Intermediate levels and above
Beginning and ending stories.
“Techniques to begin your story”
An interesting beginning is as important as an interesting ending. An interesting beginning will catch the reader’s attention and make him/her want to continue reading. A good ending will make him/her feel satisfied.
You can START your story by:
a) using your senses to set the scene and describe the weather, atmosphere, surroundings or people’s actions to create mystery or suspense.
e.g. I could hear the wind howling around me. It was quite dark that night and it felt strange to be out in the wilderness all alone.
b) using direct speech.
e.g. “Always look on the bright side of life, kids”, Mr Frisbain used to tell us.
c) asking a rhetorical question. i.e. a question that does not require an answer.
e.g. Have you ever travelled by train on a warm summer night?
d) addressing the reader directly.
e.g. I am sure you all know what a bargain is.
e) referring to your feelings or moods.
e.g. I was exhausted because I had been painting walls all day.
“Techniques to end your story”
You can END your story by:
a) using direct speech.
e.g. “Thank you, sir,” the boy said to me.
b) referring to your feelings or moods.
e.g. We were shivering but we were happy to have made it.
c) asking a rhetorical question.
e.g. “Why did I have to suffer so much?”
d) describing people’s reactions to/feelings about the events developed in the main body.
e.g. My brother had become the hero of the day and I was extremely proud.
One further technique is to engage the reader by creating a sense of mystery or suspense.
Students can see these in techniques in practice while doing a matching task. Samples of weak / boring writing can be rewritten.
Example:
Match the beginnings with the endings. Which techniques have been applied? Which pair is not very successful? Rewrite this pair, applying the techniques mentioned before.
Adding interest.
To make your narrative more interesting to the reader, you should:
- use a variety of adjectives or adverbs, such as imaginative, wonderful, cautiously, etc instead of simplistic ones such as nice, good, well, etc.
e.g. Instead of: John is a good boy with nice ideas.
you can write: John is a great boy with wonderful ideas.
- Use a variety of verbs such as wondered, screamed, whispered, etc to
avoid using “said” all the time.
e.g. Instead of: “Help!” he said.
you can write: “Help!” he screamed.
- Use similes i.e. expressions which describe people or things by comparing them to someone or something else.
e.g. She ran like the wind. He was as quiet as a mouse.
- Use present or past participles to join two simple sentences into one longer, more sophisticated sentence.
e.g. Instead of: He turned on the light. He saw someone in the room.
you can write: Turning on the light, he saw someone in the room.
Instead of: She was relieved. She left the police station.
you can write: Relieved, she left the police station.
This advice is followed by exercises such as matching simile halves (as white as… / to shake like… / leaf / a sheet) to practice these techniques. Interest is also enhanced by describing the senses with collocations.
Examples:
A.
Underline the words or phrases which are used to describe senses. What sense does each refer to?
1. Maitland staggered across the road, hardly aware of the hooting cars and foul-smelling exhaust fumes. The cut on his arm was burning, his head was throbbing with pain, and the salty taste of blood filled his mouth. A police car screeched around the corner, siren wailing and lights flashing, and Maitland dashed into a dark doorway.
2. It was a hot, lazy afternoon and, from where I sat on the shady verandah, I could see the purple mountains in the distance. The fragrant flowers around me blazed with colour as, sipping my sharply sweet lemonade, I listened to the gentle hum of crickets and twittering of birds. A soft, cool breeze brushed my skin while I enjoyed the smell of the rich earth. Suddenly, a familiar,annoying buzz sounded in my ear.
B.
Look at the following list of verbs, all of which refer to sounds and light, and fill in the correct verbs in the gaps below. Some verbs may be used more than once. Which of these could be used in a story entitled “A Haunted House”?
| 1. leaves/paper ……………………. | 8. sirens/cats …………………………. |
| 2. wind/wolves ……………………. | 9. staircase/floorboards …………. |
| 3. chains ……………………………… | 10. flames ………………………………. |
| 4. stars ………………………………… | 11. doors/guns/explosion ……….. |
| 5. lions/crowd/fire ………………. | 12. owls/cars ………………………….. |
| 6. thunder/lorries ………………… | 13. candles ……………………………… |
| 7. waves/rock music/heart …… | 14. lightning ……………………………. |
A further technique is using flashback narration – starting a story at a certain point in time (often a very exciting moment), then going back in time and describing events which happened before this time (usually in Past Perfect), leading the reader up to the specified time, then going on with the story and bringing it to a conclusion.
Extra practice can be for students to order paragraphs of a text, paying attention to how the plot is linked through time words and phrases, then imagine and write the last paragraph as an ending.
Armed with such tools and their own imagination, students should now be ready to write their own story; being creative by making the most of what they know in their own way.
One final thought. When was the last time you yourself wrote a story or a poem?
Why not have a go and share the experiences with your students?
The exercises were taken from the book “Successful Writing Intermediate” page 63, page 64 & page 68 and “Successful Writing Upper Intermediate” page 29 & page 33.
View the “Successful Writing Intermediate” Book here!
View the “Successful Writing Upper-Intermediate” Book here!
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