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Writing Tips: How to Write a Story

By Dawn Burke.

Republish: EasyPublish™
Published: 06Mar2012
Word count: 857
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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. Knowing how to write a story and then how to get it published can make the difference between budding authors achieving the success their competence deserves, and failure through ignorance of 'the system' more than a lack of imagination and writing ability.

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! For example, your theme could be a child finding his long-lost family.

Child is left an orphan when mother dies - orphan is taken into care and left a locket belonging to mother - child escapes and gets involved in crime - child saved from crime and identified by locket by mother's sister 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 most great books in a paragraph as I have done above and the rest is technical writing knowledge that can be learned.

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: it is doubtful if Oliver Twist would have sold much if it was published today, but in Victorian England people were both enthralled by the story and dismayed by the theme.

Today, people need a theme with which they can identify. 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 is why the Harry Potter books became so popular, and also why 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' movies change with the times. 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 . . .

These writing tips are just the tip of the iceberg so to speak, and coming up with a believable plot in which today's kids or adults will become truly engrossed is only the first step in a long road that will result in a story or novel that people will read and talk about.

If you have a desire to achieve something, then learn how to do it the best you can. If you don't give your dream the best possible shot, then you will always be left wondering: 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: and also to learn how to get it published!

If you want to have your own writing published it is important that you take the writing tips available from those who have succeeded before you. You will find advice on How to Write a Story in 10 Easy Steps on Dawn and Kay's website Write Stories - for Australians and budding writers worldwide.

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