Story keys

what to do and not to do with your story. how to spook people, get people happy, and make people cry. (Not like you'd want to make them on purpose) and even to show how to nicely kill off characters.

KEY ONE:
Scary story keys

If it's a scary story you want people to be scared. So, how to do that is to be scared yourself! if you find something creepy, and someone else finds it creepy, it probably is creepy. Find sentances that you think are the most hair-raising, such as this sentance:

The shadow was getting closer. And closer. And closer.

you might not find it chilling, but this is a key to scary. you have to make it make sense, and it has to fit. If you read the whole story first, it makes more sense. so if you are going to do a story on a real life event and twist it to make it scary, it has to be connected with that real life thing. Then, later on in the story, readers can recall that part and find out what it means, or why you stated that.

KEY TWO:
How to cheer people up

With poems, songs, or a story, you can cheer someone up. If someone is sad over a loss, you can try to make a poem stating you still are there, or whatever is their favorite thing is still there. It sometimes is funny, so add lines that show their favorite thing in a rhyme or in a story add it like they still have that thing. Then, that thing makes a favorite food of theirs. It doesn't have to be 300 lines to be funny, or doesn't have to say i'm sorry in a million different languages. No one has to grief a lot, that makes the person more sad to see other people being sad. But, you can show people still greifing, it just can't be for three paragraphs or else its a sad story. Try to make it as happy as possible!

KEY THREE:
Dealing with dead characters

Not all people like dead characters. Sometimes they have to die, but for a good cause. If you're making the evil main character die, make the hero be heroic. it doesn't have to show a lot of violence. If the main character dies, there doesn't have to be a big giant ceremony. Shakespear wrote in king lear, when he died, he just said, he died. Also if you are killing off a major main character, normaly there isn't any sequel. But, if there are other main characters, they can go on, still living and doing the things that character did with them.

KEY FOUR:
What NOT to do

No good book has at the end, it was all just a dream, or then everything recioled and destroyed all mankind. Then, there isn't really a book. If the hero went through all that work for nothing, it'd make the book pointless. Another thing not to do, is go off on another subject in the middle of an inportaint subject. It has to fit, like I stated in the scary story key. They have to have a main objective. A plot. Then your story is fit.
One more thing not to do is:
Ouit on your story.
If you have written a book and all your ideas have come to an end, rethink it. Don't you think you can't do anything, just because you can't think of any more ideas. because your ideas are great ideas.