HOW TO WRITE A SHORT STORY

A story is a description of imaginary or real people and events, which is written in order
to entertain. As other types of writing, a story must follow a particular structure.

Story Structure

Title: The title should either summarise the whole story or have something to do with
the main theme.

Exposition: This is the beginning of the story, where the characters and setting are
established. It serves as the introduction to the next part.

Action: In this part, the characters deal with conflict and do things to solve it.

Resolution: This is where the conflict is resolved and the story concludes with an ending.

Useful language

Many times the first sentence of the story is given to you but if it is not the case, you
can start your story with these expressions:

Beginning your story:

Use a comma after the introductory phrase.

 First of all,
 To start off with,
 Initially,
 To begin with,

Continuing the story:

You can continue your story with these expressions.

 After that,
 Then,
 Next,
 As soon as / When + full clause,
 ...but then
 Immediately,

Interruptions and Adding New Elements to the Story

You can use the following expressions to add suspense to your story:
  Suddenly,
 Unexpectedly,
 All of a sudden
 Without warning
 Just at that moment

Ending the Story

Write the end of your story with these introductory phrases:

 Finally,
 In the end,
 Eventually,
 When it was all over
 After everything that happened

Grammar pointers

When writing a story is necessary to use a range of verb tenses appropriately. The use
of past tenses is common. Be careful with this part of the grammar.

Have a look at this sample:

A CLEVER THIEF
To begin with, I would like to tell you about Morgan, a very clever thief. He robbed the
rich and gave all to the sick and the needy. The other thieves were jealous of him. They
planned to get rid of him. They challenged him to steal the King’s pyjamas.

Morgan accepted the challenge. After that, he prepared to get ready for the new
challenge. He worked out a plan to steal the King´s pyjamas. He prepared himself
mentally to carry out a plan.

One night, he woke up early and carefully entered the King’s Palace and he found the
King sleeping. He opened a bottle of red ants and sprinkled the ants on the bed. All of a
sudden, the King woke up and started shouting; he was badly bitten. Just at that
moment, the servants rushed in and they helped the king take off his pyjamas. Morgan
quickly grabbed the King’s pyjamas and escaped. The other thieves were surprised and
could not believe it.

In the end, the thieves accepted Morgan as their new leader.