Story Writing Tips

To get you on your way to writing a story of your life with D that can be published on a website like Reality Check, we have put together some tips and advice to crafting your personal story into a masterpiece ....

Can't get started? Just do it.

Write "I was diagnosed with diabetes in March 1985 ....", "It was July 1999, and my friend said to me ...." etc. Start with anything, however lame. Then by the time you've got warmed up and made it to the end of telling your story, go back and fix up the beginning. If you're still in need of inspiration, see Our Stories.

You may like to plan your story.

Scribble down the main elements, events and people on a piece of paper and draw arrows of how they are connected to give you ideas of how best to tell your story. Telling it as it happened (On Monday I was diagnosed, on Tuesday I told my mum, on Friday I went back to work, etc) does work well sometimes. But planning might prove that it's actually possible and more exciting to tell the story from your mum's perspective, or start at the end and then back-track, or make the thread that runs through your story something other than time?

Basic grammatical errors are no go!

Misspelt words, 'your' instead of 'you're', 'its' instead of 'it's' ... this stuff distracts the reader and jumps out of the page. You want the reader to be hooked and thinking about the characters in your story not wondering whether you meant that the strawberry pie dessert was hot and dry, or you were in the Sahara desert. Troublesome Words by Bill Bryson is useful to have on hand if you are super keen. Before he was a famous travel writer, Bill was a frustrated sub-editor who wrote this very accessible and authoritative resource for anyone interested in getting spelling and grammar right.

Don't use the same word over and over again.

The same word in one sentence, or even one paragraph is to be avoided. This is one of those things that make the reader stop and think, and distracts them from getting absorbed into your story. Look up a Thesaurus if you need some help with alternative words to use!

Don't assume too much.

Remember that people reading your article (if you are sending it to us for the Reality Check website) will probably know a fair bit about diabetes but they don't know you, have probably never been to the street where you live nor met your mum. Your audience has probably had a hypo, but we don't know what they feel like to you, yet! Try to paint the scene for us so we understand your story. Context is very powerful.

Fixing up the beginning.

Journalism students will know the rule that the first two paragraphs of an article should tell the reader who, what, where and when. This isn't strictly journalism, so you don't have to stick to that but at the very least the first 2 paras need enough to grab the reader and make them want to keep reading!

Scarily baring your soul.

If you're going to get down and dirty, make us laugh and cry, you'll probably need to explain real events and talk about real people. If you're worried about that, try using composites. Merge several people or places you know into one and give them a random name.

Get to the point.

Remember you're writing for the web. 500 to 1,000 words is about the maximum people tend to read on a webpage.

Show me, don't tell me.

What's more interesting? "I was feeling tired." or "As I dragged myself out of bed that day, I stumbled towards the shower and whacked my shoulder on the door frame." Not Shakespeare but an image that tells us you were tired and then much more as well.

Or a great example, is Melinda's story of her diagnosis. The following has stuck in my mind ever since I read it for the first time 5 years ago: 'We drove to a waterfall [on the south coast of Iceland] and as my friends stood in front of it and admired its beauty I slumped on the bonnet of the car and announced that "I wished I could drink the waterfall"'. A bit more interesting than 'I was very thirsty'.

Pictures.

The web is full of colour and light, bells and whistles. A picture to accompany an article can make it much more readable. (Ensure you tell us where you got it from. Even if it's "borrowed" from another website, please let us know so it can be acknowledged if published. Thanks.)

If you have any more questions, don't hesitate to drop me a line at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Kate Gilbert
Reality Check Founder & Volunteer

published August 16, 2005

last reviewed September 2, 2007