How to write a good/better story + tips

Characters, set up, writers block and BANG

Everyone loves those characters that are fun, loud  but can be shy sometimes. So why not have one? It can make the story a LOT more interesting.

Here’s an exercise to get an idea about characters personalities. Look at your friend, describe them (not how they look, but how they act)

One friend may be sensitive. One might be a hypocrite, another speaks filth. Everyone’s different.

So show that. Guy’s and girls think differently, even if it’s about the same thing. Example:

Guy P.O.V (point of view)

“Girl are like cats, they’re sly, sneaky things. They smile and draw you in, just to scratch your eyes out when they don’t get what they want. They’re evil, always ripping up your clothes. Guys are like dogs, were friends! We know how you have a good time. Girls, they just stab you in the back!” 

Girl’s P.O.V

“Guys are such dogs! Look at them! All they do is roll around in the mud and be idiots. They have no self-control, they need to be put on a leash. Girls are so much better. We’re like cats, beautiful and elegant, in complete control over ourselves. Guys track mud into the house and leave dirty underwear laying around! They need to be house trained like the dogs they are” 

See the difference? There would also be a difference if you had a loud, always bubbly girl who saw the best in everyone and a Goth girl who secretly wished for everyone to die.

Another thing about characters, you don’t need to put they’re profile up, NO ONE READS THEM…. Okay, maybe 1 in every 20. But it ruins the story. Seriously. People get a feeling for characters through what you write, how you portray them. You can say someone’s bitchy, but why not show them?

Example:

Bridget puts more lips gloss on her already glossy lips before smiling slyly. “Hey, Sarah, you know that bag dad sad he was going to get me?” She doesn’t wait for her companion to answer. “He got me the wrong one. I said I wanted Prada, not some second hand old lady’s tote” she scoffs.

“What’d you do?”  

“Set it on fire, of course. With my new touch iphone. So now he has to buy me a new bag, and a new phone. He deserves it, it’ll teach him to get it right next time” Bridget shrugs and struts out of the bathroom, not looking back to see if Sarah was following.

Don’t you just want to hate her? She’s a bitch. I showed you, didn’t tell you.

Now, set up.

Paragraphs

Every times someone new speaks, Paragraph.

Every time something new happens, paragraph.

If you’re current paragraph is getting too long, paragraph.

No one likes reading a slab of writing where they keep getting lost. I try to make my paragraphs under 7 or 8 lines on Microsoft word. Otherwise, it gets too long.

If you read a book, you can see it, some people have spaces at the start of every new paragraph, some don’t, others have HUGE paragraphs, others have a new paragraph for every sentence nearly.

Powerful words can go on a line themselves. Words like Fear, Pain, hopeless, desperation, they can all got on a line to themselves, it makes the reader pause on them , lets it sink in.

Writers block

Don’t we love it? No, it’s the worst thing possible, and there a very few ways to get over it.

Daydreaming and showers, I find work for me.

If you have writers block, instead of sitting on your bed staring at wall for hours, go have a nice, hot shower and think about what’s coming up. It almost always helps. Be careful not to use all the hot water (like I do…) Or go to bed half an hour earlier and think about your story, were you’re going, what’s happening. Think about it like it’s a movie.

But don’t get too caught up in one idea, come back and start again, following a different idea.

Another thing you can do (but have to be careful with) is read other stories, sometimes they do something that gives you an idea, but you can’t steal there idea, twist it into your own, change it.

Now, one of the most important parts.

The first chapter.

My teacher always said to start it with a bang. If the girl (or boy) is going to meet some aliens, don’t start when she gets up for school, how she gets ready- IT’S BORING. Start when the alien ship is landing! Or how she see’s lights in the forest and goes to investigate.

No one cares what she has for breakfast or how she nearly feel down the stairs while putting her shoes on. It’s irrelevant!

NEVER have I started a story where she gets up in the morning, unless something happens then. Like her bedroom wall is missing, or she findings a gremlin destroying her bathroom. If something doesn’t happen, don’t write it.

So many people can’t write a first chapter, your prologue is supposed to describe background stuff, but even that’s sometimes better than the first chapters. You need to draw a reader in from the first chapter. It can’t take 5 chapters of nothing before someone’s kidnapped.

Next chapter: Title, cover and Description