Your story should take the characters and the reader on a journey. It should have ups and downs and highs and lows, and there should be obstacles that your characters need to overcome. Making sure that you have a well thought out journey will mean your story is on the right track.

A story needs conflict and resolution; tension and release; mystery and revelation. There should be losses and gains, setbacks and comebacks, peaks and troughs. And, above all, a story should be about people: their dreams and desires; loves and hates; problems and passions.

Follow these tips to avoid sounding like a dusty, detached headmaster:

1. Choose a topic you’re passionate about.
2. Write as if you’re talking to one friend.
3. Show your readers the ways in which you’re like them.
4. Add vivid details to your stories.
5. Use metaphors.
6. Don’t be afraid of strong opinions.
7. Avoid the passive tense.

Here are the best story ideas:

• Tell the story of a scar, whether a physical scar or emotional one.
• A group of children discover a dead body.
• A young prodigy becomes orphaned.
• A middle-aged woman discovers a ghost.
• A woman who is deeply in love is crushed when her fiancé breaks up with her.

5 Ways to INSTANTLY Improve your Fiction Writing

1. 1) Determine what every character in the scene wants before you start writing the scene.
2. 2) Insert conflict into every scene.
3. 3) For every scene you write, ask yourself, “Is this scene necessary?”
4. 4) End every chapter or every scene on a different emotional beat than you started.
5. 5) Show and Tell.

How To Write A Dramatic And Intense Short Story

1. Leave something to the imagination. Want to drive someone crazy?
2. Say more with less.
3. Make readers work for it.
4. Start close to the end.
5. Amp up your character’s desires.
6. Jazz up the conflict in dialogue.
7. Consider death.
8. Don’t forget fate.

Word counts

short story

• narrative,
• novelette,
• novella,
• story,
• tale,
• yarn.

Synonyms, crossword answers and other related words for LONG STORY [saga]

• EPIC – MYTH – SAGA – TALE – YARN.
• STORY.
• LEGEND.
• ACCOUNT – HISTORY.
• NORSE GOD.
• ADVENTURE – CHRONICLE – NARRATION – NARRATIVE.
• ADVENTURE STORY.