Has writing a novel or short story always been your dream? Though the perfect story has been lingering in your mind since a long time, whenever you sit down to write, you always find that you are unable to give it a good start. However, no need to worry anymore, as here are some writing tips that will help you in your endeavor of creating a great story.
A novel is a literary genre that involves a fictional story written in the prose form. There are many novelists who say that they just need to sit before their computer and their fingers automatically start typing the words of their story. Though this is possible, not every writer is able to do this, especially a beginner in writing. Beginners in the field of writing will often find themselves struggling really hard to explain what is in their minds. Here, the problem is not language, but the way you organize your thoughts. So, take a look at certain writing tips for beginners that will show you the way in which you can go about writing your story.
Tips for Writing a Story
Genre: Decide on the genre that your story idea falls in. For instance, whether you are going to write romance, science fiction, historical, etc. It will be a great idea to read stories written under these genres by contemporary novelists. Now, here do not get me wrong! I do not suggest that you copy their narrative style or the plot itself, rather reading other books in the same genre will help you in understanding various styles and techniques that may inspire you in your writing process. You will also know the pace of narration that you have to adopt for writing a story in a particular genre.
Outline: You may have a brilliant story in mind, but you are unable to organize it into a single entity. So, one of the most important writing tips is creating an outline of the story. Your outline need not have all the minute details of your story. Create the basic structure as to how you are going to start the story and what are the events that will follow. You also have to decide the point of view through which you are going to narrate the story. You can choose the first person narrative where you narrate the story through the voice of one of the main characters in the story, or else you can opt for the omniscient viewpoint which is quite a common method of narration.
Characterization: Along with the outline of the story, you also have to work on the characterization. It is necessary to decide in the beginning itself about who would be your main characters. Chart out the outline of your characters as to their personality, attitude, mannerisms, etc. However, remember that you should not list them in your story while introducing these characters, rather their characteristics should reflect in the way they act and react to situations and events that happen in the story.
Main Conflict: Conflict is the most essential part of a good story. Your characters cannot lead a perfect life as this may seem boring to the readers. To make your story interesting and gripping for the readers, you have to think about the conflict that you have to introduce in your story. Think about what the conflict would be, how you are going to build up the tension, how it will affect the life of the characters, and how they will react to it. You also have to think about a way in which you will resolve the conflict at the end of the story.
Dialog: Many times incorrect or badly written dialogues can ruin the entire story. So, you have to be extra careful while writing dialogs. While writing dialogues, keep in mind that they should sound like everyday conversations. People in real life have their own distinct style of speaking. So you can write dialogues for the characters that matches their personality, background, etc. Do not make the mistake of writing long sentences because conversations usually involve short sentences. You can also include accents so that the dialog of each character can be distinguished from one another.
Proofread and Edit: When you first begin writing the story, you can include various details that make it interesting. You can also use the various literary devices that will help in accentuating certain important parts of the story. Once you have finished, the next step is proofreading. While going through the pages, you may come across certain parts which you think is not required in your story, or you may get ideas about including something that will make the story better. After proofreading several times, you may consider sending your story to another author for editing. Let them go through your story and rectify the mistakes. He/she will also be able to give you appropriate feedback according to which you can make significant changes to make your story even better.
I hope these writing tips prove helpful to you. Remember that these tips on writing a story are just general guidelines that will aid you, however, you have to take a lot of efforts to create an original story and personal style of writing that is unique from the rest. So now go ahead and let your writing skills flow. Wishing you all the best.
