Writing a Story: Exercise by Exercise – 1

[image error]Writing readable prose is a multi-tasked process. However, we can simplify the process to accelerate your status to that of author.

Presumably you've written something in your lifetime –even if just an e-mail or a letter to your mother. You know the words just don't automatically gush out to form sentences, paragraphs and stories. A writer chooses his words much like a painter chooses colors and makes brush-strokes to drive each paragraph to work together to complete the canvas. Instead of paint and colors, a writer uses character development, descriptive prose, and dialogue to create a compelling story.

By breaking a story into specific components or elements, we can develop key skills to advance to the status of author.

One exercise to build these skills is to take a simple plot situation and write a story from it. So let's try it. But let's do it one element at a time— one exercise at a time to develop characters, describe the background and the action, and write dialogue.

When we finish, you'll have written a short story, but as important you'll have practiced the elements of writing to hone your skills.

Our task is to write a short story about:

~A boy enters a room. His sister joins him. They do their task. They leave the room together.~

The first exercise is to describe the room. Start with the physical dimensions. Is the room large, square, round? What color are the walls? What kind of furniture—chairs, beds, tables, stove, carpet? Plush or Spartan furniture? Is the room hot or cold? Dank or musty? Does it have bars on the windows, or is it a jail? Is the room cluttered with anything? Is it a hospital room, a jail cell, a playroom, a Captain's bedroom (Peter Pan?), or a tree house?

To help you describe this fictional room, choose a room where you live. Write what you see.

By focusing on the details of the physical characteristics of a place, you can paint a picture for the readers that enables them to envision the room as your character sees it. In this initial exercise keep the description to a paragraph, but don't be afraid to provide details. You can always eliminate superfluous information when you edit your final story.

These simple exercises provide a first step to telling your story. Remember you can always rewrite. Take your time and have fun.