Writing a story: Beginnings and endings
1. Beginnings
The beginning of a story is where you introduce your readers to your style, setting and characters. Often a writer will give his characters a problem to solve. This keeps the reader interested, as they’ll want to find out what happens.
Style
It’s important to get your style right from the beginning of a story, so readers get the feel of your story early on.
Whatever sort of story you are writing, use adjectives (words that describe nouns) and adverbs (words that describe verbs) to make your writing more interesting.
If you are writing a ghost story, for example, choose dark, scary adjectives to create a dark, scary atmosphere (feeling).
You can also choose whether your story will have lots of characters, dialogue (people talking) and action, or long, slow descriptive pieces of writing. Or all of those things!
Setting
Your setting is the place and time where your story takes place. Letting your readers know where and when your story is set will help them picture the scene.
By using descriptive language and the right words you can create the right atmosphere around your setting. Two stories can be set in exactly the same place, but feel completely different because of the words the writer chooses to use.
Characters
When you introduce characters (people) you need to describe them so that the reader gets a feeling for what they are like. Some authors, such as Dickens, give their characters names that help describe what they are like. For example Mr Slyme is a slimy character.
Also think about the words you give your characters to say (dialogue). Make sure the words they use and the way they say things suit the sort of people they are.
2. Endings
Don’t leave any questions unanswered at the end of the story and make sure your reader knows what happens to all your characters - unless you are planning a sequel (second part), in which case don’t tell the reader everything! Then they’ll want to read your next story to find out what happens.
