Hey, Kids!

Do you like to write? Remember, a good story needs these things:

• An idea. Where do ideas come from? Something that's happened to you or your friend. A story your mother tells about her childhood. News you hear on TV. A story you read. But the trick is to use your imagination and make these stories your own. If you get stuck trying to think of a good idea for a story, try something different.
  
  Instead of telling about a picnic on a sunny day, write about a picnic in a snowstorm. A tortoise and a hare could compete in a spelling match rather than a race. You heard on TV a shark bit a girl--let the girl bite the shark instead. Using your brain to stir up ideas is called brainstorming.
  
  
• A beginning, middle, and an end, written in sentences. Your story's beginning should grab your reader's attention with a character facing a problem. Some people call the middle a muddle because the word means "mess" or "turmoil," and your character is facing problems he needs to solve. When that happens, you write an ending that leaves readers satisfied because the character or characters triumphed.
  
  
• A title. A story title should make people want to read it. I wrote a kids' book about a town where everything was backward, and I called it Drawkcab, which is "backward" spelled backward. The editor at the company that published it suggested I change the title to Ice Cream for Breakfast, and that's a lot better, don't you think?
  
  Eating ice cream for breakfast is a backward thing to do, and it grabs kids' attention. Would you have known what Drawkcab meant? Probably not, until you read the book. "Picnic In A Snowstorm" is kind of an interesting title, but I'll bet you can think of something better! Can you?
  
  
• Punctuation. Periods and sometimes, question marks. Use capital letters at the beginning of sentences and on names.
  
  
• Proofreading. Read what you wrote to yourself. Does it tell your readers something? Did you spell the words right? Did you use capitals and periods?
  
  
• Your name on it. You are the author and want people to know it.
  
  
• A nice appearance. Be sure it's neat so people can read it. Authors often rewrite stories.