Do you know how to write a story? Here we give you the tools

Cortázar He said that the short story beat the novel by knockouts and this is because this is a narrative that must condense in a few pages a whole plot that would give for a novel, so seeing the magnitude of that task we come to give you some tips on how to write a story.

how to make stories

How to make a story?

We know that stories, especially those aimed at children, always contain within them some morals; however, among the multiplicity and variety of genres and audiences to which stories can be directed, we lose sight of reaching learning on a silver platter and, as readers, we become more like researchers of what it was meant and a kind of tasters of how it was said.

But, how to make a story? There are definitely more readers than writers and that is why we have made a selection of advice or tips that can help make that quantum leap from being a consumer of ideas to becoming creators. from the same.

One of the contents on which we have to reflect is that stories are one of the best expressions for any writer, it can be said that after writing many stories a novel could be written because perhaps the novel can be seen as a great challenge since in it diversity of spaces, settings, plots and characters must be found, which in the case of the story are present but to a lesser extent.

How would You liked of the movie ratatouille: "Anyone can cook" but contextualized in this topic it would be something like anyone can write a story, but this actually means that a great writer can come from anywhere; however, two ingredients that we cannot do without when writing a story, both to start it and to finish it, are discipline and passion.

If you want to learn how to make a story, you must first stop thinking that making a story is too easy a task, maybe you have it as an academic assignment or it is simply a request from your soul. In both cases, it is very good, just remember that this structure that you are going to create must make semantic sense and very importantly, you must take care of spelling and grammar.

how to make stories

With patience, practice and passion, your stories can become moving and memorable or terrifying and dramatic, however you want to present them. The content, to help you learn how to make a story, we divide it into parts: first pre-writing; second writing or drafting; third edition; fourth tips to get out of creative stagnation or slump.

Prewriting

The beginning of the creative process can be confusing and can be compared a lot with chaotic and sporadic states of inspiration, but, if these are missing when writing, there are always alternatives such as brainstorming; have an extremely observant attitude towards everything you see around you and how not? To learn how to make a story, you can resort to resources such as outlining or types of mental maps in your first steps.

collect information

Try to think of yourself as a scent hound chasing characters or situations both in real life and in your imagination. Especially if your story is fantasy or very close to fictional themes, although we know that in all fiction there is a lot of reality.

Take a notebook or agenda with you to each place you go since seeing a particular person on the street, hearing a story from a grandmother or witnessing a fight between so many other situations or characters can be a source of imagination and having hand a notebook you can write down each of the ideas that occur to you.

It is possible that for a long time you will be in a neutral state of meditation and reception in which your narration seems to come to you in small fragments that you will not know very well with which glue to hit, but with a little luck and being in contact with positive information you may have lucky that the story will be revealed in your thoughts little by little or even in a few minutes.

how to make stories

For these inspirational droughts that may arise just when you want to learn how to make a story, you can resort to brainstorming that consists of beginning to propose a variety of thoughts, ideas and solutions around a topic, very common among work groups when they feel stuck.

In any case, don't worry if this initial difficulty in writing arises because it will gradually disappear as you consecrate your style to yourself and, to put it more romantically: get your voice.

One of the writers who are an example of this hesitation in observing the environment is Isaac Asimov who with his mysteries has shown that the inspiration that comes from friends, family or the environment are excellent additions to nurture the author's experience that is then felt in what readers read.

Do not forget, if you want to learn the first steps on how to make a story, you must be a collector of ideas, observe people, move around the city by public transport, do not do as many do who only go there stuck in a personal bubble without see the world around them, each person has their magic and a specific characteristic that can be an element of a character you create.

writing or drafting

The moment of passing from the ideas fluttering in our heads to starting the pencil on paper to start the story is one of the most exciting but also with the greatest number of points in which we must be most careful, we present them to you in several non-strict steps that can be adjusted or modified depending on the writer and how he or she gets what he or she likes to do a story.

Between trial and error we recommend that you first define what the characteristics of the story are, then the characters, followed by who will tell the story and with all this you will be able to concentrate and order your ideas, we delve into each of these below:

Characteristics of the story

It is in this characterization that what is going to be the skeleton of the text is defined, outlined or projected, the introduction in which the characters are introduced; the place where the story will take place; the weather; in what historical or present time are we and if it is fantasy or realism; etc. Similarly, it outlines initial action which is the point where the plot grows and where the characters begin to have action.

After the introduction and initial action comes the growing action in which the characters are in a kind of prelude or on their way to the climax which is the most intense point in the story. Followed by all this comes the falling stock in which we are heading for a denouement and then arrive at a resolution of something very important that must be in the stories and that is the conflict, presented between the first stages and resolved between the climax and the denouement.

At the end of the story, in terms of structure, you can decide whether to leave it open and thus be able to make a second part, but what is usual is that those characters involved in the story are named again as a kind of closure or explanation that shows that they returned to their lives changed or not, the character that should evolve or change the most in this case is the main character.

how to make a story

So remember that we understand that, although there may be others, the most popular and basic structure of a story is the following:

Introduction: where the characters, the place, the historical moment, the climate of that place, etc. are presented.

Initial action: this is a great point to lay the groundwork for conflict.

Growing action: way to the climax where the conflict is presented with greater intensity.

Climax: the most intense point or the bifurcation point in history.

Falling action: the story goes towards the denouement.

Resolution or outcome: it resolves conflicts and characters to their previous lives or routines.

We present a linear structure because we know that when learning how to write a story this is one of the most basic and most effective, but it is not strict if you have an idea for a conclusion, write it down and from there, even if it is not the beginning, it may necessarily arise. a story by asking you what happened after this? And what happened before this?

Characters

On separate sheets or in a block you can name them along with their characteristics, also establishing their child and family ties or if they have any very particular characteristic such as a super power or a very marked mania.

Along with each character that has a super power, an antagonist or some own defect should or may also appear because when in stories a character is very perfect and has no enemies, the story can become boring, flat and disappointing.

how to make a story

You must be careful so that your characters are not repetitive and to avoid this you can create them based on real people with qualities, defects and virtues that make them more human and with whom, therefore, identification becomes much more possible.

Making a story is not an easy task but if you like it and let your imagination run wild, going through this point you will be able to outline the work plan and what actions must be followed to continue and finish your story, remember: that in every story there must be a conflict that dynamizes the actions that are going to take place in it.

If you lack inspiration to create a character, remember that to learn how to make a story you can always turn to see your surroundings, for example, you can observe that person who is always drinking coffee, what characteristic stands out in her? Anxiety? unrest? or the one who is constantly yelling to communicate, that may remind a bit of the tale of the yeller among the Bolivian myths.

meet your characters

This is a section of the subtitle of the characters in which we continue to walk, because it seems to us of the utmost importance to clarify that for a story to be credible, the characters must also be credible and together with their credibility they must also be authentic.

For this as writers we must try to create «real people». Write lists of your characters' personality traits, from their favorite color, to their biggest fear, favorite foods, core motivation, if they have a particular accent, etc.

Even if you don't include this information in the story, it will allow you to better play the character in the story and it will show that you know him/her just as if you knew your best friend or yourself. Remember that they do not have to be perfect personalities, they must have some fault or imperfection, notice that Batman he wouldn't be so famous if it weren't for his sociopathy.

Although if you don't want to, you don't have to exaggerate with the weak points of your characters either because they can also be general aspects or aspects that most people know and suffer from, for example, having attacks of anger or anxiety; fear of the dark or water; be lonely; heavy smoking; always wanting to party, etc. and with all this you can take your story further.

Decide who will tell the story

However, it is important to determine who will tell the story, this no longer corresponds to the structure but rather to the content that is within the form, to determine who will tell the story is to decide whether it will be in the first, second or third person or guided by a combination of any of these and even all three.

First person: it is spoken from the self and the one who tells the story is one of the characters that is within it but this narrator can only say what he knows from his point of view as a character.

Second person: here the you speaks and in this voice of narration the reader is a character in the story, an example of the narration in the second person can be the one that has Julio Cortazar in his story Letter to a lady in Paris where he refers to her as if he were writing to her hoping that she would return to Buenos Aires in September; however, this one that could be just a letter is mixed with fantasy and creates a story.

how to make a story

Third person: just as in academic works we refer to the narrator remotely as if we are addressing a he or she and this omnipresent and all-knowing narrator, although he is outside the story that a God can know what is happening even up to now. the feelings and thoughts of the characters.

This is another of the key tools that must be handled when learning how to tell a story, but, to use them well, we must be clear, as we mentioned before, that first-person narrators are conditioned, this means that they only know what they see. themselves or what they tell them. Knowing each of the details of each narrator, far from being a limitation, is an opportunity to know how to mix them.

You could very well start and end with a third person narrator voice but create a direct link with the reader to involve them during the development and thus be handling the second person voice or instead give the microphone to one of the characters or to the character main, to enter his mind through words.

The possibilities are endless and they can be combined in hundreds and thousands of ways. An example of this mixed structure is Rashomon de Akutagawa Ryūnosuke whose story was later made into a film by Akira Kurosawa, like many successful and well-achieved stories, it has happened that from the bookstores they go to the billboards.

organize your thoughts

Once you have all this organized in your mind or on paper and you already feel that you know the characters, you must set the timeline to avoid errors in terms of ages, years and times. Remember, also, that if you are going to write about a specific historical period, you should soak up very well what reality was like in those years, for example, if your story takes place in the 80s, you should know what life was like back then.

how to make stories

In addition, not clearly defining the time span of your story can also lead you to fall into ambiguity to learn how to make a story, you should know that although a novel can take place over thousands of years, a story has a main event that happens in a short time. It can even be days or minutes.

That is the difference between the novel that can have secondary plots, multiple scenarios, etc. while the story has only a plot, two or three characters and a setting.

Remember that the linear order of your story should include at least an introduction, opening incident, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. In which you must write schematically what will happen in each stage and in this way you can concentrate on writing the story and improvise easily if changes are required, which will help you keep the rhythm of the story and create or reinforce the habit to write

Start writing

Instead of steps, we could also present you with questions, for example: Where and when does your story take place? What is the weather like? Is it a fantasy or realistic story? These are the characteristics of the story, which forms the basis of what will come later and will give rise to other questions such as: Who are the characters? What are they like? The most curious thing is that to know all this you must know them very well and know what the conflict is?

Once all this is handled, the drafts of stories that begin to emerge can be much cleaner and more fluid, many already established writers do not follow this structure, rather they give themselves to the process of writing as one of re-writing as each idea arises. , each character, setting and twist or situation, but, as practice makes perfect, if we are starting out it is good to follow these steps or even answer these questions ourselves.

It is important to start with style since the first page is the first that the readers will see, it is like what the actors say, if you do not capture their attention in the first seconds, capturing it later is very difficult, that is why even from the first sentence you can and almost that should be hooked and make the reader want to know more.

Keep writing

Some of the advice that we can give you, if you allow us, to deal with frustration is that you dedicate a little time each day to writing, even if it is a daily page, because even if you did not like the result that day and you discarded it, you told him your brain that you have continued to think about the story and this will give you answers and ideas later if you train it.

If you are not receiving a nutritious retribution from your social context in terms of the readings of your works when it comes to sharing them to see how they are received, we invite you to think about participating in writing groups, since there you will be able to meet people who are on the same wavelength and show you points of view that you had not known before.

There are even all kinds of contests such as the National Novel Writing Month that is celebrated in the United States from November 1 to 30, in Bahia, San Francisco. In this event, participants write an individual novel of at least 50.000 words with their own goal of writing.

Let history write itself

This is how it is, despite all the objections and the structure, the one who writes should let the story write itself, a writer already said that if you are not writing on the last square of paper and scratching the last available space on the page, then it is better don't write This is because as writing skills develop, ideas can flow much more and reach that sense of flow.

how to make stories

But with this same gift or talent developed, it is also possible to listen to the work and become a kind of witness to the experiences of the characters. This can allow the writer to think of himself as someone who copies a dictation but the dictation comes from within when he has already laid the foundations and the structure of what he is building, even when he has already done it unconsciously or without much paperwork.

Edit the story

In each piece of writing that we write, it is necessary to carry out a second reading, especially if we are experienced with creative writing because in the wilds of the imagination some inconsistencies or errors of meaning can come out that later hinder the reading, that is why we must go to a second reading like someone who goes on a date to iron out rough edges.

Review and edit, go to the beginning and go to the end again correcting logical, mechanical and semantic errors, the idea is to make sure that everything flows correctly, that the characters and their problems are presented and solved properly, if you have time you can even allowing yourself a few days to rest your mind and return to the text with an eagle's eye view is a great tip to keep in mind when learning how to write a story.

To improve the editing process you can send your story to your friends and family and even to people in a circle of writers if you join one, give them time to read it and consider what your reviewers tell you but not only what you like to hear also what is difficult but do not argue with them just pay attention to the suggestions that seem valid to you and also be critical of the suggestions themselves because not all of them are very good.

How to get out of creative slumps?

We know, as we mentioned before, that the consecration process of a writer can be rough because, on the one hand, they have to find their own language and, on the other hand, that language may not be entirely well received by publishers. This is, without a doubt, a path that has lots of "no's" and lots of rejection. But the most important thing is not to lose heart, trust your own voice and the enjoyment or relief that writing implies for the writer.

how to make a story

It is very important to bear in mind that states of mind or favorable disposition for work, especially in women, are variable because we are not machines and we cannot program ourselves to elaborate intellectual and emotional products with the ease with which a mechanism activates after press certain buttons. We must be respectful and intelligent with our moods to get the best out of them as they are at all times.

We can roughly divide them that encompass the two genders into two types of energy levels: the high level and the low level. We know that when we are full of energy we want to create, share, enjoy and otherwise when we are low at that moment we want to protect ourselves and reserve ourselves, because low energy states are perfect for seeking inspiration, keeping us consuming positive information and even for writing. and rewrite.

For its part, in the high peaks of energy, as we want to do many activities, it is a propitious moment to share the written work with friends or close beings or even with the publishers themselves and thus be better prepared and more willing for when the answers arrive.

One of the tips you'll find on these types of sites, on many others and in a wide variety of places is to read. Never stop reading, just as you should not stop writing, also assume the habit of reading because with that practice you will be able to enjoy and go far in the same way that you got to this point of investigating how to write a story surely encouraged by a good reading.

https://youtu.be/G_Slr_-mO_w

Then we only ask you to read! because that is going to help you a lot to write good stories and in those readings pay attention to the author's style and how he takes advantage of the text. For this, we bring you a list of some good stories that cover many genres and with which we want to give you a wide range of options that can attract your attention:

  • By Issac Asimov, «I, Robot«
  • By Jerzy Kosinsky "Steps"
  • By Andy Stanton «The sticky lord and the power crystals» which is highly recommended for children.
  • By Annie Proulx «Secret in the mountain",
  • From Julio Cortázar «The continuity of the parks»
  • From Philip K. Dick «Do androids dream of electric sheep?«

In this selection, the presence of writers from various latitudes and historical times stands out who knew how to observe and interpret what was around them, they are among those who thought about their lives and did not spend it alone stuck in a bubble, for example, the last author with his work inspired the production of science fiction films of the stature of Blade Runner and others of very high quality.

We trust in the talent and gift you have to write, remember that a conflict is always needed in history and even in life; Do not forget to do a re-reading and if you liked this content, continue reading with us about a technique to calm down when you are in crisis or do not want to work, what is it like to know? what is meditate?


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