15 things to look out for if you want to write a good story

With a good story, the reader no longer realizes that it is a made-up situation: he accepts everything he reads as true. The whole story takes place in detail in his mind's eye.

To give your reader such a reading experience, everything in your story must be right. After all, the same reader can trumble the story like this. As a writer you compete with all distractions in the tangible world of your reader. So you have to grab him by the collar so to speak and not let go.

How do you do that? What should you think about?

And how do you approach it if you want to incorporate events from your own life into your story or novel? Because then specific points of attention are added.

1. Do you write intuitively or according to a writing plan?

Both ways are good. You can discover your story while writing or you can make a tight writing plan. Or you choose an intermediate form: a flexible writing plan. What works best for you depends on your personality.

2. Select your subject

Writing a story takes time, a lot of time. So make sure you have a subject that interests you. That helps you to always go back to your story at times when writing is not going so smoothly.

3. Search for the essence of your story

This is perhaps even more important than the subject: what is your story really about? What do you want to transfer? What is the underlying thought? The essence can come back as a theme in your story, but you don't have to.

4. Collect material

Be sure to document yourself. Do you write about someone with a disability? Read and empathize. Is your story playing in the eighteenth century? Know the world of your character: know what he eats, how he gets his news, how he feels the clothes he wears.

5. Choose the perspective

It makes a lot of difference whether you tell the story from the schoolmaster, from Jantje who plays truant or from his mother. Every character has his own perspective. As a writer you choose the angle that yields the most interesting story.

6. Build your story well

A story has a beginning, a middle and an end. That sounds like an open door, but it isn't. As soon as you start to recognize the structure of a story, you can put events within your story in the right place: where the effect is greatest.

7. Create compelling characters

Characters must live on the page. They tell the story. Make sure they are layered. That means that you as a writer delve into the background and know who your character is. That knowledge is reflected in your text.

8. Provide exciting dialogues

Writing language is not spoken language. And spoken language is not a dialogue. Dialogues in a story are carefully constructed: every word counts. Below the dialogue the subtext sounds: that is what the character really means, but does not say.

9. Choose the correct background

The background of a story cannot be exchangeable. That means that you cannot move the story with impunity from, for example, a camp site to high school without your story actually changing: the background must be an essential part of your story.

10. Don't think about others when you write

As soon as you allow others to look over your shoulder, you have the chance of a writer's block. Your story is yours, it's not important what Aunt Truusthinks about it. Give yourself the space to write. Before you go outside with your story, you can see if you want to change something.

11. Stop doubting yourself

Am I good enough? Can I write? Who wants to read my story? Those thoughts block your creative process. Write because it makes you happy. Write because you want it. Write because you have to write. Experiment and give yourself a pat on the back because you dare!

12. Make your story interesting

Predictability is disastrous for your story. Make sure there is information in your story that is not so obvious. Use specific details from your character's environment for this. Choose things that you find fascinating and interesting. That gives extra energy when writing.

13. Write the story that you want to read yourself

You like a certain kind of story. A story with specific ingredients. With tension. With action. With emotion. With certain locations. Travel stories or romantic stories. Write the type of story that you love. Good chance that that genre suits you perfectly.

14. Write a story, not a lament

If you have experienced something drastic - think, for example, of losing your job, your loved one or your house - then it is tempting to write endless painful details. Don't do that: make it a story. You know: with a beginning, a middle and an end.

15. Make your story unrecognizable

Using events from your own life does not mean that every reader has the right to know everything about you. You can make a lot of things unrecognizable, while it is still your story. For example, because you choose a different time or place for your story.