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When it comes to writing a story，the first thing that strikes me is fear.Where to start？ What is the title of the story？ What is it going to be about？ After struggling with some monstrous idea of using a first person perspective to tell a story of a horrific murder，I give up before starting to write and resort to my pillow and blanket for warmth and comfort.“Not everyone gets to be Dan Brown.” I tell myself when thinking about relinquishing my fantasy of being a novelist.However，I have gained some tips in story writing over a century of frustration and desperation and am eager to share.
Theme
A problem that most people face when writing a story is figuring out what type of writing they are going to be doing.Well，it is always easy to write something that you are familiar with.Think about your favorite TV shows and novels.What stories do they tell？ For example，I am a zombie movie fan and love the idea of catastrophe and apocalypse.So I wrote about zombies and plague in my first English story.
Themes are all around you.You could write about your own experience or a exaggerated version of that experience.After all，stories are based on real lives.For example，In the movie“500 days with Summer”，the director Marc Webb tells his own experience of a break up with a girl names Jenny Beckman.
Titles and Starters
Title is the eyes of a story.It is the hook of the story and first thing that the reader see of the lengthy passage.A appealing title could grab the readers’attention and give the first glimpse of the tale.
We can always keep the title short and simple.“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant，for example，tells a moving story about a necklace.You may argue that it does not give you the urge to read，but it does show what the story is going to be about.It may also be useful to exaggerate the context when naming the story.For instance，if I am going to write a story about a group of people trying to invent a giant machine so that they could fly，I would name the story “The Reach of The Milky Way”.The story may not be necessarily telling that they tried to reach the space，but the exaggeration used in the title suggests the difficulty of achieving the goal of flying and acts as a grasp of attention.
The beginning of a piece gives the tone of the story，introduces the characters，and also grabs the reader’s attention.Take another look of the story “The Necklace”，it begins with an introduction of the main character： She was one of those pretty and charming girls born，as though fate had blundered over her，into a family of artisans.She had no marriage portion，no expectations，no means of getting known，understood，loved and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction； and she let herself be married off to a clerk in the Ministry of Education.” （The Necklace，Guy de Maupassant）
The story doesn’t have to follow the chronicle order.To appeal the readers，you can start with a short glimpse of the climax.For example：
This was the last straw.The window shattered and broke，and they came in......”
The Plot Line
Many stories follow the plot line：
Exposition——Rising Action——Climax——Falling Action——Resolution
As beginners in story writing，do not be afraid of falling into the cliché.The classic tales are models for writing.But don’t forget to develop a conflict，which is essential throughout the development of the story.
Heroism
A conflict that share by many stories is “Who am I”.After overcoming a set of problems，the hero or the protagonist gains wisdom and finds at the end.
Joseph Campbell believed that all protagonists in these stories are variations of a hero of an ancient myth and published a book called “A Hero With A Thousand Faces”，which lead us to his theory of “The Hero’s Journey”.This infamous theory has been studied in all the American high schools’ classrooms.The popularity demonstrates its importance in writing a story.Here is a transcript from “The TED Talk” introducing the theory：
...So，what is“The hero’s journey”？ Think of it as a cycle.The journey begins and ends in hero’s ordinary world，but the quest passes through an unfamiliar，special world.Along the way there are some key events.Think about your favorite book or movie.Does it follow this pattern？
0：00 Status Quo That’s where we start.
1：00 Call to Adventure The hero receives a mysterious message.An invitation？ A challenge？
2：00 Assistance The hero needs some help，probably from someone （who is） older，wiser.
3：00 Departure The hero crosses the threshold from his normal，safe home and enters the special world and the adventure.We are not in Kansas，nothing is the same anymore.
4：00 Trials Being a hero is a hard work.Our hero solves a riddle，slays a monster，escapes from a trap.
5：00 Approach It is time to face the hero’s biggest ordeal，the hero’s worst fear.
6：00 Crisis This is the hero’s darkest hour.He faces death，and possibly even dies...Only to be reborn. 7：00 Treasure As a result，the hero claims some treasure，special recognition，power.
8：00 Result This can vary between stories.Do the monster bow down before the hero？ Or does it chase him as he flees from the special world？
9：00 Return After all that adventure，the hero returns to his ordinary world.
10：00 New Life This quest has changed the hero，he has outgrown his old life.
11：00 Resolution All the tangled plot lines get straightened out.
12：00 （0：00） Status Quo We are upgraded to a new level，nothing is quite the same once you are a hero.
Many popular books and movies follow this ancient formula pretty closely.But let see how the hunger game fits The Hero’s Journey’s template.When does Katniss Everdeen is called to an adventure that gets the story moving？ When her sister’s name is called from the lottery！ How about Assistance？ Is anyone going to help her on the adventure？ Haymitch！ What about Departure？ Does she leave her ordinary world？ She gets on a train to Capital！
So you get the idea...（What Makes A Hero，Matthew Winkler from The TED talk）
Use the formula and start the story，you might find it quite easy to fill out the blank spot in the plot line.
Ending
Important，and a challenge to write，is the ending of a story.This is the part where the author could leave suspense and reflects on the readers.A strong ending could even alter the core meaning of the whole story.Check out these short stories for great endings：
·The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
·The Piano Tuner by Peter Meinke
·The Speckled Band by Authur Conan Doyle
·If You Sing Like That For Me by Akhil Sharma
·Bright and Morning Star by Elizabeth Gaskell
·The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
·Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield
·The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
Create your own hero and start to write！ Who knows，you might even find your passion and become a novelist in the future.
作者简介：周冠英，2001年01月出生，女，汉族，香港，学生。
Theme
A problem that most people face when writing a story is figuring out what type of writing they are going to be doing.Well，it is always easy to write something that you are familiar with.Think about your favorite TV shows and novels.What stories do they tell？ For example，I am a zombie movie fan and love the idea of catastrophe and apocalypse.So I wrote about zombies and plague in my first English story.
Themes are all around you.You could write about your own experience or a exaggerated version of that experience.After all，stories are based on real lives.For example，In the movie“500 days with Summer”，the director Marc Webb tells his own experience of a break up with a girl names Jenny Beckman.
Titles and Starters
Title is the eyes of a story.It is the hook of the story and first thing that the reader see of the lengthy passage.A appealing title could grab the readers’attention and give the first glimpse of the tale.
We can always keep the title short and simple.“The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant，for example，tells a moving story about a necklace.You may argue that it does not give you the urge to read，but it does show what the story is going to be about.It may also be useful to exaggerate the context when naming the story.For instance，if I am going to write a story about a group of people trying to invent a giant machine so that they could fly，I would name the story “The Reach of The Milky Way”.The story may not be necessarily telling that they tried to reach the space，but the exaggeration used in the title suggests the difficulty of achieving the goal of flying and acts as a grasp of attention.
The beginning of a piece gives the tone of the story，introduces the characters，and also grabs the reader’s attention.Take another look of the story “The Necklace”，it begins with an introduction of the main character： She was one of those pretty and charming girls born，as though fate had blundered over her，into a family of artisans.She had no marriage portion，no expectations，no means of getting known，understood，loved and wedded by a man of wealth and distinction； and she let herself be married off to a clerk in the Ministry of Education.” （The Necklace，Guy de Maupassant）
The story doesn’t have to follow the chronicle order.To appeal the readers，you can start with a short glimpse of the climax.For example：
This was the last straw.The window shattered and broke，and they came in......”
The Plot Line
Many stories follow the plot line：
Exposition——Rising Action——Climax——Falling Action——Resolution
As beginners in story writing，do not be afraid of falling into the cliché.The classic tales are models for writing.But don’t forget to develop a conflict，which is essential throughout the development of the story.
Heroism
A conflict that share by many stories is “Who am I”.After overcoming a set of problems，the hero or the protagonist gains wisdom and finds at the end.
Joseph Campbell believed that all protagonists in these stories are variations of a hero of an ancient myth and published a book called “A Hero With A Thousand Faces”，which lead us to his theory of “The Hero’s Journey”.This infamous theory has been studied in all the American high schools’ classrooms.The popularity demonstrates its importance in writing a story.Here is a transcript from “The TED Talk” introducing the theory：
...So，what is“The hero’s journey”？ Think of it as a cycle.The journey begins and ends in hero’s ordinary world，but the quest passes through an unfamiliar，special world.Along the way there are some key events.Think about your favorite book or movie.Does it follow this pattern？
0：00 Status Quo That’s where we start.
1：00 Call to Adventure The hero receives a mysterious message.An invitation？ A challenge？
2：00 Assistance The hero needs some help，probably from someone （who is） older，wiser.
3：00 Departure The hero crosses the threshold from his normal，safe home and enters the special world and the adventure.We are not in Kansas，nothing is the same anymore.
4：00 Trials Being a hero is a hard work.Our hero solves a riddle，slays a monster，escapes from a trap.
5：00 Approach It is time to face the hero’s biggest ordeal，the hero’s worst fear.
6：00 Crisis This is the hero’s darkest hour.He faces death，and possibly even dies...Only to be reborn. 7：00 Treasure As a result，the hero claims some treasure，special recognition，power.
8：00 Result This can vary between stories.Do the monster bow down before the hero？ Or does it chase him as he flees from the special world？
9：00 Return After all that adventure，the hero returns to his ordinary world.
10：00 New Life This quest has changed the hero，he has outgrown his old life.
11：00 Resolution All the tangled plot lines get straightened out.
12：00 （0：00） Status Quo We are upgraded to a new level，nothing is quite the same once you are a hero.
Many popular books and movies follow this ancient formula pretty closely.But let see how the hunger game fits The Hero’s Journey’s template.When does Katniss Everdeen is called to an adventure that gets the story moving？ When her sister’s name is called from the lottery！ How about Assistance？ Is anyone going to help her on the adventure？ Haymitch！ What about Departure？ Does she leave her ordinary world？ She gets on a train to Capital！
So you get the idea...（What Makes A Hero，Matthew Winkler from The TED talk）
Use the formula and start the story，you might find it quite easy to fill out the blank spot in the plot line.
Ending
Important，and a challenge to write，is the ending of a story.This is the part where the author could leave suspense and reflects on the readers.A strong ending could even alter the core meaning of the whole story.Check out these short stories for great endings：
·The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
·The Piano Tuner by Peter Meinke
·The Speckled Band by Authur Conan Doyle
·If You Sing Like That For Me by Akhil Sharma
·Bright and Morning Star by Elizabeth Gaskell
·The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
·Miss Brill by Katherine Mansfield
·The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant
Create your own hero and start to write！ Who knows，you might even find your passion and become a novelist in the future.
作者简介：周冠英，2001年01月出生，女，汉族，香港，学生。