In the dining room of Isambard Dunstan’s School for Wayward children, all was not well. Shards of lightning blasted from a black morning sky and burst upon the heath outside.’
( ‘Porridge’ , Chapter One, The Doppleganger Chronicles by G P Taylor)
Q) What type of place is this school? How do you know this?
A) ‘Wayward’, ‘shards of lightning’, ‘heath’ and ‘blasted’: are just some clues. They evoke a Gothic world where something stormy and violent may be about to happen?
”Snookle was delivered one morning with the milk. There were four half-litre bottles: three of them contained milk and the other held Snookle.
He stared sadly at me from his glass prison. I could see that he was alive even though he made no sign or movement. He reminded me of a dog on a chain that manages to make its owner feel guilty simply by looking unhappy.”
(‘Snookle’ in Unbelievable! by Paul Jennings )
Q) What comes to mind with a name like ‘Snookle’? What does ‘Snookle’ SOUND like?
A) ‘Snookle’ is a creature we have not met before, but he sounds sad, lost or dumped as the speaker likens him to a ‘dog on a chain’. We are surprised immediately with this story and feel sympathy too. His name evokes sadness as childlike, and fragile. We feel protective and read on.
Good stories have a life of their own. They take the reader by the hand and feed them images and ideas that entice us away from our own world and into the world of the story.
When stories are littered with cliche and predictable words arranged in an all too familiar way, they are DULL. Words lie there lifeless on the page.
Or sometimes students strain so hard to be different and that dreaded word, ‘interesting’ that stories feel completely artificial. SHOW don’t TELL emotions and feelings. AVOID saying he or she was ‘excited’ or ‘frightened’ without SHOWING why.
Think of how a character might show excitement instead.
Make your stories thoughtful and even surprising.
TIP Four:
Imagine carefully and fully the type of stories you like to read or write-even watch! Make a list of the key, pivotal images and ideas involved:
1) Where does the story take place and think of a couple of words and an image to make the setting come alive.
2) Who is your narrator or main character and how do they feel throughout the course of the story? Think of a handful of words to show/chart their changing feelings. USE SENSORY IMPRESSIONS.
3) How does the ‘problem’ of the story appear? What words describe it? Is there a metaphor or simile you can think of?
4) Are there any unusual images in the story at all?
You should have a LIST of images and words before you. If you make sure than you know how to spell these words and images and check them out in your mind, then these words will form a BANK OF VOCABULARY AND IMAGES that will help you write confidently and accurately.
This is not to say that in the exam you simply write a rehearsed piece, I am suggesting however that you have a clear respect for the type of stories you like and how they are written!
You need a good bank of words to help you, especially when under examination conditions.
Janet Lewison, Tusitala English Tuition, October 2011
Ps Here is a story that does not take any notice of my advice. I wrote it for an example of how NOT to write a story!
Tom had never been so excited in his life. The gift looked so fabulous and exciting that he wanted to jump as high as a big mountain range and then go and tell all his friends just how amazed he was to recieve this wonderful gift.
Then after opening the wonderful gift and finding out the exciting news that he had won prize money for winning the cross country race, then Tom wanted to travel on holiday where he could go scuba diving with dolphins. His younger sister Esther wanted to go swimming too, and Tom was kind and let her because he had won such so much money and felt like helping everyone to be happy and to make their dreams come true. How exciting !!