Five Steps to Writing a Story

A great writing lesson to have with your student writers is to cover five basic steps in the story writing process. They are: brainstorming, writing an outline, writing the story, proofreading, and writing a final draft. Each step in the process takes one or several sessions with the keyboard or pencil and paper. I will deal with each step in its own separate blog entry over the next few weeks. For today, I've provided a brief description of each step.
1. Brainstorming: Sitting down with a pencil and paper and coming up with story ideas.
2. Writing an outline: Taking the chosen topic from the brainstorming session and writing down the order in which it will be written about, including topics and subtopics.
3. Writing the story: On the keyboard or on paper, a draft, based on the outline written, is typed/written down in its entirety.
4. Proofreading: Go over the story to check for grammatical and spelling errors. Also, make sure the story makes sense and is not repetitious. Rewrite as many drafts as are necessary.
5. Writing a final draft: Type or neatly write the final copy of the story.
Now, sit down and enjoy a good read!