| By :
Dawn Burke.
There are many writing tips to be found online, but which are likely to be of most help to you if you want to write a story and have it published? These are obviously people like you, who have had an idea and have succeeded in writing a story and getting it into print. These are not professional writing instructors, that claim to be able to teach you how to write in x weeks, but those that have succeeded themselves, and are willing to pass their experience on to you. It is rarely easy for aspiring young writers to start climbing the ladder, and few have good financial backing to help them along the way. Understanding the principles of writing a story, and also how to have it published in print, can make all the difference between failure and success - not for a lack of skill or imaginative writing, but because they were not aware of the process of getting their story printed and then published. Steps in Writing a Story There are certain steps to take when writing a story, whether you are writing a full length novel or a short story for publication in a magazine. To put it simply, you must have a theme or plot and then work on developing that and finally think of a good ending for it. Choose a theme and then decide on how it should begin and end. You then develop the meat of the story which is basically everything that comes after the beginning and before the ending! As an example, your story could be about an orphan baby finding his dead mother's family later in life. Mother dies and leaves her baby an orphan - orphan is looked after by social services and a locket left by the mother is found - child manages to run away but gets involved with a band of thieves - child saved from a criminal gang and identity discovered through the locket by his real aunt and a benefactor. This would be a good theme for a novel if written during the appropriate period in history, and Victorian England would likely be that period. Is this story familiar? It should be - it was crafted by Charles Dickens who used it to reflect the social situation in Victorian London, where children.particularly orphans, were forced into crime - written in a way that displayed good beating evil. You will find the title somewhere below. What is being stated here is that your story must be based on a specific theme, and that you must give it a beginning and an ending. With every novel or short story you have ever read, there is a theme and general plot, and most of the writing simply pads that out - this is true whether it is Vanity Fair, Moby Dick or any Harry Potter Novel. You could précis many fabulous books is just one paragraph as above, and the rest is simply a knowledge of how to write that you can learn. The Theme Overrides the Tale One of the most important writing tips for budding writers today is that the theme overrides the actual tale, but if you can find a theme that people can relate to and a good story to go with it, then you can achieve success. The novels of Charles Dickens were extremely popular in their era: Oliver Twist would likely not have enjoyed the success it has were it to have been published today, but in the Victorian era the tale was very relevant to modern society at that time and readers were both captivated and disconcerted by the message it related. These days readers want a theme that they can recognize and identify with. Jack London's books or Uncle Tom's Cabin would not have the same impact today as they had when they were published because times change, and you should first seek a theme for your story that relates to modern life or social circumstances, or that would be believable by modern readers. It is pointless knowing exactly how to write a story if you cannot select a plot or theme with which your readers can relate. Sure fairy tales will always be popular, but the stories have to brought into the 21st century so that youngsters can relate them. That's the reason for the popularity of the Harry Potter novels, and also why the movie versions of 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory' are altered with each generation. This is a tale of good triumphing over evil, although it is now believed to be more P.C. for misbehaved children not to blow up through too much chocolate or simply disppearing! Do It the Best You Can . . . The writing tips above are only a few of those you can take to help you become a published author; they will help you think of a realistic plot that readers will find interesting enough to continue turning each page, and ultimately enable you to see your name as author of your very own first published work. If want to succeed at anything - anything at all - then you must learn all you can about it and give it the best shot possible. If you fail to do your best to succeed in achieving your dream, you will always wonder: what if. . . Do not let yourself be saying 'what if' for the rest of your life - search out the best writing tips and instruction on how to write a story so that you give yourself a chance to realize your dream, and if you fail - well, you will also know that you gave it your best shot, and you can't do more than that. If you take the correct steps then you can be successful, but you must take advice of people that have achieved what you want to achieve - do what they did and there is no reason why you cannot succeed: plus how to find out to publish it!
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