Last week, I uploaded the first of this two part series entitled, “How to Write Good Stories-What is Literature Part 1″. I highlighted the basic and fundamental components of literature. To read the first post of this two part series, click this link and…
Whats the Difference Between First, Second, and Third Person?
Are you talking about me?To be a successful, stylish, and professional literary writer, it is important to know the difference between first person, second person, and third person. I’ve read plenty of indie authors who have no idea how to use first,…
How to Write Good Stories-What is Literature Part 1
Why Do People Read Literature?If you are looking to making a career from writing, it is important that you understand the different forms of writing. Do you want to be a journalist? Would you prefer to write articles? Are you into blogging? Or, are you…
crocsaremypassion asked: I just wanted to write this to say THANKYOU for following me! It really means a lot to me. I don't have a lot of followers so for you to follow me, I am very pleased xo
Aww no problem. I’d love to read your writings, so if you feel comfortable, be sure to post or shoot me an email at lashedaharper@yahoo.com. Did my post answer your questions? I write a new blog post about once a week, so I’ve queued up an indepth post about short stories just for you. So look out for it next week Friday :) Ttyl!
In life, personality is created by presenting development, growth, and or change. The same is true with characters in stories. You, as a human and individual, are three-dimensional, a conglomerate of unique qualities. Therefore, when it comes to writing, characters must be believable, or credible. Make the actions and thoughts of characters included in the story line believable.
How do you make your characters believable? Follow this formula, and you will do fine.
1) As your story progress, your readers should be able to recognize change in the main characters as growth and development happens. Be sure to include that.
2) In order for character progression to take place, your audience must know what that character WAS like, in order for your readers to know and understand what that character IS like now. So provide details that illustrate to your readers what things your characters go through, endure, and learn as the plot of your story continues to advance.
3) It should be obvious throughout the story, that certain actions, a certain apperance, thoughts, and what is said, defines a character. Unify characters with the proceeding three important aspects of character development. Characters and their speech, actions, thoughts, and appearance should present themselves as being inseperable.
Of course, not every character in a story is important. That is why we have first-person narrative/characters, second-person narrative/characters, and third-person narrative/character.
The importance of understanding a characters position in a story is obvious in correlation with the following thought:
If a character isn’t as important, you, the writer, can create that character with a two-dimensional personality. To make your life simplier, you could also just generalize or classify that character into a group. Make him/her the peevish shrink or the nagging and over controling girlfriend.
The more important that character is and the closer it is to the center of the conflict, much emphasize is to be placed on developing that character’s personality.
In short, characters of a story should be interesting enough to carry the story. It doesn’t matter if the characters include animate or inanimate objects. If we’re dealing with animals or actual humans, the same rule apply: Develop the most important characters and shape their actions, thoughts, speech, and appearance with your ideas.
Hope this post was helpful. Leave comments and questions if you have any! Thanks xo
In life, personality is created by presenting development, growth, and or change. The same is true with characters in stories. You, as a human and individual, are three-dimensional, a conglomerate of unique qualities. Therefore, when it comes to…
crocsaremypassion asked: I have a few questions for you, and I guess I'll tell you about myself at the same time okay? I have always loved writing, and my ultimate dream career is to be an author when I am older, but it's not very realistic, especially considering I'm not the best writer in the world. I'm 14 so I know I still have a lot to learn but I was wondering if you would be able to give me any tips on writing a short story? x
First of all, I want to say thanks for checking out my blog! Its nice to know that someone is interested in what I have to say ;)
Choosing writing as your career choice is such a commendable goal. Not many people possess the ability to create short stories in such a way that enables readers to remain engaged and interested in what you have to say. It is definitely a realistic goal, one that can certainly be reached. All it takes is patience, practice, motivation to follow through, and learning. And at 14, your mind is fresh and ripe for learning! What short story authors inspire you? Study their style of writing. Examine how their stories gain momentum as the story’s plot develops with every flip of the page. Pay attention to their word choices. Are the words they choose congruent to the time period in which the story is set? These are things to keep in mind while reading. This is because as an author you are not only reading a good story for your enjoyment, but you are also reading a good story to see how you can implement that authors style of writing into yours, to create and uphold your very own distinguishable style of writing. With short stories, you must be quick about developing your plot and your characters. This is because you only have a short period of time to tell your story. I don’t know if you’ve downloaded my free e-book already. If you have a NOOK, you can download it from Barnes and Noble’s website. The book is entitled STEAKHOUSE: A Collection of Selected Short Stories and Essays. If you do not have an NOOK, go to this website and download it free from there, www.smashwords.com. If you would like an example to follow and consider, I encourage you to read the short stories I penned. And I must mention that a couple of the stories included in my book, are stories I wrote when I was 15. So, you should definitely start young and continue to pursue your goals. Let me know if this was helpful. As a matter of fact, I think I will write a post about short stories now that you’ve asked me that! :) Thanks for the question. I hope I was able to help.
If you are just beginning as a writer and you wish to make writing your career, one of the first questions that may pop up in your head when you sit down to write is,”What do I write about?”
Writing a story is more than just having ideas. Everyone has…
“Every writer isa blind an feeling the elephant, and even a great writer is likely tobelimited in what he understands.”
“How often the writing of young writers is a way of asserting a personality that isn’t yet there, that is only being ravenously hunted…
A Simple Way to Outline
Here is an easy system you can use to outline your novel if you find it helpful. Remember: there’s no right way to make a novel outline — this is just one option!1) Before you start your actual novel outline, spend some time brainstorming freely, letting your…
(Source: creative-writing-now.com)
So, what makes a story good and worth reading? If someone were to ask me that question, I would answer that a story is good when the plot is well developed. Having a well developed plot enables a writer to develope the characters and the actions of the characters, around the escalating occurances of the story. The formula for a story, consist of the following format: exposition/intro, the rising action, conflict, climax, falling action, and resolution.
Using this formula while writing a story, will make creating your plot as easy as pie.
For me personally, I come up with the idea of the story before I come up with the dispostion of the characters I would like to include. I have found that it is very easy to create characters around a plot because the characters I create, must have characterisitics and traits fitting for the situation in which they are in. For example, in my short story You and Mr. Foster, I use irony to encourage readers to experience the structure of not only THE plot of the story, but the structure of A plot for any story. The main character is a therapist, yet he’s a shrink! Uh? That’s where irony comes into play. I developed the main character around the idea of a man that was unstable mentally and emotionally. To spice it up a little, I included not only Mr. Foster, but his therapist which is the main character, as a person who needs help mentally and emotionally. Therefore, the therapist’s actions and charateristics are developed around the idea of someone needing mental and emotional help. The therapist exhibits discomfort in small, cramp areas and shows what it means to have OCD….traits that according to society, would classify them as someone being unstable.
So in short, it started with a plot idea, than I created the characters around the plot…
Stories that have well developed plots with characters that coexist within the plot instead of fighting against it with confusing traits and dispositions, makes for an easy read.
How do you develope your plots when writing? What method have you found to be easy for you? Comment and let me know!
Snatch a copy of STEAKHOUSE: A Collection of Selected Short Stories and Essays for FREE. Download it from your Nook and enjoy!
