Telling a fictional story . . .

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Telling a fictional story . . . From Reading to
Writing Questions keep readers in suspense as
they read Full Circle by Sue Grafton and The
Utterly Perfect Murder by Ray Bradbury. Like
most stories, these are meant to entertain, but
stories may also explore ideas and emotions,
expose a truth about life, or inform their
audience about specific facts.
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Telling a fictional story . . . As a short story
writer, you are free to explore other worlds and
other minds besides your own. No wonder we find
intriguing stories everywhere we look, from
magazines and movies to music videos.
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B a s i c s i n a B o x
Short Story at a Glance
Introduction
Body
Conclusion
Sets the stage by
Develops the plot by
Finishes the story by

• introducing the conflict
• telling a sequence of events
• developing main characters
• building toward a climax

• introducing the char-acters
• describing the setting

• resolving the conflict
• telling the last event

RUBRIC
Standards for Writing
A successful short story should

• use the elements of character, setting, and plot
  to create a convincing world
• use techniques such as vivid sensory language,
  concrete details, and dialogue to create
  believable characters and setting

• develop and resolve a central conflict
• present a clear sequence of events
• maintain a consistent point of view

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Writing Your Short Story
With me, a story usually begins with a single
idea or memory or mental picture. William
Faulkner, American writer
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Writing Your Short Story
Find a seed for your story in one of the
following ways

• Elaborate on an interesting daydream.
• Contemplate recent news stories that you find
  intriguing.
• Recall unusual events experienced by yourself or
  others.
• Ask a What-if question with fictional potential.

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Planning Your Short Story

• 1. Develop your storys key elements.
• Characters Who is the main character? What
  supporting characters are necessary?
• Setting Where and when does the story take place?
  Does the setting affect the characters or plot in
  any way?

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Planning Your Short Story

• Plot What background information is necessary at
  the beginning of your story? What are the main
  events? What is the conflict? Will the conflict
  be resolved? Use a timeline to decide what will
  happen at the beginning, middle, and end of the
  story.

Background
Event 1
Event 2
Event 3
Climax/ Resolution
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Planning Your Short Story
2. Choose a point of view. Will the story work
best told in first person by the main character?
Or is a third-person omniscient narrator
necessary to get into the minds of several
characters? Another option is a third-person
limited narrator who can tell what is going on in
one characters mind.
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Planning Your Short Story
3. Create a mood. What general emotional quality,
or atmosphere, do you wish to create with your
characters, settings, and plot? Will your story
be dramatic, sad, scary, serious, or funny?
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Writing Your Short Story
Your story may begin with an incident that sets
the plot in motion, with background information,
or with an incident that happens later in the
story. Begin writing and see where the story
takes you.
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Writing Your Short Story
Dialogue Have your characters talk to show
instead of tell your story. You may use slang,
dialect, and various shades of formal and
informal language to show what your characters
are like.
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Writing Your Short Story
Description Description also helps you show
your story. Use images that appeal to the senses
and figurative language to describe characters,
setting, and events in a compelling way.
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Writing Your Short Story
Flashbacks and Foreshadowing If you begin with an
event from the middle of your story, you may want
to go back in timeflashbackto an earlier event
that is significant to the conflict. You may also
want to give hintsforeshadowingas to how the
conflict will be resolved.
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Writing Your Short Story
TARGET SKILL FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE Figurative
language such as simile and metaphor helps
readers see the world in a new way by comparing
two unlike things. A simile uses the word like or
as My headache felt like a bass drum pounding
in my head. A metaphor is an implied comparison
A bass drum pounded in my head.
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Writing Your Short Story
Editing and Proofreading
TARGET SKILL PUNCTUATING CLAUSES Keep your
story line clear by punctuating clauses
correctly. Use a comma before a conjunction that
joins two independent clauses of a compound
sentence. Also use commas to set off nonessential
clauses.