“If there’s a book that you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it.” ― Toni Morrison
Writing a story can be far more interesting than reading one. Creative/Story writing brings out your innovation and ability to think out of the box.
Are you looking for expert tips to give a new shape to your story? If yes, we will guide you with the steps to write a short story in English.
- Start reading: Reading will give you an idea on how to pen down your thoughts. Hope you read regularly. Also, analyze the style of writing so as improve yours. To develop reading habit, you may like to read our post – 10 ways to develop reading habit. Reading merely might not helpful unless you study two to three stories very closely.
- Decide your theme:Theme is a soul of any story. It repeatedly appears throughout the story and connects to the internal journey of the character. It is the main idea that is described and discussed in a piece of writing. A reader might not be able to connect with the story, if it lacks a theme. The theme helps to turn a good story into a persuasive one.
- Create your story characters:Before you start writing, define the protagonist and other characters of your story well. You need not describe your character completely, just a small description about his looks or moves are enough to entice readers.
- Story structure:Decide the structure of your story. Either, write in first person pronoun i.e. using “I” and telling a story as if it has happened to you, OR, write using third person pronoun i.e. using “he”, “she” and “it” and telling the story as if it is all about another person. Also, decide about writing the story either in “past” or “present” tense and stick to one tense throughout to maintain parallelism.
- Setting: Decide the set of your story i.e. the frame and the place of the story. Choose a setting in the time and place that is familiar and interesting.
- Tone and style: To write well, one does not need to write fancy. Use the language that you find right for your story. Use of simple sentences and words make your writing easy to read and understand. Use appropriate words, the one that closely describe what you mean and that creates a clear image in the mind of your reader.
- Write your story:There you are! Decided everything. Now, put pen to paper and start writing your thoughts. Don’t worry about what will come out.
- Editing and rewriting:All good writing is a rewriting. Once finished writing your story you need to edit, check for grammar errors typos, proof read to make it good enough for publishing..
Start writing your short story today. Do share your thoughts, feedback, if any…
All the best!
