Lesson 3: Writing a Story
Do you love to tell stories? If you like to talk about your family or where you went for dinner last night or what you want for Christmas, you are telling a story.
Maybe you like to write imaginative stories with made up characters. If you do, that is really a kind of writing called narration.
When you write a narrative, you are telling a story. That story can be based on real events, or it can be made up. In either case, all good narratives need to have several important elements.
What Every Story Needs
All stories or narratives must have several elements in them.
First, a story needs characters - the people or animals who take part in the story. These can be real people that you know, or they can be part of a fantasy story that is made up. There can be many characters, or just a few.
A story also needs to have a setting. That is where the story takes place. Just like with characters, the setting can be a real place, or an imaginary one. The story can take place in just one place, or in many, depending upon your story.
All stories have a plot, or the action of the story. Even a simple story needs to have a plot. All of the things your characters do are all part of the action or the plot.
As you think about the plot, you will see that there is probably a problem and events that lead to a solution. Think about what your characters are trying to do and how they are doing it - what are their problems and what solution do they find? These elements can be real or imaginary, but every good story has them!
