Sentence and Appropriate Style

Writing stories

Introduction and tips:

ANSWER THE QUESTION
PLAN your story.
REVISE your story to correct mistakes.
Give your story a TITLE.
Make sure you have at least 4 paragraphs.
Paragraph 1 – background information.
Paragraphs 2 and 3 the main part of the story.
Paragraph 4 – EITHER the climax OR key moment of the story OR what happened after the climax.
Don't change the words you are given at all. (If there are words given)
Read the words you are given carefully. Sometimes you can choose whether to start or finish with the words. At other times you have no choice.
Use past continuous for background information. For example – “It was raining heavily as we left the house…”
Use past perfect before the main events of the story. For example – “…but Anne had kindly lent me her umbrella.”
Use simple past for the main events. For example – “There wasn't a single person on the street. “
Try to include some direct speech.
You can use contraction (For example – haven't, couldn't etc). But a story should not be as informal as an email to a friend, for example.

Useful phrases (Writing stories)

Time phrases:
It all began …
Shortly afterwards …
Meanwhile …
Not long afterwards …
Some time later …
Later that day …
A little later …
Finally …
In the end …
Eventually …

Phrases for dramatic effect:

Suddenly …
All of a sudden …
Without warning …
Out of the blue…
Just at that moment …
Quite unexpectedly …
As if from nowhere …

Direct speech:
“…..”, said Fred
“…..”, shouted Fred
“…..”, screamed Fred
“…..”, whispered Fred
“…..”, announced Fred.
”…..”, thought Fred
“…..”, cried Fred
“…..”, promised Fred

Concluding stories:

When it was all over…
Looking back now…
In retrospect…
In the end…
After all that had happened…

Sample questions (Writing stories)

1. Your teacher has asked you to write a story for a student magazine. The story must begin with the following words:

Simon