STORY IN WRITING PART 2

I. How to begin a story

• When you start a story, if the first sentence is given to you, you have to continue the
second sentence which is related to the first given sentence.
• Start by a sentence => using the Subject, Object to continue
• Ex:
• 1st sentence: the friends got off the bus and ran over to join the long queue of people
• => They were so late for the school concert.
• 1st sentence: How I met my best friend.
• => It was 4 years ago when I was seven years old and my sister was going to turn 14
years old and she had planned a birthday party for friends and family.
II. Time phrases and putting actions in order
• Then, After that, Not long aftewards
• As soon as, While, Meanwhile
• As
• Some time later, A little later
• ____ minutes later, a moment later
• Later (that morning/afternoon/day/night…)
• Just then
III. Adjectives, Adverbs and verbs to make story alive
1. Verbs: Released, caught, ran after/over…
ran – raced/rushed/sped
going – racing/speeding/being swept
called – shouted/screamed/yelled
said – yelled/whispered
Phrasal verbs:
The whole family woke up and ran out of the cabins to see what was wrong.
• Visit = come round/come over
• Come back= turn around
• Get to = arrive at/turn up
• Find= look for
• Go to=Head to/set off for….
• Had an idea= came up with an idea
• Wear clothes= dress up/put on
Idioms:

• Satisfied: over the moon

• Suddenly = all at once
• Immediately = all of a sudden
• Raining cats and dogs = raining heavily
• Cost an arm and a leg. = Very expensive.
• Cry = burst into tears/tears run down my cheeks.
• Delighted = jumped for joy.
• Annoyed = get on my nerves
Collocation:
It was so tough for her to make a decision at that time.
2. Adjectives: upgrade your writing by using more interesting adjectives
happy => relieved/delighted/pleased
nice => “fabulous”, “wonderful”, “horrible”,
bad => “awful” or “terrible”,
3. Adverbs of manner: stupidly, quietly, swiftly, loudly, terrifyingly (adverb stands
before clause, before main verb or after Object.
She could definitely hear very loud breaking
Quietly, she started to speed up/slowly she turned around.
She could hear herself breathing quickly.
Stupidly he had kicked the ball too hard
4. Creating Climax / Making dramatics
• Suddenly
• Unfortunately, Unexpectedly
• Right away/ Straight away/immediately
• Fortunately/ Luckily
5. Finishing your story
• In the end/ Finally/ Eventually
• When it was all over/ After everything that happened
Feeling expression in the end of the story
What a terrible day ever!.
How lucky she was!
6. Grammatical Structures:
a. Relative pronouns omission: he was in the middle going towards the centre of town.
She knew that bears roamed the site at night, they were looking for food.

=> She knew that bears roamed the site at night, looking for food (omitted from the bears
were looking for food.

The man who was carrying the box looked so frightened.

=> The man carrying the box looked so frightened.
b. Start with a dependent clause: When, After, While, Although, Because, As, Before,
Since, Unless, If…
After the thief had closed the front door, he started to enter the living room.
- Start with a “To phrase” (infinitive)/ “Ing phrase” (participle)::
To understand the water cycle, you had to…
Purring loudly in my ear, my cat demanded breakfast. / Challenging the authority of the
church, Darwin went ahead and published his Origin of Species.
c. Start with a simile and comparison:
- Like a brave soldier, the teacher entered the classroom.
- She was a small, dainty child, unlike her sister who was large and had big feet.
- She closed her eyes and screamed as loudly as she could.

- The man was much taller than the policeman.

d. Hear, see, etc. + object + V-ing

The -ing form usually emphasises an action or event which is in progress or not yet
completed.
- Maria heard him coming up the stairs towards her room, and felt scared.
- We watched them running back and forth, loading and unloading the trucks
and taking boxes in and out of the building.
e. Verb tenses
• Past simple (-ed/irregular form)
• Past continuous
• Past perfect
Ex: It was midnight and I was trying to sleep.
I had completely forgotten it was my birthday.
This time I picked up the phone quickly and shouted, “Hello?!”.
I woke up and got out of bed. Then I went to the kitchen and made some coffee.
f. Modal verb
She was scared because she had to walk through some trees to get there.

Direct speech:
• “I’m coming with you,” she said.
• She said, “I’m coming with you.”
• “Do you like it?” he asked.
• “Don’t do it!” he screamed.

How to write a story-notices

• Plan your idea first: what is it about? The title
• Order the content to make a list of action (from the beginning to the climax and
an interesting ending): using Wh_questions: when, where, who, what, how, why…
• Using past simple and past continuous, past perfect to describe the happening.
• Direct speech: mention the character speech: “I’m coming with you,” she said.
• Using linking words, variety of grammatical structures to make story fluent and
more interesting.
• Using strong adjectives and verbs to bring your writing alive.
• Use adverbs and adverbial phrases for dramatic effect.
• Setting the scene-happening-dramatics-ending frequency.

Checklist (what needs to combine in the story)

1. Beginning with a given sentence and continuing sentence.
2. Verbs: strong verb, phrasal verbs, collocation.
3. Time phrases and putting actions in order.
4. Adjectives.
5. Adverbs of manner.
6. List of actions, climax and an ending.
7. Grammatical Structures (at least 5 structures)
8. Direct speech.