Having your way with words

Types of Writing

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the things we need most in the world.”

Philip Pullman

Let’s start with an official definition of ‘story’. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, a story is “an account of incidents or events”. Letters, diaries, emails, blog posts, reports, notes to self – they are all stories.

My job is to help you create better stories. 

Writing is like art. We know what we like when we see it, because it makes us feel, hear, taste and touch. Open up your notebook to a blank page. Get ready to make notes. 

Think about writing that moves you, affects how you think or what you believe or sweeps you away to worlds you’ve never imagined?  Make a short list. Who are your favourite authors? What is it that draws you to their stories? What do you want to write? Who do you want to read your creations?

My first objective is to share with you helpful tips and links about the art and craft of writing for pleasure, for school or for business. My second objective is to inspire you to write regularly and improve the quality of your writing. 

Anyone can recount an event. Remember Sergeant Joe Friday from the 1950s television series, Dragnet? He’d always say, “Just the facts, Ma’am’ when investigating a case. That’s a memorable catch-phrase but not a sound foundation for good holding an audience’s attention. Let’s talk about two kinds of writing.

Narrative – telling a story (usually about a personal experience) so that the reader learns a lesson or gains insight.

1. What’s your topic?
2. What do you know that the reader doesn’t know?
3. Are you sharing information about an experience that we can all resonate with, that evokes a memory or that will touch our emotions?
4. What is the lesson or insight behind your narrative?

Descriptive – describing a person, object or event so that the reader shares the sensory experience of it.

1. Setting. Where did the event occur? Was it crowded, dark, lonely, hot, smelly, raining, alien, loud, etc.?
2. Character. Who was involved? What was unusual/memorable about them? 
3. Action or Plot. The rise and fall of what happened.
4. Conclusion. The end. Get to the point.  
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Whether you’re talking about what you saw at the mall, telling a joke, repeating a conversation you overheard (all writers should become eavesdroppers), creating a bedtime story or crafting fiction, you must include details that make a reader or listener care. 

Look outside your window. Pick an object. Write half a page about it. Create a VIVID descriptive piece.