Write Your Own Story

Kevin Coolidge

Once upon a time? No, too cliché. It was a dark and stormy night? It really wasn’t. It was the best of times; it was the worse of times. Already taken, and what does that even mean? Have you ever wanted to write your own story, but wondered where to begin? Getting started can be the hardest part, and Write Your Own Story Book by Usborne Books is a fun activity book full of writing tips, techniques, and methods. It’s just the thing to help a young aspiring writer stop procrastinating and start writing.

The first half of Write Your Own Story contains explanations and prompts for the important elements of the story process. A story is only as strong as its characters, and what better place to begin? There are basic character and setting suggestions, along with helpful activities to come up with story lines, and writing from different points of view. A great story needs a great start. Your main character might set out on a journey, find a treasure map, or run away from home, but something must happen to get the action going. In Write Your Own Story, there’s even space to write it all down.

Every story needs a beginning, a middle, and an ending. It’s your basic story arc, but a great way for a novice to think of it is a mountain. You have the Beginning where you introduce the characters and setting, the Build-up, where something happens to the character to start the action, the Problem, where something goes wrong, the Resolution, where the problem is resolved, and the End, where you threads are tied up. A character can face many problems, and your story may have several peaks. You may want to write an outline first.

The second half of Write Your Own Story has lots of tips to help plan your stories and develop writing skills. Having a great title can lead to a fantastic start. A title can be funny, mysterious, or intriguing, but it should make people curious to read your story.
Your imagination is one of your strongest tools, and there are questions to help you focus that creativity.

When it comes to writing, it’s not enough to have fun characters, an action-packed plot, or an exotic setting. The words you use to describe them make a big difference. Think of interesting adjectives and verbs. Whenever you see a word you don’t understand, look it up in a dictionary and use it in your writing.

Writing is the best way to improve your writing. You could keep a diary, or keep a notebook with you so you can write an idea when it comes to you. Talk to people you have never talked to before, write about something you are passionate about, read a lot, and write about the book you read. Ask people to read your stories, and tell you what they think of them—the good and the bad. Most importantly, you must write.

Great writers aren’t born with a pen in their hand. You must decide to put ink to paper. Writing stories, like any skill, is something you get better at the more you do it. So grab some pencils, an eraser, dictionaries (or maybe a thesaurus), and scrap paper to scribble and plan your stories. Fire up your brain, percolate some ideas, and most importantly, engage your imagination. Keep on reading. Keep on writing…

To write? Or to read? Why not both? Comment and let me know! If you want to be the hero of your own story, sometimes you have to write it. My cat did just that, check out his children’s book “Hobo Finds A Home”