General Writing Tips

GENERAL WRITING TIPS

STORY BEGINNINGS

The start of your story is very important. From the moment the reader turns the first page, your book needs to hook them in straight away; your first words should make the reader want to keep reading. Your beginning needs to put questions in the readers mind that are answered throughout the book.

Look at some books that you have enjoyed and see how the authors have started their stories. This will give you some ideas about how to hook your readers in.

SENTENCES

It’s important for your sentences to begin and end in the right place. If they don’t, your writing won’t make sense to the reader.

TIPS FOR WRITING SENTENCES

• Read your work out aloud. If you pause, this is where the sentence should finish and a new one should start.
• Check to see that every sentence has a subject (person, animal, object or thing that the sentence is about) and a verb (action word eg ran, went, ate etc).

TENSE OR POINT OF VIEW

You need to decide if you are writing your story about something that has already happened (past tense; was, had, went etc) or something that is happening now (present tense; is have, go).

It is really important that your tense stays the same all the way through your story; otherwise it will be confusing for your reader.

SHOW DON’T TELL

Instead of writing about a conversation that your character overheard, show the conversation; show who said, what.

Instead of writing that, “Yesterday, John fell down a rabbit hole”; describe him falling down the rabbit hole.

ONLY USE WHAT’S IMPORTANT TO THE STORY

If your character had a banana for breakfast, the reader doesn’t need to know this; UNLESS, the banana is important to the story eg, it has been illegally smuggled, there was a diamond hidden inside.

PLOTTING

Before you start, it’s important to know where your story is going, otherwise it will wander out of control. Some people plot out every move; other people see where their character takes them. It’s up to you, how you plot, but you should have some idea of how your story will end.

Your story should contain a series of events that add more and more tension, moving towards the high point (which is called the climax), this is where everything comes to a head. This is the point at which things are resolved and the loose ends are tied up.

EDITING

Before you send your story off, get other people to read it and check for mistakes, typos etc. Ask them if your story made sense to them; if it engaged them and kept them wanting to know what happened next.