|
You will find many writing tips online, but if you want to learn how to write a story and have your own book published, then you really need to ask those that have had the same aspirations and have succeeded. No, not those running publishing firms or offering self-publishing services for a fortune, but ordinary people like you who have done it themselves and are willing to pass on what they have learned. It can be a hard struggle for budding young authors to get started, and not everybody has sound financial backing behind them. Understanding the principles of writing a story, and also how to have it published in print, can make all the difference between failure and success - not for a lack of skill or imaginative writing, but because they were not aware of the process of getting their story printed and then published. Steps in Writing a Story There are certain steps to take when writing a story, whether you are writing a full length novel or a short story for publication in a magazine. To state it in very basic terms, you need a plot or theme for your story, and then spend time sketching out how that should develop and then end. Decide on a theme, and then think of the beginning and end you want. You can then work on the story itself, which is fundamentally everything between the beginning and the end! As an example, your story could be about an orphan baby finding his dead mother's family later in life. Child is left an orphan when mother dies - orphan is looked after by social services and a locket left by the mother is found - child escapes and gets involved in crime - child saved from a criminal gang and identity discovered through the locket by his real aunt and a benefactor. This would make a good book if written in the right era, and the Victorian era would be such a time. Is this story familiar? It should be - it was written by Charles Dickens using the theme of good against evil in a Victorian background. The title will be given during this article. The point being made here is that you must have a theme for your story, and then a beginning and an end. In any story you read, whether it is Wuthering Heights or Stig of the Dump, there is a general theme, and the rest is just padding. You could précis many fabulous books is just one paragraph as above, and the rest is simply a knowledge of how to write that you can learn. The Theme Overrides the Tale One of the most important writing tips for budding writers today is that the theme overrides the actual tale, but if you can find a theme that people can relate to and a good story to go with it, then you can achieve success. Dickens's novels became very successful in their own day: Oliver Twist would likely not have enjoyed the success it has were it to have been published today, but in the Victorian era the tale was very relevant to modern society at that time and readers were both captivated and disconcerted by the message it related. These days readers want a theme that they can recognize and identify with. Enid Blyton's 'Famous Five' tales, or Harriet Beecher Stowe's 'Uncle Tom's Cabin' would not work today, and your first task as a new writer is to find a theme that is currently both popular and believable. There is no point in knowing the mechanics of how to write a story if you cannot choose a theme or plot that relates to your potential readers. Yes, fairy tales will often work, but the genre must be spiced up for today's youngsters. That's the reason for the popularity of the Harry Potter novels, and also why the movie versions of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' are altered with each generation. It's a story of good prevailing over bad, although it is now considered more P.C. for bad kids not to be killed off or simply disappear up an elevator! Do It the Best You Can . . . The writing tips above are only a few of those you can take to help you become a published author; they will help you think of a realistic plot that readers will find interesting enough to continue turning each page, and ultimately enable you to see your name as author of your very own first published work. If want to succeed at anything - anything at all - then you must learn all you can about it and give it the best shot possible. If you fail to do your best to succeed in achieving your dream, you will always wonder: what if. . . Don't leave yourself like that, and take the best teaching and writing tips you can get on how to write a story so you can give yourself the best possible chance of realizing your dream of being a published author. It can be done if you follow the right steps, and taking advice from people that have done it themselves is one of the best ways to learn how to write a story that sells: plus how to find out to publish it!
|
![[Valid RSS feed]](http://www.megaezines.com/images/icon_Rss.png "XML Feed For RSS"){kind=icon}
Category Rss Feed