Thursday, November 14, 2019

Story writing tips



Tips to enrich your story writing style:

1.   Think before you start writing: Think of the theme, genres, paragraph divisions, and characters before you begin to write. Spend 5 minutes on this. It will maintain the gestalt and length of the story and prevent you from having to re-write or end abruptly. You do not want to start with 'Potato' and end with 'Pluto'.
2.   Keep a mix of different types of sentences (short simple sentence, long simple sentence, compound sentence, complex sentence): Do not tend to overuse and/or continuously repeat a particular type. If there are too many simple short sentences coming one after the other, see if they can be joined to make a complex sentence. (Complex, not complicated)
3.   Give thoughts to your paragraphs: Your paragraphs should look connected. If you need to introduce a totally unrelated character in the process, give the readers a break in thoughts by using phrases like “in the meanwhile, somewhere far away from the village” or “while everyone was happily enjoying in the palace, a wicked witch in a remote jungle felt angry” etc. Change the paragraphs when there is a pause, a big time-leap, or a change of scene. Paragraphs are also changed to give a breather/pause to the reader.
4.   Think before using ‘and’, ‘so’, ‘then’: Take a pause before you write these words. Ask yourself if it’s necessary to use them. Avoid repeating them.
5.   Think before using 1st and 2nd person pronouns: Before using ‘I’, ‘you’ and ‘we’, ask yourself if you’re writing a dialogue. If someone is talking to someone there, use dialogue grammar appropriately.
6.   Maintain consistency of details: Do not spend so much space on the detailed description of one aspect, that you’ve to hastily cover the other aspects. Try to explain everything to the same extent. The aspects that you value more should be detailed more.
7.   Use idioms and proverbs: Replace ‘It rained so heavily’ with ‘It rained cats and dogs’. Replace ‘He is bragging’ with ‘He is blowing his own trumpet.’ But not too much.
8.   Use richer words: Avoid modifying all nouns and adjectives with ‘very’. Replace ‘He is very confused’ with ‘He is perplexed’. Learn root-words. Replace ‘He is an eye doctor’ with ‘He is an ophthalmologist’. Work on your vocabulary. Take one word per day and try to use it in various ways while thinking, talking, and/or writing. Have fun with a word every day.
9.   Read more: Read more stories to enrich ‘how to write’. Read more encyclopedias to enrich ‘what to write’. Better fund of information prevents errors while writing, and also gives depth to stories. For example, to write a fantasy story on aliens, one must know that aliens are creatures from outside the earth.

More:
1.   Write a draft/index before you begin the actual story. Check your introduction, narration, and conclusion.
2.   Be mindful of the timeline of your story.
3.   Do not end your story abruptly.
4.   Give characters names and personalities according to the period and culture your story is set in.
5.   Connect with your characters.
6.   Do not write the words as they come to your mind.

Compound words


Compound words made simple:

When two words come together to yield a new meaning, a compound word is formed. Understanding the compound words can help children (and us) remember spellings, and big ones at that. For example, many children write ‘earings’ which is the wrong spelling. An easy way to remember is:

ear + rings= earrings
Since all the letters and sounds of the two words have to join in a compound word, it can’t be ‘earings’.

Similarly, many children write ‘beautyfull’. Here ‘beautiful’ is not a compound word and thus doesn't carry all the letters. The pronunciation of ‘beautiful’ is different from the joint sounds of ‘beauty’ and ‘full’, too.

Similarly, ‘mango’ is not a compound word though it looks like
man + go

The pronunciation of ‘mango’ is different from the joint sounds of ‘man’ and ‘go’.

Knowing that compound words carry two small words, children feel more confident to attempt big words like butterfly, rattlesnake, basketball.

Here are the 3 main types of compound words:
Joined
Open
Hyphenated
Notebook
Bathroom
Earthquake
Living room
Ice cream
School bus
Long-term
Up-to-date
Mother-in-law

Notice how ‘bathroom’ is a joined compound word, but ‘living room’ is an open one. Similarly, ‘bedroom’ is joined, but ‘dining room’ is open.

Words that are often written incorrectly as compound words:

Incorrect
Correct
Alright
All right
Nevermind
Never mind
Alot
A lot
Eachother
Each other

Words whose meanings get changed if used as compound words:

Separate
Meaning
Compound
Meaning
All together
As a group
Altogether
Entirely
Every day
Adverb of time
Everyday
An adjective
Back up
Phrasal verb
Backup
Reserve, extra

She stacked the books all together, and count was 1500 altogether.
He listens to his favorite list every day while doing his everyday chores.

Many compound words can’t be put as hyphenated when used as adjectives after the nouns:
This is not a long-term solution.
This solution is not long term.
This is an up-to-date data.
This data is up to date.
It’s an off-campus residence
The residence is off campus

Understanding compound words also helps in pluralization. The head of the compound word gets pluralized.
Incorrect
Correct
All mother-in-laws are here
All mothers-in-law are here
The passer-bys didn't help
The passers-by didn't help
They are the commander-in-chiefs
They are the commanders-in-chief

Used as adjectives, they can’t be pluralized.

Incorrect
Correct
I have a 9-years old child
I have a 9-year-old child
Give me 2 dozens mangoes
Give me 2 dozen mangoes
It’s a 2-years commitment
It’s a 2-year commitment
I have 5 hundreds rupees
I have 5 hundred rupees


Collective nouns


It is important to learn collective nouns. It’s confusing to learn them sometimes due to two main reasons:
1.    One object may have various collective noun names
Example: For fish, we have school/shoal/run/haul/draught/catch
2.    Various objects may have the same collective noun names
Example: Ants, soldiers, caterpillars have the same collective ‘army’

Here is a list to know by middle school

Animals:

A colony of ants
An army of ants (marching together)
A flock of birds
A flight of birds (flying together)
A flock of sheep
A herd of cattle/goats/buffaloes/cows
A hive of bees
A swarm of bees (flying together)
A litter of cubs/ puppies/kittens
A host of sparrows
A team/stable of horses
A pride of lions
A pack of wolves/dogs/hounds
A clutter of Cats
A Team of Ducks (when flying)
A Paddling of Ducks (when on water)
A Sleuth of Bears
A Knot of frogs/toads
A murder of crows
A flamboyance of flamingos
A smack of jellyfish
A shrewdness of apes
A troop/barrel of monkeys
A tribe of goats
A bloat of hippopotami
A congress of baboons
A convocation of eagles
A parliament of owls
A pod of dolphins
An intrusion of cockroaches
A caravan/train of camels (moving together)
A herd of camels
A hide of tigers
An ambush of tigers
A school of fish (single species moving together)
A catch of fish (caught for consumption as food)
A haul of fish (caught using nets)
A shoal of fish ( fish living together)
A coalition of cheetahs
A brood of hens
A family/cartload of chimpanzees
A bask/bank of crocodiles
A band/troop of gorillas
A mob of kangaroos
A nest/colony of mice
A consortium of octopuses
A bed/knot/pit/slither of snakes
A pod of whales
A herd of zebras /elephants/ deer
A congregation of alligators




People:

A class of students
A choir of singers
A crew of sailors
A band of musicians
A bunch of crooks
A crowd of people/spectators
A team of players
A troupe of artists/dancers
A pack/gang of thieves
A staff of employees
A regiment/army of soldiers
A tribe of natives
An audience of listeners
A panel of experts
A gang of laborers
A flock of tourists
A board of directors
A squad/posse of policemen
A cast of actors
A bevy of beauties
A gaggle/riot of comedians
A wisdom of grandparents
A scoop of journalists
A bench/sentence of judges
A pantheon of gods
A quiz of teachers
A delegation of ambassadors
A doctrine of doctors
A giggle of girls
A bevy of girls (dressed beautifully)
A persistence of parents
An equivocation of politicians


Things:

A group of islands
A galaxy of stars
A wad of notes
A stack of wood
A fleet of ships
A string of pearls
An album of stamps/autographs/photographs
A hedge of bushes
A library of books
A basket of fruit
A bowl of rice
A pair of shoes
A bouquet of flowers
A bunch of keys
A chest of drawers
A pack of lies
A range of mountains
A cloud of dust
A deck of cards
A quiver of Arrows
A stand of saplings
A fleet of cars (parked/stationed)
A convoy of cars (going somewhere together)
A series of events
A row of apartments
An anthology of poems
An atlas of maps
A belt of asteroids
A bunch of grapes/bananas
A grove of trees (that form a continuous canopy and give shade)
A forest of trees (large group of trees in a very large area)
A stand of trees (one species of trees)
An orchard of trees (fruit or nut trees planted for commercial purposes)
A clump of trees (small group different species)
A plantation of trees (large group grown to be cut down for wood)
A heap of trash
A schedule of activities
A bushel of apples
A museum of art
An outfit of clothes
A bundle of clothes (soiled/dirty)
A basket/bowl of fruits
A suite of furniture
A lock/tuft of hair
A flight of stairs
A fleet of vessels
A basket/tray of vegetables