Ok here we go. As promised some ideas for planning and writing a story…

A while ago I had to write a piece for a creative writing course I was doing. The tutor asked me to go back to my childhood and become a boy. I had to write just 1,000 words. So I wrote down 10 ideas…

First I got a big piece of paper and a pencil.
1. I chose a name for myself.
2. Decided what I looked like.
3. I chose a place to live.
4. Decided I was going to be naughty.
5. Made up my mind to bunk off school.
6. Decided what I was going to do instead of school.
7. Decided how I was going to bunk off school.
8. Decided I was going to meet someone important who kept me talking.
9. Then made up a load of lies.
10.Ended the story with a twist.

This was the plan I came up with. This is the hardest part and takes the time. But once it’s done the rest is easy because you just have to write it.

I made sure I gave my reader plenty of clues as to what I looked like and what sort of person I was and why I thought it was a good thing not to go to school. I gave reasons why so my readers got some sympathy with me and they could join in my adventure…readers like that because they feel they are getting to know you. I also let the reader know about my home life and my parents…readers like that too…you are letting them in to your world.

Then I introduced an interfering relative that would not stop talking, made me tell loads of lies so I felt terrible and started to think the whole idea was a bad one! This gave me the chance to bring in description of the new character… what she looked like, and her mannerisms, her relationship with me (she was an old aunty who lived across the road and seen me from her bedroom window going fishing because I had my fishing rod attached to my bike).

Then it turned out in the end she had known all along that I was NOT going to school. She was not going to stop me; she just made me think about what I was doing. It was funny of course because I wanted my reader to laugh! I used lots of descriptive words and because I had to write the whole scene on one side of paper every word counted so I did not go, ‘la,di,la di, la di la.’ I made every word count and if I did not need it I left it out.

The reader of your story needs lots of detailed description. If your story is really visual it will be like watching a film…

For example…You could just write

The cat walked down the road following a mouse.

But if you write…

The fierce black cat padded silently across the dusty path. His unblinking orange speckled eyes focused intently on his target. Slowly, carefully, he edged forward getting nearer and nearer. The cowering mouse stood tranfixed and unable to move as he waited for the attack.

Can you see the cat? And the mouse? Can you feel the tension and the emotion of the scene? Do you want to know what happens next? If you do then that is good because you are engaging with me in this scene which is what you should do.

Have a go at this. Just think of a scene…
A striker and a goalie…
A horse and a rider…

Anything that interests you…

Just write 4 sentences like I did but make them visual and alive.