Ok guys, so the background for this is that I’ve been taking a creative writing class online through BYU Independent Study. I decided to take the class because I need more English credits and my school only certifies online classes through BYU. Of all the options, creative writing seemed the most interesting to me (of course I love writing!), so I went for it.
Along with the tests necessary to get a high grade in the course, you also need to submit something called portfolios. Portfolios are when you submit specific writing assignments. For the big assignment in the portfolio, I had to write a short story. I remember being pretty cocky and sure that my story was going to get high marks. After all, I’m a great writer. Imagine my surprise when I get the email that it’s been graded; and I got a 75 percent.
My first instinct was to blame the teacher, and indeed that’s what I did. The teacher was too strict, I convinced myself, and that’s why I didn’t get a higher grade. If the teacher had simply been better, he would’ve given me an A for sure. Still, I couldn’t help but look at his comments and acknowledge that they had some truth.
When I resubmitted my portfolio, I took his advice into account. I worked hard to develop an engaging story. And guess what? I got a 95, an A. How did I do that? And how can you write better stories and get higher grades on your own assignments? That’s what I want to tell you.
1. Write a Lot
I know we all hear this a lot; the more we write, the better we’re going to get. Cliche, right?
The truth is, though, that the reason why everyone says to do it is because it’s true. I participated in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) and wrote 37000 words in three weeks (I didn’t do the fourth week so I could spend time with my family over Thanksgiving). I had to write a lot, and I didn’t have a lot of time. I had to write over 1700 words a day, and I also wanted it to be halfway decent. My story’s still not done, but I learned a lot about writing. Now when I sit down to write, it’s much easier. For the first story it took me a while just to write 1500 words, but in the second story I easily wrote 3000 in probably half of the time. Plus, it was much higher quality.
You don’t have to do NaNoWriMo to get better at writing. Most of you don’t have the time for that. But you get better every story you write. That’s really the best way. Even if you just write for ten or fifteen minutes a day, before long you’ll find that it’s a lot easier.
If you’re not someone who has the time or interest to do that, however, the next four steps can still help you.
2. Show, not Tell
We’ve all been told this by our elementary school English teacher. Show; don’t tell. Let the story show your reader what’s going on, instead of telling them. Also cliche, and also very true.
In the first story I wrote I had the main character reflect over past events in his head. He was thinking them, so I thought he was “showing.” However, I was merely hashing over the events, telling them in sentences like, “Jordan had applied to both Brown and Columbia’s Medical Schools, two Ivy League colleges and the most prestigious in the country.” That’s telling. The story may have been powerful if I had been able to show it, but I didn’t. To do that would’ve probably taken a novel. If you find yourself in a similar situation, choose a different storyline.
In my next story I had the main character going around and doing all of the activities while we watched him. That story had sentences like, ‘I messed up, James thought. “You know, dad,” he said in a choked voice, “those guys used to be my friends.”’
Instead of being told what the character did like the first scenario, we watch it happen. Much better.
3. Don’t Force It
As I said, I tried to force way too much into the first story. My plot idea was to have a guy on the sidewalk realizing what had made him fail and then changing things around. In actuality, however, to go over all of that is ridiculous and must lead to telling. I also tried to force the character to realize the error of his ways, when in actuality there was no catalyst for him to do that. It would’ve been much more effective to go through his thoughts enough to make clear to the reader what happened, and then leave him there as a failure.
In the second story, on the other hand, the main character is too forceful about what game he wants to play and tries to force his friends to play it by throwing a fit. His friends don’t take to that very kindly, and leave him out. Later he sees his friends playing the game he had wanted without him, and he realizes the errors of his ways. I didn’t try to put too much into this story. I didn’t give a big history or anything. All I put was a couple of scenes, but it was enough for the reader to get the feeling. For there to be a believable catalyst for change, we also have to know the characters. Which leads into…
4. Create Meaningful Characters
This is probably the biggest thing I didn’t get when I wrote the first story. At that time I thought that the best way to write a story was plot-driven and have the actions of the plot show the reader what I intended. Without characters, however, the plot is basically worthless.
For example, in the first story the plot was good enough; have a guy realize not to sell himself short. In reality, though, we started the story with him in disarray and never actually got to meet him. His frantic thoughts were merely him going over the past, or me showing the reader the plot. As a character, the reader never got to know him. Honestly, I didn’t either. As my instructor said: “The main character is a guy lying on the ground hitting himself.” When I read that, it started to dawn on me why I had only been given a 75.
The other characters in the story were also not good. A little girl came over and started saying mean things to this guy laying on the ground. That, as my instructor also pointed out, wouldn’t happen. What six year old girl would see a man lying on the ground and yell at him for being a disgrace? None that I know. If I wanted a character fulfill that role, I should’ve either created a character to fit it so that it would make sense, or not do it at all.
In my second story, on the other hand, the main character is a normal teenager who wants to play sports. We follow him along through his boredom with school, the way he gets along or doesn’t along with his friends, and his excitement at playing football. And then we see how he attempts to push that desire on the rest of his friends to the point that they kick him out of the group. When he sees his former friends playing football later, he realizes what he did wrong and regrets it. That’s a real character people can identify with and believe in.
Most important, though, is that you need to know the character. If you don’t, how is your reader going to? Then figure out how to express it.
5. Don’t Preach
Preaching is the way stories were written back in the 1800’s. At that time it was the writing style and generally accepted.
Not any more.
Nowadays preachiness is not tolerated by readers. How many times have you seen John Grisham or J.K Rowling preaching in their books? Not many. How many preachy books have you seen on the bestseller list? Also not many. There’s a reason for that.
Writing good stories now has more to do with showing the reader a theme, and letting them make of it what they want. That’s not to say you can’t teach people through your stories; I certainly try to do that. But you can’t come in and say, “He had sadly sold himself short the whole time. And it led to hell. Just ask Jordan.” That’s literally a quote from my first story. That was the narrator talking. Not good.
In my second story, I also set out for a theme, but I had the actions and the characters express it. This time it went like:
“What happened?” his dad asked.
James thought for a moment and brought himself to say what he had been repeating over and over in his mind, “I put my own desires over all of theirs,” he said, “and that is the worst poison there is.”
Here the character James went through a variety of experiences and came to that conclusion on his own. I didn’t say it was right or wrong; that was just what his experiences showed him. Readers will accept that. But they won’t accept you telling them how to think.
There it is. Those five things are, in my mind, what made the biggest difference between a story that doesn’t make sense (the first story I wrote), and the second, engaging and successful story that got me an A. Of course, there’s no way to shortcut the practice that it takes to become a good writer. But you can speed up the process.
Thanks for reading this article and let me know what you thought (and what the results you got are!). If you’d like to read the story that got me an A, click here. As for the other one…well, let’s leave that for the annals of history 🙂 If you’d like, though, you can check out other stories I’ve written that I’m not ashamed to show you. Plus, you can like my Facebook page or subscribe through email below.
Thanks for putting your writing out there for all to see. Writers learn as they write and in feedback they get from others. You have the final say though as to how your story is told. Keep up the good work.
Yeah, I always hate it when someone critiques my writing. Whatever the advice is, I hate it! After all, it’s my writing, and they’re wrong! That’s why it’s important to have people that you trust editing your work. Then you know you’re getting good advice. Ultimately, you’re totally right that as a writer you have to make the decision of what to do with your story. Thanks so much for commenting!
Yeah, you’re totally right that as a writer you have to make the final decision. In person I only let people who I really trust critique my stories, but I figure anyone who is reading it might have a better idea about something than me! Thanks for stopping by my site.