Tag: story

How to Write a Story

How to Write a Story: Setting Part One

floraj5604

Hello, everyone! How has your week been? Mine has been pretty nice since I had Monday and Tuesday off from school. Good news, we’re almost to the weekend! One more day!

This week, I’m going to continue our series on how to write a story that will captivate your readers and persuade them to keep reading. I will give you some tips on how to decide on your setting.

What is the Setting?

So, basically, the setting is where and when the story takes place. Here are some questions to ask yourself to spark your imagination.

  • When is your story set?
  • Where is your story set?
  • What are the traditions and culture of this place?

When?

The first thing you’ll want to think about for this part is whether your story is going to be in the past, present, or future. Now, you may have some idea of when you want your story to take place since you’ve already done some planning. But if you still need to decide, keep reading!

Take a moment to think about your plot. Is there a particular time it needs to be? Does your story have horse-drawn carriages, or is your main character driving a flying car? The horse-drawn carriage would be in the past (maybe 1800s) while the flying car would obviously be from the future.

Now you should start thinking about what year(s) your story will take place in. After you’ve decided, glance over your plot and make sure it all fits in.

Where?

You probably already have some idea where you want your story to take place. Here are the main categories to choose from.

  • The city or town that you live in
  • A made up fantasy world
  • A different part of the country that you live in
  • A country other than the one you live in.

Now I’ll go ahead and list the pros and cons of each category.

If you chose the city that you live in, great! You won’t have to do much research (unless your story is in the past). You already know what everything looks like, and you can describe it beautifully.

If you made up your own world, that is going to be both easy and hard. Don’t let me discourage you because this is quite the adventure! You get to decide the culture and traditions and the descriptions. This will take you on an amazing journey! You’ll never be bored! But this option is also a little time-consuming and hard. Yes, it takes time to think about everything. You’ll have to think about so many things, and I should know because this is the type of setting that I’m using in my story.

If you chose a different part of the country you’re in, it should be interesting. (For example, I live in the U.S., so I could choose a different state instead of the one I live in.) Since you are still choosing the country you live in, you won’t have to do that much research.

If you chose a completely different country than where you are, you are in for a trip! You’ll get to learn all sorts of new things and get to incorporate them into your writing. But this will also be super time-consuming which isn’t good if you are still in school. Even if you are out of school, but you have a job, this might not be a good idea.

Until Next Time…

Next week (February 21) I will be doing a part two post on what I talked about today. How is your story planning going? Are you having trouble choosing a setting or are you all set? If you have any questions, please leave a comment or send me an email.

Thank you so much for reading! Happy writing!

Monthly Recaps

Monthly Recap: January

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So, for me January passed in a flash. I can’t believe it’s already February! Well, I guess I’ll get started.

Bullet Journaling

The only new thing I did in my bullet journal this month was my stress tracker and Doodle-A-Day. They didn’t turn out very well because it was hard to stay caught up. Maybe I’ll do better next month.

I did my weekly log the same way I did it in December.

Goals

My goals for this month… Well, I didn’t really reach all of those. But you know what? It’s okay, because we have another month to try again. Start fresh!

My goals for this month are:

  • Drink more water.
  • Write more.
  • Exercise more.
  • Stay caught on school, bullet journaling, and devotions.

How are you going to start fresh for this month? Let me know in the comments!

Books

This month, I finished book five of The Chronicles of Narnia, and I am now in the middle of book six. I didn’t have a lot of time to read this month.

Writing

This month I got some planning done for my book and also a few chapters written. Not that much.

And now… I saved this as best for last…

My Story of the Month

Last but definitely not least… my story of the month! (I didn’t get any requests for what to call this section, so I had to come up with something… let me know in the comments if you can think of anything to call it!) My favorite story that I wrote this month was one on grief. Yes, it is sad, but it really helps you improve your writing. And, without further ado…

Tori wasn’t sure how much more she could handle. The grief was overtaking her; she couldn’t think. She swabbed at her now mascara-streamed eyelids with a tissue. She couldn’t understand what the pastor was saying- whether it was because of the sobs echoing from her aunt sitting beside her, or because she was in shock, she wasn’t sure.

Tori quickly stood up and pushed through the aisle. She rushed to the bathroom where she locked herself in the biggest stall. She leaned against the wall, sitting on the ground.

As she let her tears roll down, she allowed the memories of the two people she had been trying to forget for the past few days zoom through her mind.

The last time Tori had talked to her mom was the first flashback. She saw herself yelling at her mom and then running down the hall and slamming her bedroom door. Guilt surged through as she watched herself stick her tongue out from behind the closed door.

The next memory was when Tori had been telling her dad goodbye when he was leaving for work. She watched him wave and close the door, locking it behind him.

Sourness filled her stomach as more memories poured in, mostly she and her mom fighting. She couldn’t believe she had spent so much time fighting. And now that her mom was gone for good, she regretted it even more.

Most of her memories of her dad were of math homework. Dad had been a math and science whiz while Mom had been good in writing and grammar.

The one memory she still couldn’t allow herself to watch kept resurfacing. But she’d continue to push it away. It was the worst memory she’d ever had: the memory of the car crash. The car crash where her parents had died.

Well, that’s all I’ve got for this week. Comment and let me know of what you thought! Next week (February 7), I’ll do another post on our writing series (How to Write a Story). See you then!