Plan Your Fiction Writing

PARAGRAPH 1

• Start with a memorable first sentence to make the reader want to read on.
• Introduce the characters and the setting.
• Introduce the plot.

PARAGRAPH 2

• Develop the plot.
• What might happen to trigger off a series of events?
• Build up suspense.

PARAGRAPH 3

• Wind up your story with a good ending. In the resolution you will have solved all the problems.
• It could be happy, sad, a cliff hanger (which leaves the reader to make up his or her own mind), or a moral ending
• Have a memorable final sentence.

Write

• in FIRST PERSON, so you are the main character telling the story (using I or we).
• or
• in THIRD PERSON (using he or she) as if you were a fly watching from the wall.

Remember:

• Use connectives or conjunctions:
  • and or but (to join compound sentences)
  • or, so, if, when, while, after, before, because, unless, until, whereas, although (to join complex sentences)
  • use pronouns - who, which, whose, what, that
  • to link ideas use - firstly, later, therefore, on the other hand, at that moment, by this time, next, soon...
• Use a range of sentences - simple, compound and complex sentences
• Use ‘we’ to identify with the reader.
• Use ‘you’ for second person - in persuasive pieces and to speak directly to the reader.