Tall Tales
Use our tips to write your own stories

How do you learn to write stories? If we are natural writers, we may began early and simply jot down our feelings with ease. On the other hand, we may want to write but could need some guidance on how to go about it. At school, we learn the three basic components of writing an essay or a story; these are the introduction, the body, and the conclusion. This is usually the fundamental structure of any piece of writing.

So, once you’ve decided to write a story, what are the things that come to your mind? Well, it may be something that you’ve either liked very much or perhaps even disliked a lot. Whatever the reason, it’s a good feeling to start writing about something you really want to express your feelings about. Many writers are good at imagining things and they may come up something that is entirely a figment of their imagination.

Literally, a story can be defined in many ways. It can be a sequence of events, a narrative, a true story, or a piece of fiction, and could strive to either amuse or teach the reader. The basic components of a story are the plot, the characters, a theme, a narrator and a setting. Any piece that has these elements is bound to have some semblance of a story. Let’s begin by looking at some exercises that will help you further the art of story writing.

1. Write about someone who is footloose and fancy free; create a character and spin a story around her trajectory in life. Take care of the character development, setting, narrative, and the object of their fantasy. Writing about characters that are different from the people you meet regularly helps you to imagine new things and explore the various possibilities that exist in life. While writing the story keep the reader in mind and ensure that they should be able to see the character and the character’s development. Write around 600-700 words.

2. Who has been the most unforgettable person you've ever met? Try and translate your emotions into words and work on your powers of description with this writing prompt. Describe this person using metaphors and similes of your own creation. Write around 600 words.

3. The first person point of view is a point of view in which ‘I’ or ‘we’ function(s) as the narrator in the story. The narrator may be an insignificant character witnessing the action, like Nick does in F Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby, or can be the main character, like Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye. Even Emily Bronte’s famous Wuthering Heights is seen from a minor character’s point of view. Though the first person point of view allows readers to feel very close to a specific character; it also limits the reader to that one angle. Write a short story of 1000 words using the first person narrative.

4. In stories written in the third person, only the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of a single character, and all the other characters are presented only superficially. The ‘third-person omniscient’ is a narrative style in which a story is presented by a narrator with an all-encompassing point of view, who sees and knows everything that is happening in the story. It is the most common narrative style used in epics like Tolkien's Lord of the Rings or George Eliot's Middlemarch. Write a story in ‘Third person limited point of view’ in 700 words.

5. Novels use various genres like adventure, comedy, epistolary, autobiography etc. to convey their stories. We also have saga, suspense, tragedy or romance. Writers essentially fit the genre to the story. For example, all of Agatha Christie’s books, the Sherlock Holmes tales by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and other stories related to Crime, Detective, and Police stories fall under the mystery genre. Mysteries have a knack to get unwilling readers and writers enthusiastic about analysis, intellect, and writing. These stories contain intriguing characters and are often able to hold our interest due to the element of suspense. Write out a short story of 800 words, having all the ingredients of a mystery the problem and solution should follow in the sequence of events.