The Sunday News
TODAY we continue showing how learners can make their stories better. Remember last week our concentration was on settings of the story. Learners can improve their own stories by including descriptions. For example: She looked gorgeous in her new attire. He scurried for cover when attacked with stones. A story can also be improved by using careful nouns instead of just a noun and an adjective. For instance, the Mercedes Benz was speeding at the time of the accident. This is better expressed than just saying — an expensive car was speeding.
A story can also be made better by using paragraphs for each part of the story and not rushing the ending. For better essays, learners should have what is called language check. Have you used the past tense all the way through? Have you used third person pronouns such as, she, he, they except in dialogue? Time connectives like, once, when, while, and after should be used to tie the story together.
Check whether you have used place connectives to show where things happen or where characters are. For example, it could be at school, in the park, at the sports field or at home. Check for sentence punctuation. Some learners take such things for granted and ignore them at their own peril. Never ignore punctuation as small as full stops and commas. Check whether you have used speech marks correctly if you have used speech. It is quite irritating to read work with incorrect punctuation.
Be clear with punctuation marks especially when writing dialogue. Every new speaker begins a new line. Do not have two speakers on the same line. Of course, it is always important to check for missing words and spellings. It is easy to miss out (the and a). Learners have a tendency to confuse words like, their, they are, its, it is and many more covered when we talked about words commonly confused.
Another key issue to note on story writing is that stories are of various types. We have traditional tales, short stories mistakenly believed by many to be the easiest hence learners plunge into them without giving much thought to them. We also have adventure stories. This is an interesting area as everyone loves to read an exciting story. In adventures all sorts of things could happen like the following examples offered in one of the English language texts.
Rescuing your dog from the jaws of a wild pig or your best friend from a rival group of boys. Surviving from being trapped underground on a mission to rescue a friend. Involved in a chase by a gang of boys. How do you make these adventure stories so captivating to the readers? Learners could start with an exciting idea or problem to solve. They could create one or two characters who solve problems, who beat up bullies by working together, or by using special skills.
Build the problem up and keep the reader thinking disaster is round the corner and cold end by having the main character(s) solve the problem.
Remember what a simple story structure looks like. We have the beginning which is the introduction. From the introduction as we build up the story we bring in the problem at times referred to as the complication. This complication leads us to the climax, the high point of the story. From the climax the story line gradually descends to the ending which is usually a resolution. That is where the problem is resolved or solved.
Note that these are just suggestions of how to improve your story writing. They are not the only ones who guarantee you success as there are many more. Reading extensively will result in better answers. Adventure stories often include exciting openings and endings. For example: “Help! Help! I am sinking!” she cried. They have dramatic connectives in the form of suddenly, all at once. Exclamations are also worth using as shown on the help exclamations. Questions are also included in adventure stories like, who had stolen or taken it? Powerful action words need to be used. For example: howled, screamed, whimpered, bolted, dashed, sprinted, babbled, bawled, shrieked, squealed, ambled, hobbled, saunter, swaggered and trudged to list but a few.
Some learners forget the purpose of paragraphs in story writing. Paragraphs are used to organise ideas for the reader. Use a new paragraph at the beginning of a story, when there is change of time, change of place or change of action and time. Learners might also help themselves by having a story connectives bank so that they have minimal problems starting paragraphs or linking ideas. Here are some examples which could find themselves in their bank.
Once upon a time, One afternoon, Suddenly, Then, One afternoon, First, Next, After that, Finally, Lastly, Early/ late one morning, After a while, Although, As soon as and in the end. Please note that some of these expressions might have been overtaken by time so there is nothing wrong with using modern ones. Practice makes perfect. Learn and use these examples and many others for better story writing.
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