Story Writing Hints
By
Gerald D. O’Nan
Author of the
Adventures of Andy Ant Books
(Note: I will try to give you hints and ideas about writing stories using the 8 books in The Adventures of Andy Ant as examples. Having a set of the Andy Ant books available will help you understand the context better, but it isn’t necessary if you have a good imagination.)
The Story Behind the Story – Danger at the Circus
There was never-ending excitement where we lived when the circus came to town. I can remember my dad taking me to the circus, watching all the acrobats and, of course, the wild animals.
But the circus event I remember most was the time my cousin Tom and I wrangled permission from our parents to go to the circus alone. As my dad drove us to the big event we felt like we had finally “made it!” We had crossed the threshold from being little kids … to whatever the next level was. Dad gave us last-minute instructions and told us where he would be parked after the performance was over.
Normally we would find seats near the top of the stadium, but this time we opted for seats on the front row since we were both a little apprehensive about getting lost. As we watched hundreds of people pour into Lincoln Park Stadium we began to feel a bit overwhelmed. Tom wanted some popcorn and a soda, but between us, we only had enough money for one or the other – to share. If we had been with Tom’s dad each of us would have had our own soda and popcorn. My uncle was pretty generous and a bit of a softy. I started wishing he had come along.
The popcorn stand was pretty close to our seats and the smell of that delectable delight was nearly overwhelming. I had my eyes fixed on that stand and watched a man purchase a large tub of popcorn for his wife. They turned and walked back our way when out of nowhere a clown came up behind the couple. I don’t remember what the clown said or did, but it startled the lady so much that she dropped her tub of popcorn and the two of them ran up the stairs – abandoning what remained of the popcorn.
Tom and I figured that the popcorn should not go to waste and grabbed it as quickly as we could. Under the best of circumstances, we would each have our own small bag of popcorn, but now we had much more and still had the money to buy a soda.
It didn’t take either of us very long to figure out that it was actually more fun to have our dads along with us. Nothing dramatic happened to either of us that day. We found my dad after the performance was over and told him about the exciting things we had seen and even about the lady getting scared by the clown.
In the Danger at the Circus story I borrowed from my experience of that day at the circus and my realization that even though you think you have come of age, it’s still nice to have a grownup around.
Copyright © 2023 by Gerald D. O’Nan All Rights Reserved. No part of this document may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage retrieval system without the expressed written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
