Stories, as we all have heard so many of them when we were kids, still fascinate listeners of both young and old. With the passage of time, they become old but hardly do we call them boring because the style of narration changes, the characters get a new lease of life with an interesting change in their names. The time setting is changed a little bit according to the changing times, the plot also gets a minute detail added to it. However, in the end, the purpose remains the same: to grab the reader or listener’s attention.
When a person or a writer starts writing a story, the first step is to dwell into their thoughts and memories, searching for characters from their life or from the thousands of people they met in their life, often looking for the odd one out whose story would be worth narrating. The goal is to give the audience something they can connect to while leaving a lesson to be learned at the end.
As students in younger classes are still at their developing stage, story writing can help bring out their creativity as well as an understanding of the language well enough to write some meaningful stories when provided with certain hints.
Since story writing is an important part of the English exams held in class 8, here are some tips to help students improve their writing skills:
- Main details
While writing stories, the first important step should be to think of the plot you want to build your story around. Students should then continue to think about the characters that are to be part of the story, as well as the time and space the story is to be set in. Predetermining these key details will help students write an interesting story.
- Art of narration
The key importance of narration is that it helps bring out the emotions or feelings in the best way possible. How well the audience can understand and relate to the story is highly dependent upon the narration. This is where practicing vocabulary and reading other writers’ work can help students. The art of narration requires the writer to use the most appropriate words while describing the scene in the most understandable manner.
- Use your skills
Students are known to have one of the most imaginative minds during their developmental stages or younger classes like grade 8. A good presence of mind clubbed with some brilliant imagination skills goes into writing stories that can fetch you some genuine interest or curiosity in the readers. Depending upon how well students are able to imagine, the story automatically starts building up. Refer Vedantu cbse class 8 english for solutions to determine your progress.
- Focus on the theme given
Students should keep in mind the theme their story is supposed to be developed around. Often students lose track of the main title and their story loses all meaning. This can also lead to a loss of marks in the exams. Hence, the story should revolve completely around the central belief or theme throughout the events.
- Give an interesting title
One of the most important details in the format for story writing is giving a title to your story. The title should be short, crisp, and interest-evoking. Often students miss on writing the title and lose a mark.
- Use the given hints/outlines
The story writing questions usually provide students with hints or outlines to help frame the storyline accordingly. It is important to use these outlines and frame the plot of your story around them so that your story is not off-topic. Students who do not possess great story writing skills can easily frame appropriate storylines with the help of the given hints.
- Do not over-write
Even while developing stories from outlines given, the students have to be careful while adding them into the plot. It is suggested that the outlines are first well-read and then students try to figure out how those outlines can become a part of their short story without any irrelevant or extra additions. These outlines should be placed in a proper sequence to make better sense.
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- A meaningful message at the end
Usually, the themes that are provided in the exams revolve around a moral or meaningful message. The moral of the story is what makes it more meaningful and interesting. Students should make sure that their story is framed in such a way that the ending supports the particular moral value or message.
- A meaningful message at the end
- Stick to the word limit
The word limit for story writing is always mentioned in the question. It is best that students try to complete the story within the given word limit since writing too much or too little can lead to loss of marks.
- Practice writing on your own
Writing interesting and creative stories can also be made possible through regular practice. Students can try writing about any event that happened in their lives or even about fictional events. This will help expand their imagination and creativity, leading to more interesting stories.
- Make reading a habit
Reading short stories, books, or even novels, can help students improve their understanding of how to increase curiosity and interest through story writing. Reading will again, help expand their imagination and result in stories that can grab the audience’s attention and interest easily.
- Know the format
To avoid losing marks in the story writing questions, make sure you follow the format. Divide the story into different paragraphs instead of one big essay. As mentioned before, keep in mind to give the story a title and a moral at the end.
- Add interesting details
When the audience’s curiosity is evoked, their interest in the story is increased. In order to make your story more interesting and one that keeps the audience curious about what happens next, details like surprise elements, crisis or climax, decision-making, etc can be added to the story. This will help provide an interesting build-up towards the end.
