How to Make a Grade 3 Story That is Really Good!

By Kitty Cochrane www.kittycochrane.com

1. Setting         

When: Make it now, or very far in the past (dinosaurs, cavemen, knights). Don’t write in the future because it’s hard to make future and present different. Make the story take place all on the same day, at the same time. (Don’t say they went home to bed and dealt with the problem the next day. The problem is too exciting and dramatic to be dealt with the next day!)

Where: Make it somewhere interesting! (Outer space, jungle, undersea, desert, woods, cliffs, mountains, sky). Describe the setting with interesting words and comparisons in order to make an interesting story.

2. Main Characters:
• Use no more than 2 characters.
• They cannot have your name or the name of anyone you know.
• Characters must be different in each story you write.
• They must have 2 very different names (eg. Not Bill and Billy).
• All characters are introduced at the beginning. Characters cannot be added later in the story.
• Characters need to have interesting conversation (or even talk to themself).
• Tell what they do! ACTIONS!
• Describe the characters (not hair colour... who cares!) Tell what makes them different (brave? Cowardly? Selfish? Generous? Dumb? Boring?)
• Exaggerate them to make them interesting.
• Tell what they’re feeling throughout the story.

The setting, characters and main problem are all introduced in the first half page!

3. Main Problem: Make it interesting! If you have an exciting problem, you will have an exciting story. Arguing with a friend is not exciting. Losing your keys is not exciting. Being bored or lonely – even though it’s a problem – is not an interesting problem. The main character will always be the one who solves the problem. Here are some interesting problems:
• Scuba diver out of air
• Volcano erupting
• Lost in the jungle
• In space and the rocket runs out of fuel
• The worst nightmare
• Aliens come to Earth
• There’s a monster under the bed
• A tornado, earthquake or fire
• Trying to walk to the North Pole and freezing
• A drought or flood

4. Goal: Tell what the main character’s goal is. The goal is what they want to have happen so the problem will no longer exist. For example, if they are lost, the goal is to get home. If a monster is trying to eat them, their goal is to get away fast.

5. 3 Tries that don’t work: Main characters always try three times to solve the problem. Each time they try something, you must explain why it didn’t work. Make the tries believable – the first, second, third logical tries in that order. For example, it would not be logical for a scuba diver who is out of air to 1. try to breathe in water 2. try to hold their breath 3. try to call for help then Solution: go to the surface.

Make it interesting! This middle part is where most of the writing is done.

• Write lots of conversation (exciting words!).
• Describe who is doing what.
• Describe the action.
• Use big, interesting words.
• Make us worried about the main character (no blood, violence or killing though).
• Tell us what they are feeling.
• Describe everything using all senses (what can the main characters see? Hear? Smell? Taste? Feel?)
• Use comparisons (eg. Her eyes were as big as donuts)

6. Solution: the problem is solved when the goal is reached. It is always the main characters that solve the problem, not an accident, not a dream, not someone who jumps in at the last minute. When the problem is solved, the story is finished. Don’t add anything else that happens afterward. It’s not as interested as what just happened.

7. What they learned. A quick, pleasant way to end the story is to say what the main characters learned so they won’t have that problem again.