This document provides a writing survival kit with 7 guides for developing writing skills. The guides include getting started with emergency writing tips, writing a catchy first paragraph, developing characters, choosing a point of view, writing meaningful dialogues, using effective settings, and structuring a plot. Each guide provides examples and tips to help new writers develop their craft.

2. Writing Survival Kit: Starter Pack
Ariesa Domingo

8. What is WRITING?

10. Survival Guide # 1: Get Started: Emergency Tips
•
•
What does your protagonist want?
What morally significant ac7ons has your protagonist
taken
towards that goal?
What unexpected consequences ramp up the emo7on
al energy
of the story?
What details from the se4ng, dialog, and tone help
you tell the
story?
What morally significant choice does your protagonist
make at
the climax of the story?
•
•
•

11. Show, don’t
(just) tell
.

12. Tips…
•
Keep a notebook.
•
Write on a regular, daily
basis.
•
Collect stories from everyone you
meet.

13. Survival Guide # 2: Write a CATCHY first
paragraph
I heard my neighbor through the wall.
The neighbor behind us pracDced scream therapy in h
is shower
almost every day.
The first Dme I heard him, I stood in the bathroom
listening at our shared wall for ten minutes, debaDn
g the wisdom of calling the police. It was very diff
erent from living in the duplex over middle-‐
aged Mr. and Mrs. Brown and their two young sons
in Duluth.

14. Survival Guide # 3: Developing Characters

15. Survival Guide # 3: Developing Characters
•
Ac7on.
•
Speech.
•
Thought.
•
Appearance.

16. Survival Guide # 3: Developing Characters
Her name is Alys, short for Alys Zyril Perez. S
he is 17 years
old. She is a fair--
‐skinned Filipina with brown eyes, long,
straight black hair, and is 5 feet 5 inches tall.
Contrary to the
expectaDons of the people around her, she actual
ly doesn’t
like studying. She loves to bake and has the
knack to kid
around most of the Dme. She is a 4th year high
school student
whose graduaDon is sDll at stake. She lives with
her parents
and her younger brother. She has two best frien

17. Survival Guide # 4: Point of View
First?
Second?

18. Survival Guide # 4: Point of View
First?
Second?

19. Survival Guide # 5: Meaningful Dialogues
“What?” I asked. “I want to break
up with
you,” Drake said. “But why?” Th
e tears
were threatening to fall and my li
ps began to shiver. I couldn’t und
erstand. What’s happening? Why w
as this happening?

20. Survival Guide # 5: Meaningful Dialogues
Alys was nervous.
“I don’t think I can do this,” she
said as she bit on her lower lip.
Her heart was pounding wildly insi
de her chest.
She didn’t meet his eyes. She lowe
red her
gaze and kept her mum.

21. Survival Guide # 6: Effective Settings
VIVID

22. Survival Guide # 6: Effective Settings
The color of the walls was making Alys
dizzy. The
room felt small. Everything around her
seemed
normal but the truth was it wasn’t. Th
e sun was hiding; the flowers were de
ad; no one was around. She could not
contain herself. She went outside but t
he gloomy weather was not of any hel
p. It felt so wrong. Everything at that
moment felt so wrong.

23. Survival Guide # 6: Set-up the Plot
Explosion or “Hook
.”
Conflict
Exposi7on. Co
mplica7on.
Transi7on.
Flashback.
Climax.
Falling Ac7on.
Resolu7on.

24. Survival Guide # 7: Writing the actual scene

25. Survival Guide # 7: Grammar
Don’t seTle. Always strive to perfec
t your
grammar. If not perfect, at leas
t try to
fake it.

27. Now, let’s talk about the
English Grammar.

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