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Writing your First Story

Writing your First StoryWriting a story is a skill that can be developed at any point in a person’s life. But starting early will give you a lot of time and opportunity to improve your craft. And if you continue working on it, you may actually end up with a published book.

Like most good things in life, the way to successful writing requires a lot of sacrifice and work. Completing your first story can take a lot of your energy and time. You’ll probably find the process tedious at some point but organizing a couple of things will help you write better. What’s harder to do is to remain inspired and to be able to let your ideas flow freely.

The core of writing is all about nurturing ideas in your head and putting them down in written form. Let your imagination run free because this is how unique stories are born. They are results of the creative energies of different people. Use a notebook to write down the ideas that come to you, whether day or night. It does not  matter if they are all useful – you can sort them out later on. What’s important at the start is to allow your ideas to develop.

When you have jotted quite a bit, you can categorize your ideas into general themes or concepts. This way, you will have a ready reference for other stories that you’ll write in the future. Focus on a topic that has the strongest attraction for you, it could well turn out to be your first story. Make an outline to highlight the progression of events as the tale unfolds. You can include the timeline and the central characters along with this. Include a description of the main characters and the memorable scenes in the story. Having these basic points will help you work through the details of your piece.

If you feel stumped at one point, take a deep breath and relax. It happens to most writers and the best that you can do is to give yourself some breathing space. Engage in an activity that calms you down like reading a favorite book or seeing a film that you love. This can help loosen you up and inspire you to continue writing some more. There’s no limitation to what you can put in your book so let your creativity flow. At the very least, writing will give you a positive outlet for your imagination.

The Wonderful World of Books

The Wonderful World of BooksThe importance of encouraging children to read books cannot be stressed enough. The role that reading skills will play in the lives of children as they grow up is so invaluable that it would be a disservice not to give them this advantage.

Some of the benefits of reading books include nurturing a child’s sense of discovery as he gets introduced to different topics that ranges from the sciences to the arts. It also helps in the development and enhancement of his language skills. Reading also allows individuals to remain updated on the latest news about technological tools and devices.

While there are doubts about the advantage of using multi-media devices over books, these two resources share one thing in common – they require the individual to read the information. So it does not really matter if it comes in printed or digital form, a person still has to read the reference to know more about the topic, appreciate a story or get the answer to his question. The Internet has just made it possible to access a lot of information from different sources easily. This opens up another valuable skill that reading supports - the ability to analyze the material that you are reading and weigh its value based on other information that you come across.

Critical thinking is also enhanced by reading. Going through a new story or a book allows children to think about the material - which among the characters they like, why the events happened and how they want the story to end. And the great thing about all this is that as they read through more books, they’ll become more addicted to it. In time, they will view it as an enjoyable activity, something that they can turn to no matter how old they get.

Some of the popular authors of children’s books include C.S. Lewis who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia, Dr. Seuss for Green Eggs and Ham, E.B. White for Charlotte’s Web, and Beatrix Potter for The Tale of Peter Rabbit, to name a few. By introducing memorable characters through their stories, these authors have given children a great place to go to. In turn, thousands of readers have continued on to keep the characters alive over the years. These classics continue to be a great treat to new readers as they explore the magical world of talking animals and wondrous places.