Write Your Spooky Story Day 2: Supporting Characters, Setting, Plot Planning

Note: This whole activity is available online at my new “Keep On Writing” Online Writing School. It’s set up as a tutorial to allow kids to work at their own pace with more in depth instruction. For more information, LINK HERE!

Welcome back. Today is Day 2 of writing your own Spooky story. I’ve been getting feedback from people that you’re looking forward to writing a story with me this week. This totally makes me excited. I do really love helping people bring out their inner muse no matter what your age is. So, if you’d like to leave comments with questions or what your trying this week, I’ll be happy to respond.

Today, we’ll be working on creating sidekicks and villians. In every story, there needs to be conflict. These supporting characters help create that. First, let’s get some definitions. Sidekick: This is a supporting character for the main character. They can be their confidant and even go along with them as a wingman or helper to face oppositional conflicts. Villian: is also known as the antagonist. This is the character that causes opposition to the protagonist, also known as the hero or main character. They are not necessarily considered the “Bad” guy, or at least, they don’t consider themselves to be the bad guy or gal. They are simple the opposite of the hero.

They can be created similar to the main character, but you need to keep in mind what their motivation or interest in the main character might be. They should have a function relating to the hero or heroine.

All your characters should have these four elements:***

Character=Who

Their Goal=What

Their Motivation=Why

Their Conflict=Why Not

Setting Choice: Choosing a spooky setting will add to your horror fiction. Most spooky stories are set in a haunted house, haunted graveyard, haunted (Fill in the blank). You can get creative with this. Just keep in mind this is an important story element to make your story spooky. You’re characters can even move from a normal setting into the spooky setting later in your story. Just keep in mind, your description in your rough draft will make this spooky setting come alive.

Once you’ve got these basics mapped out for your characters, you’ll be ready for the next step, creating a plot or conflict. This is known as the problem. Give your characters a problem that will motivate them to reach their goal. Then, give them 3 tries to solve it. The first three tries should fail. The last try should be the solution. Once you’ve solved their problem, wrap up the ending conflict with a happily ever after or you could end with a cliffhanger if you want to write a sequel. A cliffhanger is leaving a problem or questions still not finished or answered.

For today’s assignment, you can use the character webbing graphic from yesterday to create your sidekick and villain. Then, use the graphic below to create a basic plot outline or plan. You need to create a problem, 3 attempts to solve the problem in the middle, with the last attempt being the solution. I usually number my attempts 1, 2, 3.

That will give your story a beginning, middle and end. Once you have all of this outlined or mapped, you’re prewriting will be done and you’ll be ready to start your rough draft.

So get busy. Tomorrow is the big day to start the official first draft, the most creative part of the writing process. Happy writing! -Tiffany Turner (Mrs. Turner)

***Information cited from Advanced Fiction Writing by Steve Alcorn.

Plus, for this week only starting today, Oct. 27, my Halloween Tale, Pumper the Pumpkin will be available for free on Amazon. Here is the link: http://www.amazon.com/Pumper-Pumpkin-Tiffany-Turner-ebook/dp/B005X1CS1A