If you’ve got started on your story but are stuck in the middle, try talking inside your head to your main character. Though sometimes it works just to write at white-hot speed and see what happens without planning anything at all. Sometimes it’s good to work it all out beforehand so you don’t get stuck halfway through. A dinosaur is suddenly spotted walking down the High Street, nibbling the treetops. A boy has lost his dog and has to find him. It doesn’t matter what sort of story you write, it’s good to have a bit of conflict – a bit of a struggle, something going wrong, something surprising – and your main character has to try to sort it all out.Ī princess might be locked up in a castle and she has to escape. Think of all the stories you’ve ever read, short stories, small books, huge great long books with hundreds of pages. The first version is fine, but we’re being told it all. George sighed and stuck his bottom lip out. Can I have a chocolate Whizzo, Mum?’ asked George. And Wayne the Pain had snatched George’s lunch-time crisps and his Whizzo Wonder Bar. Miss Horrible Hawkins had been moaning about his spelling and handwriting again. OR George trudged along the road, scuffing the toes of his trainers. He wanted a bar of chocolate but his mother said no. George walked along the road with his mother. And do you know what I mean by Show not Tell? Okay, two ways to start a story: I don’t think you need several paragraphs of description and explanation before you get started on the story. My tip would be to pretend you’ve got the most amazing piece of news and you’re dashing into school to tell your best friend all about it, and you just have to seize hold of them and give them the whole story straight away, making it as amusing and astonishing as possible so that you keep their full attention. Everyone always says a story needs a really good eye-catching beginning – but of course, that makes you go all self-conscious and unable to think of even one simple sentence. This is the difficult bit! No-one likes looking at a blank page or screen. You probably won’t need to put half these things in your story but somehow it will help bring your characters alive on the page. But mostly I care what they’re like inside.Īre they happy, sad, shy, cheeky, funny, naughty? What are their hobbies? What are their favourite television programmes? What’s their favourite food? Do they like school? What’s their best subject? How do they get on with their mum or dad and siblings? Do they have a best friend? Do they want a best friend? Don’t just think about their looks, though I always like to give some idea what sort of hairstyle my girls and boys have, and what sort of clothes they wear. Hold conversations with your characters in your head. I think the most important part of writing a story is getting to know your characters and making them seem real.ĭid you ever have imaginary friends when you were little? It’s a similar process. Everyone gets their ideas in different ways 2. Just occasionally other people give me ideas – talk about the Director of the Foundling Museum asking if I’d ever considered writing a book about a foundling child – that’s how Hetty Feather sprang to life. That’s how I wrote The Illustrated Mum.Īnother gift was seeing photographs of children in my local newspaper, all needing foster parents – this gave me the idea for The Story of Tracy Beaker. I saw a heavily tattooed woman with two small daughters in Central Park, and my own daughter Emma whispered that they looked like the sort of family I’d write about. It’s the most frequently asked question: Where do you get your ideas from? Sometimes it can be something you see by chance.
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