Writing fiction is an opportunity to come up with creative and original ways of using language. You might find inspiration from your own experiences or from your imagination.
Planning and proofreading should bookend your writing process. In the planning phase you prepare your ideas and narrativeThe sequence of events in a plot; a story. structure. When you have finished, proofread carefully to check that your writing is working.
Planning to write
Planning is an important part of the fiction writing process. Many professional writers use a plan as the basis for a first draft, which they will later edit several times before the work is complete.
There are several different ways to plan a piece of writing. Try them all and find the one that works for you. You could:
create a mind map
bullet point your ideas
create a flow chart of each stage
create a table
What to include in a plan
A plan is an outline of your ideas. You could use the five-stage story arc to help structure your narrative.
You could also use your plan to remind you of key features you want to include - figurative language, variety of sentence structures, TiPToP paragraphs. You can also use your plan as a place to write down particular words and phrases to include.
Proofreading
When you have completed a piece of writing, it is a good idea to read over what you have created. Read once for sense, making sure the sentences flow and that the paragraphs are in the right places. If you are writing by hand and realise that you missed a paragraph break, insert the // symbol to indicate where you want the new paragraph to start.
Read a second time, checking spelling and punctuation. Read slowly to make sure you haven鈥檛 missed out any important words.
It鈥檚 easy to make mistakes when you鈥檙e in your creative flow! Make time to read your writing with critical eyes so you can spot your errors and put them right.