story ideas
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Clarity is key However you’re planning to draw your short story/novel to a close, make it clear. It’s no good having a character who’s been killed off earlier on in the story suddenly turning up at the end alive and well without any explanation. As the writer, you know exactly what’s gone on but your
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This week’s challenge is to read the following opening paragraph to a story and then to continue with the rest of the story. I’m intrigued to see where it takes you and how you’ll build on the characters: Six o’ clock in the morning. Another day Muriel would rather be dead. She opened her eyes
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I hope you’ve settled down into 2017 well. If you’re looking for a fresh challenge, here’s one for you: Write a story or poem on any of the following themes: Disaster Love Silence Your themes from last week were: A fresh start The dark place Monsters Robert Griffiths has sent in a super true-life story
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As most of you will be aware by now, I’m holding a couple of short story competitions – one for a flash fiction story of up to 100 words (open theme) and one for a longer story of up to 1000 words (on the theme of treasure) . Every Monday, I’ve been writing my own
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Last week a few of you contacted me to say how helpful you found the opening lines in my Monday Motivations slot. So this week, I’ll give you two more – firstly for a short story and secondly, for a poem. Story: Matty knew he shouldn’t have taken it. Poem: She was always there for
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In this second part of my weekly series on how to hook your reader’s interest in your story straight away, I focus on the shock factor and how it instantly grips your reader, making her sit up and take notice. She’ll feel compelled to read on and find out what on earth is going to
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Now it’s getting tricky…here’s V, W and X: V is for Victory: The victory in your short story could be a big one – a country taking victory in a hard fought war. You could take a particular character in the war, perhaps a soldier and tell the story through his eyes. Or your main
Esther Chilton 