Story Writing Tips: How to Build a Story from Scratch

To create a story, the ingredients that a writer needs to use and combine are plot, setting, characters point of view, narrative, scenes, the type of stories, form and structure.

In order to write a successful, marketable short story, writers must know and understand each one of these vital parts of a story.

Plot:
Plot is the basic essence of the story. Plot is the situation not the story itself. Plot is the framework that the story is built upon...have you ever seen a house being built? It starts with the framework. Another example: imagine a skeleton. It is made up of bones, right? The writer puts the meat on the bones or builds the story.

Plot examples: Harry Potter: Young man learns he is a wizard; Little House on the Prairie: frontier life through the eyes of a young girl;

Setting: the where of the story; not just where but exactly where; Example: a classroom. At Benton? In Neosho? In Kansas City? New York? All would be different. When? Now? In the 1950's? 1910? 1880? (Use original Central as example of a Neosho school) Season is important; sights; sounds.

Character: Characters are important. If a story were a car, the character would be the driver. Sometimes characters are created to fit a situation the writer has devised. Sometimes the character introduces himself. Characters come from imagination, from combining several people into one, based on a real person. (Select a child). There are ten basic things that the writer must find out about the character so that he or she can tell the writer about them. These things are:

Who is the character? Name, gender, kind of person

What are they? Student? Son? Daughter? Brother? Sister?
Soccer player? Reader? Baptist? Jewish?

Where are they? At school? Home? In the woods? On vacation?
In a city or on a farm? Neosho or New Orleans? Is this now or a century ago? Today or last year or twenty years ago? Is it in the future? 2110?

What are they like: Old or young? Rich or poor? Intelligent? Happy? Irritable? Nice? Good manners? Friendly or shy?

How do others see the character: Physical description - curly hair, black hair, brown eyes, small, tall, what? Beyond the physical, is the character seen as a good neighbor, a team player, excellent student, what?

Who are their friends/peers? Does the character hang out with a group of friends? Prefer to spend quiet time with a grandparent? Play with a sibling? If an adult character, does he or she move in social circles with movie stars or hang out at a racetrack?

Who are their enemies? Is it a cranky old man down the street? A stranger? A co-worker? A witch?

Why is the character in this place or situation?
To solve a problem, to help someone, to gain something?

How did the character find himself in this place?
Was it accidental? Did she go to this place for a reason? What is the reason?

What does the character want to do or accomplish or experience? Fly to the moon? Stand up to a bully? Help an elderly neighbor? Make money to buy something special?

Point of View/Narrative:
The point of the view is the set of eyes that the story is told through...narrative is the progression of the story, as the story moves along. There are three basic types of point of view:
First person: "I", the person is telling the story or writing about events
Second person: Someone is telling about another person
Third person: told from someone outside the story; the storyteller...often the most flexible.

Scenes: Think of a favorite story. The story begins in the classroom. That's a scene. When the action moves out onto the playground, that's a scene. If the character goes home, that is another scene. Panels of action.

Types of story: Prose, telling a story (show don't tell), Exposition (explaining, defining, describing), Narrative, telling what happened, dialogue, conversation, talking,

Form and Structure:
What is the writing? A story? A poem? Play? Is this a true story? Fiction?

Structure: how the story is presented, form as well as presentation. Stories need a beginning, middle, and end. That's the simple version. Writers think of the basic elements of a story as an introduction (character, setting, plot), a conflict (what the character must do, has done, must face), rising action (how the character deals with what is happening), climax or anti-climax - end result, what happened.

Other points to make:

Fiction is making a story with words, telling a story that you made up.

Writing has two parts: talent and craft. Although talent can't always be taught, craft can. Craft is learning spelling, grammar, punctuation, form, what makes a story and more.

Reading is important. Writers read and many readers write. Read the stories of others to get ideas for your own.

Use these elements to build a story on a bare framework and almost any writer, novice or pro, can create a saleable, readable short story!