Untold story soon to be told! (Story Writing Tips)

I am sure you’ll agree that we all have one untold story within us but we shy away. It’s because ifs and buts stop us to share a great story even though there are many willing to listen. Story writing is a rich art and everyone wants to excel in it. However, if the foundation is lost, you may lose a strong ground to hold your audience.  Recently I had a chance to attend one of the workshops held at Tata Literature Live and take home valuable tips about story writing. 

Here are the bits and pieces from the Story Design: Create Your Own Tales workshop by Michael Burns:

To start with a story writing, understand what is a story? 

According to me, a story is about untold experiences and unexpressed feelings. The story can have mystery, suspense, purpose and many more. It can start with tragedy and can end with happy ending or it can start on a happy note but can have sad ending. Among everything but story is a story. As a good storyteller, you shouldn’t stop yourself from expressing or telling your own story to others. In fact, to excel in the art of storytelling, you should challenge yourself to become a one great storyteller. 

Catch floating ideas

Start with a single sentence or you might have lots of ideas floating in your mind. Note down all those ideas on the paper. A great story starts with one single sentence. According to Michael Burns, the facilitator at Story Design: Create Your Own Tales workshop – start your story with a single sentence. A sentence could be a memory, desire, or general observation.

For example:

And suddenly the lights flickered.

The blue sky soon turned into pink as if resembling to the color of her polka dot skirt.

A story is made of:

Story is simply not made of anything but a combination of classic elements that shapes your story. Story writing is a process that involves exposition, climax and resolution. To make it simple for you they mean:

·         Exposition - formula – It talks about Who – What – Where – When

·         Genre - The good story should have genre like sci-fi, fantasy, romance etc.

·         Action - The story is incomplete without action. An action in a story indicates about the feelings and reactions involved. It also indicates cause and the effects as the story progresses.  

·         Climax – Your story should reach to the climax. The climax is nothing but the inevitability of the situations portrayed or expressed in your story.  

·         Resolution – Think about your audience because no story can be left without giving resolution. There is a point when your story gets complicated; at that time the lead character tries his or her best to bring the situation back in normal. This phenomenon is usually divided into two: Open resolution and Close resolution. We human beings are tend to like close resolution as we like happy endings or at least we look for satisfying resolution. As a good storyteller, you should choose close resolution suitable to your story or it could be a combination of both to spice up your story.

In conclusion, story is a combination of mixed feelings caught between situations that we cannot escape from and at the same time, we use stories to get survive ourselves in the time of crisis. Don’t you agree? 

I hope, you’ll find these basic tips to write a great story & you’ll challenge yourself to write a story. After all, our soul lies in words. Words can be read by others once we are gone. So write your story now!