I remember taking writing classes in high school and having to write short stories as part of the course. While I didn’t always relish the work of crafting 5,000-word tales on paper, I did manage to get plenty of good results, mostly by following a set of guidelines I found on a book that advised people about winning writing contests. In a way, you can consider fiction writing for class pretty similar to joining a writing contest. After all, your grades will depend as much on the merits of your own story as it would on the quality of writing your classmates produce. Write just a little bit better than everyone and you can nail yourself an A. Here’s how you do it:

Start strong. Bring the action early into the story by presenting a complicated situation, a problem to be resolved or an intriguing incident. The stronger you start out, the better the impression you make. For a teacher grading a stack of papers, first impressions can be huge. Read the rest of this entry »