for the reader.

Ex: I live with my mother and my little brother on an old dirt road where silence is heard and is about like a plague.

3. Specific Details for Effect: (Imagery)
Instead of general, vague description, specific sensory details help the reader visualize the person, place, thing, or idea that you are describing.

Ex. I remember seeing you when you first came to Applegate Elementary. You slowly strolled down the hallways, your eyes wandering, legs shaking, teeth chattering. You looked amazed at how big the school was, like it was the Taj Mahal or a queen's palace. You were bone-skinny, legs the size of a supermodel's arm, had dark tree-bark kin two shades darker then mine.

4. Repetition for Effect: (I have a Dream Speech by Martin Luther King Jr.)
Writers often repeat specially chosen words or phrases to make a point, to stress certain ideas for the reader.

Ex: the bed cradling her held no sentimental value. Patients came and went too quickly for it to become cherished or familiar. No one had hidden a journal between the mattresses, a tooth under a pillow. No one searched under the best skirt and cried joyfully, "Oh look, it's those sunglasses thought I lost two weeks ago." No one had with their knew made a tent out of the sheets so they could read by flashlight without waking up the person beside them.

5. Expanded Moment:
Instead of "speeding" past a moment, writers often emphasize it by expanding the action.

Ex. It begins just before dawn. Sunlight filters through the rows of pines and begins to warm the air. A steady breeze moves through the trees. Moisture has condensed on the leaves of the plants during the night. It has collected in frozen droplets and now slowly drips onto the soil near a quail feeding in the morning shade of the tree line. As the sun appears highers in the sky, our side of the world begins to wake up. Here I am perched precariously on a boulder, watching wildlife as it is meant to be.

I hope these tips allows them to understand how they can motivate their stories to catch people's attention. Sometimes, for people its hard to understand the meaning held inside a book and with details it sometimes gives a better visual.Try connecting with a book by comparing and contrasting your life with the characters. Try putting yourself in the Characters shoes. These tips and quick hints are to be of great help for others.

If you have any tips of your own, please share them with us by posting a Comment under this thread. Thank you. All help with be appreciated.

Nice tips, Aj! [: | :]

Those are great tips AJ. I really needed these tips. Thank you!