Story Ideas: Their Story (Part 2)

In part one of this writing challenge, we started work on a non-fiction story. Non-fiction stories come from real-world events and are factual.

You’ll have lots of interesting facts noted down from your interview. The answers you collected may not feel like a story yet. They might include lots of different ideas mixed together.

Don’t panic, there are lots of ways to write something that feels like a ‘real story’. Feelings are an important thing to think about here. Thinking about your reader’s feelings is an important skill for any journalist:

What feelings connect the interview together?

Can you describe the facts in a way that makes a reader feel something?

(*Teachers: There are printable PDFs available for this task. These are revised according to Scottish primary school levels (‘Up to P4’=approx. age 8 and under, and P5+=approx. age 9 and up). You can download the sheets by clicking on these links: Up to P4 [Greyscale], Up to P4 [Colour], P5+ [Greyscale], or P5+ [Colour].)

Writing up your interview

Think of the main feelings that your partner shared during their interview. Were they excited, nervous, sad, joyful? Was there a mixture of feelings?

People often find it easier to read a story if it has something called an ’emotional arc’. This is where a story helps a reader follow an ’emotional journey’. It’s a slightly complicated idea so you’ll find some examples below.

Emotional Arcs

What is an arc?

Think of a road going up and down hills. Imagine that when you’re at the top of a hill you feel happy and when you’re at the bottom you feel sad.

A ‘story arc’ is what writers call the shape of these emotional ups and downs. Today we’ll concentrate on two shapes that an ’emotional arc’ can take:

Man in a Hole

The first arc we’ll look at goes high -> low -> high. This often gets called the ‘man in a hole’ arc.

This shape goes like this: The main character starts in a good place. Then something happens that causes them to struggle. At the end of the story things work out and they’re in a good (or better) place again.

Here are some stories with a ‘man in a hole’ structure:

Little Red Riding Hood (Classic Fairy Tale)

The Gruffalo (by Julia Donaldson)

The Hobbit (by J.R.R. Tolkien)

Skulduggery Plesant (by Derek Landy)

Rags to Riches

The shape of this one is like climbing from the bottom of a mountain to the top. The shape is low -> high. It’s a simple shape and is a great arc for stories about achievements.

‘Rags to Riches’ stories have a two-part emotional journey. The main character starts off in a difficult situation. Either they do something or something happens and they end in a fantastic situation.

Examples of this sort of arc are:

Jack and the beanstalk (classic fairy tale)

Spiderman (Marvel Super Hero)

Cinderella (classic fairy tale)

Matilda (by Roald Dahl)

Holes (by Louis Sachar)

Many more arc shapes

There are lots of ways to take a reader on an emotional journey. The two arc shapes above are a small part of a big list.

Think again about the interview you did last time. What shape could your story’s arc be?

Facts with feelings

The key emotions from the interview are the emotional arc for your story. These will make up your beginning, middle, and end.

The Beginning

What happened before they went to that event/ place?

OR

Why did they start doing their hobby/skill?

Answers in the ‘Why?’ questions could be very helpful too. You need an emotional start. How did they feel before?

The Middle

The middle of your story is normally a big event. This is easy for an event story, in most cases the event itself will be the middle.

It’s a little trickier without a clear event. You could look at their most recent achievement and treat that as an event. Instead, you could describe how your partner feels just now about their event/hobby/skill.

The End

Now you want to close your story. Any answers about your partner’s feelings about the future will help. The ending of a non-fiction story is often called the ‘conclusion’.

Conclusions often give your reader something to think about. When we write about real people doing real things it’s important to show how this might affect the reader.

Stories like your interview often end with a positive feeling. You may end by encouraging the reader to try the hobby or skill. Instead, you might tell your reader how they might get involved with something or visit a place.

Your ending doesn’t have to be positive. Stories show all sorts of emotions. They don’t always have to be happy, so don’t feel you have to force it.

If your partner doesn’t feel positive at the end, your story should be honest about that as well.

Sharing your story

You can share any story on Celebrating Stories whenever you like (it’s free and easy to join, and you might win a writing prize!).

We would love to see your non-fiction story on here too. There is one important thing to remember though. Lots of people all over the world see this site so we would suggest that you keep your partner’s story anonymous.

The easiest way to do this is to change their name in your story. You can give them any name you like, so have fun with it if you want.

You can use the buttons below to share your story. If you haven’t joined Celebrating Stories yet, don’t worry, there’s a button for that too.

We look forward to reading your story,

All the best, John