How to write a good/better story + tips

Linking it all together

Have you ever read a story which ties everything together at the end beautifully? Where it's all been orchestrated so that everything ties up? So that no questions are left un answered, and no enders a hanging around?

Do you want to write perfectly like that?

We'll keep writing, because only a few people have the talent to do it without hardship, leaving the rest of us to scramble in the dust looking for the secrets. And while you won't be able to walk away from this with perfect knowledge, it may help you take a few steps in the right direction!

I'm sure everyone knows about Hansel and Gretel, the two kids who left a trail of breadcrumbs as they ventured into the deep, dark woods all alone. You will probably also be familiar that people often use those breadcrumbs as the face-poster for tying things together.

In a few sentences, it just means to leave a trail for the readers to collect as they go, and whether or not they pick them up is up to them. At the end the crumbs are piece together and you see the big picture you can't see while up close...which is the bread, I guess.

Well, I have a new one for you guys.

Baking.

So, you're making a cake-your story.

Now, you can go about this simply. You can use your flour as the body –plot-, butter-your characters-, the milk –to make things run smoothly-, eggs-for it all to hold togther-and if your one lucky son of a gun, you make have the baking soda for it all to rise.

However, that's just a basic story. Anyone can do that, right?

So when you're planning to make your story, what do you do? You grab the extras! You're vanilla essence, coco-powder, sugar and anything else you can add!

What does this mean for your story?

A little bit of planning, and thinking. Figure out what idea's you want obscure, what you want them to know, but don't want it to be obvious. So in other words, when you add your sugar to your cake, don't put in 10 cups-you're going to kill everyone from a sugar overdose, or in your case, kill all the mystery.

So you add a little bit, just enough to notice, but not so much you catch it among everything else.
A common way authors deal with this stuff is distractions. Drop you're breadcrumb, or sugar, then suddenly have something big happen –a fight scene, a dramatic argument, sexy love scene or a spiral into depression, anything to draw your readers away from that memory.

So that's how you continue making you're cake. Throwing things in slowly.

A mistake people make with leaving the strings around to be tied together at the end is they simply get three-quarters of the way through their novel and start throwing them in. Than you get 10 'links' all shoved into 5 chapters. And does work? No.

So plan from the start. Keep it subtle and lay them out at random intervals right before something interesting happens.

Common links left lying around are so subtle we don't even realize until later, or we notice, but can't actually connect the dots.

As an example, i'll put down the points to a makeshift-story.

This story is about two young people, the girl's from a rich family and everyone thinks she's a prude, but she's not and wants to be treated like a normal person. This girls name is....Emma. Than a guy, by the name of....Bob...is really poor, but just having moved to a new school, doesn't want to be picked on again. Now Bob hates rich people because they have it so easy.

The connection I'll be writing is to show Bob's poor, but at no time before the end, shall I state it.

My links will be:
-Bob first making a comment about Emma being 'a stuck up rich bitch' (not uncommon considering she is rich.)
-Bob always seems to have work-says his mum insists (she doesn't know he actually has 3 part-time jobs)
-He has minimal lunch's (like a sandwich and an apple)
-He walks to school (an hour walk to and from school, she doesn't know the time or distance)
-Has basic workstation materials. (such as cheap schoolbooks, cheap pens ect)
-Tries really hard at school, but feels like he's getting nowhere.
-often frowns at expensive things, and gets frustrated at them (phones, laptops)

Now, technically these look to be basic teenage properties. They don't have any real meaning until the end when they're connected to him being poor-so poor his families being kicked out of the house and they have to sleep in the car.

But this is all going on through the story. This is happening while the characters are talking, interacting and having fun, while they're fighting, screaming and crying. It's not the main plot, but can have a dramatic influence on the story. Of course Bob may not trust Emma and think she'll be some rich snob, never tells her because he doesn't want her pity ect.

For loose ends to work properly they must be small and subtle, with no clear connection between them. It's only later, and usually through explaining one thing do several other stands of the story fall in place for other pieces to connect.


...Yeah. So that's all I've got for now guys J Thanks for reading, and I hope this is helpful. If you've got anything else you want to know for writing stories, the comment section is below.

Also, I'm thinking about making one of these on how to right smut/lemons/sex scenes stuff. Let me know if your interested.