One of the goals of Create Great Stories is to help writers learn all the aspects of writing. We have developed courses that provide lessons, activities, and writing assignments. The best way to learn to write stories is to write your own stories! We start with the fundamentals and build from there. However, from the very start, there is an emphasis on writing stories that are interesting and engaging. While becoming a great writer takes considerable practice and strong techniques, you can get started with easily with things that will make your stories worth writing and reading from the very beginning.
Knowing, for instance, that a writer’s first draft is almost always bad, even terrible, and that it is perfectly normal for a writer to re-write a story is many times skipped or too quickly dismissed. It’s better to write a story and revise it than to try to get it perfect with the first draft. The lessons always give plenty of time to learn and apply concepts for a first draft, then time to revise the story to improve the details. You’ll have stories that you’ll love to share from the very start of your courses.
At this site, knowing how to write, and how to give and receive feedback, and how to participate as part of a larger community, are areas that are just as important as the technical aspects of telling a story. We have discussion forums available to ask questions or talk about specific issues or approaches.
Since every writer can learn from reading, a collection of great short stories in the public domain is provided in the Public Domain Stories page. Members are encouraged to read these stories multiple times. The first time the story is read, it should be for enjoyment. Each subsequent reading can be done to determine how the writer made the story intriguing. Still, the writer should never lose the sense of losing oneself in the story even as the analysis deepens. After all, the purpose of studying the story is to learn how to be a better writer, not become a critic.
To get started, we have Genre Descriptions and Story Ideas. The major genre and sub-genres are all covered, telling how these what makes these categories engaging for the reader and explains their continued interest. There are hundreds of story ideas that can be used directly by the writer to create their own stories or indirectly to kick-start creativity. By taking advantage of these genres and ideas, the writer can get started easily on their writing journey.
If you ever need to know how to perform functions on the site, we have Tutorials. These tutorials cover all the aspects of using the forms, finding things, using forums, managing your account, and so forth. The tutorials provide step-by-step instructions as well as screenshots. The writer can quickly learn to use the system and immediately start growing their writing ability.