Instruct students to use colored pens to write sentences, phrases, and fragments, even doodles. Employing a large canvas like this encourages more expansive thinking. The discipline of structure can be applied afterward.įor this activity, give each student a large piece of paper, such as a leaf from an artist’s sketchbook, to brainstorm their ideas. To organize their short story, students will need to understand the basic elements of structure described in the next section, but the following activity will first help them to access some of the creative gold in their imaginations. The writing process is much more productive if students invest some time in brainstorming and organizing their ideas at the start. Students must learn to make their preparation time count. There is, however, a very real danger of preparation becoming procrastination for our student writers. Preparation is important when writing a short story. All these can provide jumping-off points and rich detail for a student’s short story. Those half-heard conversations, those anecdotes of street life witnessed through a bus window, the half-remembered dreams scribbled down while gulping down a rushed breakfast. This journal will become a great resource for the student to dip into for inspiration while writing their stories. Once the living details of life are noticed, students need to capture them quickly by recording them in a journal. They need to pay enough attention to catch their own daydreaming what-ifs on the bus to school or to keep an eye out for all those little human interest stories in the local newspaper.
Students need to tune their ear to the fragments of stories in snatches of overheard daily conversations. We can find stories and the details for our stories everywhere. Practice Activity: Breathe Life into the Story Luckily, we have the perfect activity to help our students to do this. This requires them to pay close attention to the world around them to slow things down enough to catch the endless possibilities for stories that exist all around. We just need to help students to know where to look.Īs writers, students must learn to see the world around them with the freshness of the eyes of a young child. Luckily, the inspiration for stories lies everywhere. This is the age-old curse of writer’s block.įiguring out what to write about is the first hurdle students will need to overcome. One of the most common complaints from students, when asked to write a short story, is that they don’t know what to write about. Can they extract the major dramatic question from each? Ask the students to think of some classic or popular books and movies that they are already familiar with. It is good practice for students to attempt to identify the dramatic question any time they read a book or watch a movie. Practice Activity: Identify the Dramatic Question Whatever form a student’s dramatic question takes, it will provide the plot impetus and how the student will explore their story’s theme. This is the conflict that creates the crucial element of suspense necessary to engage the reader’s interest. These obstacles can come in the form of an external obstacle, such as an antagonist or a negative environment, or the form of an internal obstacle, such as heartbreak or grief. But, whatever form it takes, there must be some obstacles put in the way of answering it.
Often the dramatic question is of this will she/won’t she type. Can he become the Heavyweight Champion of the World? In it, an aging journeyman boxer, Rocky Balboa, answers two dramatic questions:Ģ.
EASY SHORT STORIES TO WRITE AN ESSAY ON DRIVER
This dramatic question can take many forms, but as it will be the driver of the plot, it will be the single most important element of the story. Without a dramatic question, readers will have no motivation to read on as there will be no story. The first thing a student needs to do when writing a short story is to create a dramatic question. Hyperbole: A Complete Guide for Students and Teachers.
Literary Devices & Figures of Speech Expand.Writing engaging Characters and Settings.5 Paragraph (Hamburger) Essay Structure.
EASY SHORT STORIES TO WRITE AN ESSAY ON HOW TO