Short Stories
- Plot - Keep it simple and realistic. Do not make it too ambitious, far-fetched or fantastic. It should be grounded in real life and should revolve around one major incident. The time span should be short as it revolves around one single incident.
- Use a third person or omniscient narrator rather than a first person narrator. Avoid “I” unless used by a character in dialogue. Write about 2-3 other characters.
- Setting - Try to create a sense of place and time in your short story. It can be very effective in creating atmosphere and a context for the action. Using some descriptive writing helps to achieve this.
- Characters - Do not overpopulate the story. Stick to 1-3 main characters and develop these rather than creating lots of underdeveloped characters.
- Dialogue - A short story must have dialogue. Characters interact and talk therefore dialogue is vital. It is essential that it is properly managed and integrated into the essay seamlessly.
- Ensure that the story reveals itself rather than it being explained to the reader.
- Tension and suspense - These are useful devices to enrich to story and make it more appealing to the reader.
- Conflict - A very useful device to provide a structure for your story:
Causes of conflict --> Conflict --> Results of the conflict
Nature of conflict:
-Physical -Emotional -Psychological -Ideological
-Romantic -Familial -Religious -Political
Dialogue with the short story - tips!
- For each piece of dialogue use quotation marks. Use a comma when separating the dialogue from the rest of the sentence.
- For each new speaker in the conversation, move on to a new line.
- Avoid the verbs “said”, “replied” and “responded” as much as possible. Use more demonstrated verbs.
- Use natural, flowing language as would be used in a conversation but do not use foul language.
- People interrupt each other in conversation. This would be signalled with a dash -
- People hesitate, stammer and trail off in conversation. This is shown be ellipsis.
short_stories.doc | |
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Examples of Short Stories you may be asked to write:
- “Isn’t that funny, and sad, too?”
Write a short story suggested by the above quotation. - Write a short story in which two unusual or eccentric characters meet for the first time.
- Write a short story in which the central character is faced with making an important decision.
- Write a short story in which a photograph, or a set of photographs, plays a part in the plot. Your story may be prompted by one or more of the photographs in TEXT 3.
- Write a short story in which the main character is a rebellious teenager (male or female).
- Write a short story in which setting/location is an important feature.
- “It was mad… Ridiculous.”
Write a short story suggested by the above title. - Write a short story prompted by one or more of the images in TEXT 3.
- Write a short story suggested by one or more of the images in TEXT 2.
- Write a short story suggested by the pair of images (the two houses) in TEXT 3.
- Write a short story inspired by the phrase, “... an inferior rock band howling for fame”.
- Write a short story in which a young character is eager to leave home.
- Write a story to be included in a collection of modern fairy tales.
- Write a short story in which a mystery is solved.