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Get Started In Creative Writing: The recipe for a good story (short or long, true or made up)

by Stephen May

If you are writing stories of any kind and you want people to read them, then you need to ask yourself some hard questions. Why should anyone read this story? Why should they choose my work over any of the other 100 million books already on the shelves? Why should they read me – an unknown author – rather than, say, the latest celebrity memoir?

And you should only go on to write that story if you can say to yourself these things:

This story is based on an original idea
This story contains interesting characters
This story slaps its readers in the face right from the start
This story contains conflict, heartbreak and/or laughter
This story keeps the readers guessing
This story contains believable dialogue

If, hand on heart, you can say these things then work at your story until you can’t do anything more with it. Then put it away and let no one see it. Go and work on something else. Take it out after a few days and suddenly the faults and flaws will be obvious. Now work on it some more. Repeat this process, and then – and only then – let someone else see it. And seek criticism not praise.


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Get Started In Creative Writing: Teach Yourself

Get Started In Creative Writing: Teach Yourself
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Write A Novel And Get It Published: Plot Plot and character are equally important and inextricably intertwined. The key to holding a reader’s attention is to pose interesting questions and then delay giving the answers. There are two types of question: suspense questions look forwards for the answers and mystery questions look backwards.
Write A Novel And Get It Published: Character To create believable characters you need both empathy and sympathy, but do bear in mind that fictional characters are less complex than real people. Readers need to identify with characters so use both empathy and sympathy in their creation. Empathy is recognizing something of yourself in a character; sympathy is liking what you see in a character.
Write A Novel And Get It Published: Style Every writer has their own style which should make their work instantly recognizable. Style isn’t something that’s added to a work, it is the work, and finding your own style will be a journey of discovery.
Write A Novel And Get It Published: Theme At the very heart of your story is its theme. This is not the same as subject matter, which is the tangible reality of the story, something which changes with fashions in novel writing. Theme can be broken down into thread and thesis.
Write A Novel And Get It Published: Scenes A novel’s scenes anchor it in physical reality, although they can be imaginary. You need to understand them in detail, either through imagination or research if you are using a real setting.
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Write A Novel And Get It Published: Get help If you are going through a hard time with your writing, start by talking to friends and family, although they won’t want to know the details they will probably be interested and supportive. For support and help with the actual process of writing, try to meet other writers through Writers’ Groups, Writing Courses and Internet forums.
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Write A Play And Get It Performed: Performance Plays are meant to be performed and there is no greater pleasure for a writer than to see (or hear) their work brought to life by actors.
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Write A Play And Get It Performed: Reviews Having your play reviewed can sometimes seem like a double-edged sword – you want a good review, but are fearful of getting a bad one. However, having reviews can, however, produce publicity for your play and bring in the auudience so it is worth trying to get them.
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Get Your Articles Published: Proposal Once you have an idea for an article and are sure you can collect enough information to write it, it is time to find it a home by preparing a proposal to send to magazines.
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Get Your Articles Published: Researching information Most articles benefit from some background information or facts and figures and unless you are confident you have enough knowledge in your head then you will have to do some research. Even if you already have the information it doesn’t hurt to check its accuracy.
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Get Your Articles Published: CV (Resume) Your CV is your calling card – it tells editors that you are professional, focussed and competent. Always include it when you email or write to an editor.
Get Your Articles Published: Summaries If you have written your article, and found that it is too long use summarizing techniques to reduce the length without losing any of the meaning.
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Get Started In Creative Writing: Read modern poetry If you are an aspiring poet yourself, then you might think that this is obvious advice. Apparently it isn’t. When most people think about poetry, they think about what they read at school, primary school usually. Despite the efforts of writers like the poet laureate Carol Ann Duffy, the general population have a narrow view of what makes a good poem.
Get Started In Creative Writing: When nothing is working, try something outrageous John Cleese once said, ‘High creativity is responding to situations without critical thought.’ In other words creativity is about play. It is about mischief. It is about surprises.
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Get Started In Creative Writing: Keep going Starting is easy and endings are liberating, but the bit in the middle – the bit where you have to keep going, one step after one dogged step – that is the hard bit. That is the bit where you show your true character.
Get Started In Creative Writing: Agents There is no doubt that it is very handy for a prose writer to have an agent. A reputable agent will get you credibility with publishers (who are reluctant to see authors representing themselves). They will also find the right editor for you, negotiate the deals for you and provide experienced, forensic and critical, but supportive, input into your work.
Get Started In Creative Writing: Independent publishers Don’t neglect independent publishers when seeking a home for your work. A small press is a real labour of love for the people who run it. No one sets up a new publishing house because they want to get rich, they do it because they love literature and want to bring the best of it into the public domain.
Get Started In Creative Writing: Leave your writing to cook All writing is rewriting. First drafts are usually rubbish, but they are necessary rubbish. The first draft is the equivalent of preparing the ingredients for a tricky recipe. Your first draft is you checking that you have everything you need; it is your peeling and chopping. It is by no means the finished meal.
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Write A Play And Get It Performed: Theatre Most of us these days experience drama through watching television, and one of the most common mistakes new playwrights make is to write a theatre play as if it were for television. The two forms of drama are quite different, and the audience experiences them in quite different ways.
Write A Play And Get It Performed: Workshops Workshops are a way of learning more about the craft of writing in a small group led by someone with experience. They can last from an hour to a few days, but normally take place on one day. As well as giving the opportunity of getting to know other writers, they can also be motivational, particularly if the writer has stalled or if you are lacking confidence.
Write Your Life Story And Get It Published: Research Researching a life story can be divided into four parts: personal information, background information, photos and illustrations, and the family tree.
Write Your Life Story And Get It Published: Organisation Unless you are going to write a life story consisting of nothing but anecdotes in no particular order you will need to organise all the material you have collected so that the right information gets put in the right chapter.
Write Your Life Story And Get It Published: Structure your story There are several different ways to structure a life story. It can be a full story from birth to the present time, a defined period such starting a new life abroad, or based on topics such as major family events.
Write Your Life Story And Get It Published: Getting help If you have reached the writer’s equivalent of the doldrums where you can’t find the enthusiasm to go on, or you have come up against the dreaded ‘writers block’ where the words won’t come then it is time to get some help.
Write Your Life Story And Get It Published: Make it interesting Most life stories will be interesting to family and friends, but if you want to attract a wider readership you will need to add readability.
Write Your Life Story And Get It Published: Writing about others The skills you have acquired writing your own life story can be used to help others write theirs. One good way is to interview them using a list of suitable questions.
Write Your Life Story And Get It Published: Get your story published Improve your chances of success with traditional publishers by only submitting to those which publish life stories and take unsolicited manuscripts. Check their website or contact them to find out what they require in a submission and who you should send it to. Few want a full manuscript, so only send a synopsis, one or two chapters and a covering letter.
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