STORY WRITING
HowstoryTo writing
Note from The Author The best way to learn how to write a story is to read one.
101
Plot Anatomy Four Main Parts of a Story In the beginning, we are
Rising action contains
introduced to the characters,
obstacles that the characters
our setting, and the conflict.
must overcome.
The climax is the highest
The resolution shows what
point of tension, and a
life will be like for the
decision must be made.
character after that decision.
Beginning/Exposition
Look For... Every page will have a plot map that tells us where we are in the story. Our location will be marked with Mr. Pointy.
Climax on
ng
si Ri
ti Ac
Resolution
PROLOGUE
planning
You cannot write a story without knowing what the story is about. There is very little you can do without knowing why there is even a story to tell. So plans are where a story should start. Know the characters and where you want to end up. A setting and some plot points might help, too. But don’t plan too much.
The Author usually sits
down,
writes chaos for a frustratingly l o n g three days,
and then makes a plan.
Remember The story will tell you where it’s going.
Trust it.
CHARACTER
We start where every story does: at the beginning
M
ark eats a baguette on the roof of his old high school. Why a baguette? To be honest, Mark has no clue. But
that’s the thing about being a character in a story: Mark is subject to The Author. Mark supposes he could be an animal, but The Author doesn’t feel You are
a frog could really do the story justice. Mark would rather be an here animal. Though, maybe not a frog. The Author will take that into consideration.
“I don’t really like baguettes––too squishy,” Mark mumbles. The Author rolls her eyes. She doesn’t really care. I care.
Y
AUTHOR’S TIP
character
Mark has wants, likes, dislikes, hobbies, a job, family, pets, etc. Try to weave them in, This is the time to introduce them.
instead of bombing the reader with info.
The baguette tastes bland and feels like rotten mush in his mouth. Mark had gone back to the high school that left his teens charred to ponder, and pondering, The Author felt, was the best done with food. Baguettes were all Mark could find at the store And so Mark sits on the roof eating a food that makes him so bloated he could float away. Maybe that’s what he wants. That is not what I want nor will ever want. The Author had said maybe, though. The day before, Mark’s apartment building blew up. Someone’s meth lab decided to off itself, and now he didn’t have an apartment. All he wants is to have somewhere to relax and maybe forget The You are here
Author existed. The rooftop wasn’t working.
Mark throws a chunk of his baguette off the edge of the building. My apartment? Yes, his apartment. He’s not particularly attached to it. The thought of having a place to go was comforting, even if he barely spent any time in the apartment. So it was the principle of it all. Mark can’t really go to his parents’ house. They sold their house to travel Europe in a van. He could go to his sister’s, but she just gave birth. Mark doesn’t want to face that whole situation. So here Mark sits on the roof of his old high school homeless, tired, and hoping he could at the very least find something better than a baguette to eat.
You are
here man, I want to be in control.
SETTING
We have to tell the reader where we are and what it’s like to
T
he wind is cold on the roof. It is
be in that setting.
flat up here, nothing to hide behind.
Mark had happened upon the roof his senior year. The door that led up there had been hidden in a janitor’s closet. Mark looks out over the sprawl of homes and businesses and trees. Towne was small, nestled in between two mountains. Stupid name for a town. The Author notes: Mark finds it funny. So much so, he would chuckle when he thought about Towne. He is not one to ignore The Author’s clever ideas.
You are here
MARK Ha ha, not funny.
THE AUTHOR I am the author.
MARK Then I have a request. Stop burning down my apartments, and stop making me eat baguettes.
AUTHOR’S TIP
setting
Setting is more than landscape. Think religions, social and economic hierarchy, societal values, the way the culture impacts the character.
Here’s another place to weave in information.
What makes up your setting?
You are here
The highest building in Towne is the high school. It’s the newest too. Towne is made up of people too old to remember where they put their teeth and their children. Anyone in their twenties left the first chance they got. Except for Mark. “Thanks, Author” Mark throws another piece of bread. A startled bird flies up. That’s another thing about Towne: the pigeons. For some god-awful reason, pigeons flock to Towne. Maybe it’s the elderly population feeding the birds, and then they tell their bird buddies. Between the birds and the old folks, Mark finds it hard to feel grounded here. Maybe if you let me have friends that wouldn’t be the case.
CONFLICT
3
3
A
We’re now beyond nd it is there on the tallest building in Towne, someone
else arrives. This someone else is
set up. What does your character have to overcome?
tall and lean. He looks like he can slither in and out of tight places. The door on the roof slams behind the man and startles Mark. Summer has reached its swelter, and all the students are anywhere but their desks. The man nods at Mark and sits down next to him. Why exactly is this man sitting right next to me? The Author can’t say. She’s as suprised as Mark.
You are here
Mark, in an effort to be kind––why, he doesn’t know––holds out a piece of bread. “Baguette?”
The man smiles. “Thanks.” And they just sit there. In silence.
Mark curses The Author. Silence seems like the worst possible direction this could go. Mark had been sitting in silence since he got up there, and it had not been fun.
Mark glances over at the man.
The man glances at Mark.
Both smile and turn back to look at Towne. “So why are you up here?” The man asks. Mark shrugs. “I don’t know. The Author just put me up here.” The man looks at Mark again. “The who?” “You know,” Mark gestures at the sky. “The Author.” “I have no clue what you’re talking about, dude.”
You are here
eginning Beginning Begi
To Consider Your character and setting don’t need to be introduced in any particular order. But they have to be introduced in the beginning.
You aren’t limited to just the beginning. Use the story to continue to develop your character and setting.
r... Your conflict doesn’t have to be an obvious conflict like your character has a gun to their head. It can be more subtle. Go look back at 1-3. There are 3 conflicts 1. Mark’s apartment burned down 2. The man doesn’t know who The Author is 3. The Author controls Mark’s life, though he doesn’t want her to. All of these need to be solved in order to solve the big one:
Mark’s agency.
RI
SIN
G
4
ACTION
We’ve reached the middle of the story: the rising action.
M
ark thinks this is The Author’s cruel joke. She had decided to make him
crazy. He’s the weird guy who thinks someone controls his life––that the CIA is watching him. The man shakes his head. “I didn’t even tell you my name. I’m Alexi.” Mark extends his hand and tells Alexi his name. “Nice to meet you.”
More silence.
You are here
“So, what brings you up here?” Mark turns to Alexi. The man gestures towards the door. “I’m a teacher here. Prepping for next year.” “Oh, I’m sorry.” Alexi laughs. “Me too.”
Even more silence.
Mark throws another piece of baguette over the edge. The Author thinks that is wasteful. Mark reminds her he didn’t ask for it in the first place. He hadn’t asked for any of this in the first place. She comes in and complicates his life. A deep rumbling catches Mark’s attention. Dark grey clouds
You are here
pile on top of the mountains. He’s going to have to get inside soon.
AUTHOR’S TIP
rising action
Think of a river there are slow-moving parts and fast-moving parts. The slow gives you a break from the fast. That’s the same for a story. The obstacles are the fast-moving water. The slow-water is the moment of regroup before the next obstacle. Each obstacle needs a moment of calm for the reader. There should be ebb, flow ebb ebb flow flow ebb ebb ebb flow flow flow ebb
“So this Author, are they writing a story about you?” Alexi tosses a piece of baguette over the edge. “I guess so. She seems to just like messing with my life.” Mark puts a piece of baguette in his mouth. He spits it out. Rude. So wasteful. The Author will have to change that during edits. “The baguette that bad?” Alexi chuckles. “The Author thought I should eat it. ” Mark runs his hands through his hair. “I don’t know. She just seems to like bossing me around. She popped up like a year ago and hasn’t left me alone since.” That’s when Mark sees the gears turning in Alexi’s head. Oh, he thinks I’m crazy. Maybe I am.
You are here
Ebb
A gust of wind blows over the rooftop. Mark glances at the clouds. They’re closer. Their dark grey looks almost black. It’s going to be a big storm. There’ll probably be lightning. Maybe the rain will be good for me. Or The Author could give Mark hypothermia.
“You wouldn’t,” Mark says.
“I wouldn’t what?” Alexi looks puzzled.
Flow
Mark glares at the sky. Oh, he definitely thinks I’m crazy.
“Does your author have a name?”
Mark hesitates. “I––I don’t know actually.”
“So you guys haven’t talked things out.”
Mark didn’t think he could talk it out. Can he? Probably. “Uh, no.”
Mark nods, and Alexi starts talking, telling him about how his wife had been really bossy a couple years ago, and he was so frustrated with her. But then he suggested they both just talk
Ebb
“Maybe that’s where you start.” Alexi shrugs.
about it, and bam, perfect marriage. He thinks The Author and I are married. Ew. Double ew.
You are here
A flash pulls their attention to the mountains. The clouds are much closer, the thunder much louder. “Nasty storm coming our way.” Alexi puts some bread in his mouth and promptly spits it out. “Why is it so mushy?” “That’s what I’ve been saying!” Mark throws his hands up. “This baguette is horrible, but The Author keeps insisting I eat it.” “Yeah, well I’ll make that decision for you.” Alexi reaches over and took the rest of the baguette. Then he lops it over the side of the building. “No more bad baguette.” He can just do that? The Author hadn’t seen that coming. She’s almost speechless. Mark starts to ask how he did that.
But thats when it starts to rain. You are here
alogue Dialogue Dialogu
To Consider Dialogue Needs to do A LOT It needs to move the story along. It needs to reveal information about the characters and the plot. It needs to flow. Skip normal conversations and do important conversations. We need the meat of the dialogue.
r...
How to Write Dialogue “When you are telling the reader that someone says something, or mumbles, or yells a comma is needed between the end of the sentence and the quotations,” The Author says. The Author remembers to say, “Each piece of dialogue should be on its own line. If a new character is speaking, press ENTER.” “But when someone says something and does an action, it’s followed with normal punctuation.” The Author takes a sip of her tea, despite her dislike for it. “If you really want to get fancy, you can interrupt the text with an action.” The Author spits out her tea. “All you need to do is remember that the action is its own thought, so you have to end the sentence. No commas.” “If you do choose to interrupt with ‘say’ or any variation, all rules to dialogue remain,” The Author explains. “You just do a comma and then a period after the end of the sentence.”
AX
C
M I L
5
High tension. High stakes. Highest point in the story.
R
ain rain rain rain rain rain rainrainrainrainrain.
A sheet of rain slams into the men on the roof. Everything is soaked in an instant. Lighting becomes an almost permanent fixture in the sky––a flickering light in a dark hallway. Thunder rattles Mark’s chest, and all he can do is sit in the rain, marveling at how quickly everything had become so wet and so dark. Mark feels the water squish between his toes, filtering through his socks.
You he
Hands come up under Mark’s armpits. “What are you doing? You’re going to get struck if you don’t get inside.” But Mark doesn’t move. Why? Because The Author says so. But why do you say so? The whys start to fall with the rain. why
why
why
why
why why why
why
why why why why why why why why why why
why
why why why why why
Then Mark stands up, pushing Alexi off of him. “Why do I have to sit in the rain?” The Author writes that Mark sits back down, but he doesn’t. He keeps standing. “Why? Did you not just tell everyone to trust their story? That the story will tell them where it will go?” Mark screams at the sky. Alexi tries to grab at him. “Mark, we need to go inside!” Mark shakes him off. “Let me tell you my story!”
You he
limax Climax Climax Clim
To Consider Tensions are at their peak. They are at the peak-iest peak. This is the moment where the main character makes a choice that changes their life forever. This is where everything has been building up to. This is where all the ebbing and flowing was leading. Now it is all flow.
r...
You are here
RESOLUTION
All the tension is released, and we end the story.
W
ind tugs at Mark’s shirt, at his hair. Thunder threatens to burst his eardrums, and the lightning is blinding.
Mark looks at Alexi. He is huddled under the little vestibule covering the door. He is waiting on Mark. “Author?” Mark looks up. “I am going to follow him.” He is right. The story is about Mark. The Author smiled and typed
Mark followed him.
EPILOGUE
All the tension is
released, and we end the story.
editing
So you’ve written a story. Now we rewrite the whole thing. Yes, the whole thing. But first, you need to edit it. Go through and fix grammar, spelling, that plot hole that takes us to C
hin
a.
Afte
r tha t, you rewrite. You’re going to end up with
something completely different than what you started with. Your story is not going to be the same. Parts of the original story will be there, but essentially each draft has its own life. Mark originally killed his lizard, but The Author realized that was a little too much murder for that story.
A story is never perfect on the first try, even Mark’s story as it is can be edited and improved.
so just keep writing.
Littlepage Green 2022