In this short story, you will put together everything we have been doing all semester: using description and significant detail; developing character; using language effectively Custom Essay
In this short story, you will put together everything we have been doing all semester: using description and significant detail; developing character; using language effectively; and creating realistic and informative dialogue. All these components will coalesce around a central event that is the core of your short story. You will take what you learned in writing both the CNF assignment and the poetry assignment and apply it to fiction.
Like the CNF story, this story will be about an important moment of change for your main character; unlike the CNF, this story will be something you’ve invented, but it should be so believable for the reader that it reads like a true story. To make the story this believable, you need to present your characters in depth and detail, showing them to the reader with description, characterization, and dialogue, so they come alive.
In your story, show us a moment in the life of your main character–the protagonist–where he or she experiences something that changes his/her life. As in the CNF, avoid large, traumatic subjects like car crashes; keep the focus on smaller but equally meaningful life events.
A helpful way to approach the story is to begin with character. Who is your protagonist? What does he/she want? What might get in the way of what he/she wants? How might that play out? What happens then? Why was this experience important in the protagonist’s life? Note: Please do not use children or teens as your protagonists: as characters, they are not complex enough for our purposes, and their concerns are often not adult concerns.
Things to think about: Who is telling the story? What is the attitude of the narrator toward the events and characters of the story? Is this story being told as it occurs, or years later? Why have you chosen this particular slice of the character’s life? What happens before and after the story that the reader will not see? How does the story begin? (Note: Try to begin "in the middle of things": just jump in, without an introduction.) What "backstory" does the reader need to know? How does the story end? How has this experience affected the protagonist? Objectives:
–put together all the elements of fiction in a coherent short story
–create story that comes from character
–use a point of view appropriate to the story (first-person or third-person limited only: do not use third-person omniscient)
–use dialogue and significant detail to enhance verisimilitude
–use language effectively
–use showing, not just telling
–use story to reflect life in a meaningful way
Grading Scale:
Worth a possible 30 points:
18 – 20.9 = D
21 – 23.9 = C
24 – 26.9 = B
27+ = A
GUIDELINES FOR SHORT STORIES
Here are the factors your grade will be based on:
•Your short story depicts an interesting and realistic situation
•Your characters are fully developed, realistic, and interesting
•These characters are experiencing some kind of realistic conflict that stems from their personalities, motivations, and/or situations
•Your story depicts a moment in these characters’ lives when some significant change occurs
•You have used a single point of view consistently
•You have dramatized important scenes by using dialogue
•The setting is conveyed through succinct description, and is realistic. (Stories should only be set in places and times in which you have personally lived.)
•The story is well proofread, and is grammatically and syntactically correct
•The story is formatted correctly (double-spaced, Times Roman 12, indenting each new paragraph)
•The story’s title adds to the reader’s understanding of the theme or “second subject” of the story
Checklist—have you done each of the following?
•Created fully developed, realistic characters
•Shown these characters in some kind of conflict
•Shown the moment when something significant changed for the protagonist
•Shown, not just told, what happened
•Formatted correctly (double-spaced, Times Roman 12, indenting each new paragraph)
•Dramatized important scenes by using dialogue
•Formatted and punctuated dialogue correctly
•Used a consistent point of view
•Chosen a title that reflects the deeper meaning of your story
•Proofread carefully to avoid errors (errors “count” in the grade)
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