Poetry
Poetry lessons will be on the "Poetry" subpage of the "Unit 2: Narrative Writing" page.
Short Story Writing
Did you include all of the important elements?
All short stories need to have the following:
A lead:
An ending:
Detail:
A conflict that the main character tries to resolve:
All short stories need to have the following:
A lead:
- Character background lead
- Setting description
- Begin at the end
- Start in the middle
An ending:
- Reflective ending
- Circular ending
- Ambiguous ending
Detail:
- Dialogue
- Character thoughts and feelings
- Character actions (in words or images)
- Character descriptions (in words of images)
- Setting description (in words of images)
A conflict that the main character tries to resolve:
- Person vs. person
- Person vs. Nature
- Internal Conflict
Narrative Writing, Part 2: Short Story
Students have three genre options for their short stories:
All projects are due on November 22nd.
- Text-only short story
- Picture book
- Graphic story
All projects are due on November 22nd.
Weaving Setting Detail into a Scene
When incorporating setting detail into a draft, make a list of each scene. Then, use your five senses to help you create a list of setting details for each scene. Write your list in your notebook. As you revise, consider which setting details will help to reveal the characters' physical and emotional state, or establish a mood in the scene.
Ask yourself:
Ask yourself:
- Which of these setting details would give the reader a clue to the character's feelings?
- How do you want the reader to feel when reading the story? What is the mood you want to create? Which setting details would create the mood?
- Where in your draft would it make sense to add these setting details?
Describing Character Actions using Precise Language
Questions to ask as you revise your drafts to include precise descriptions of character actions:
- What are some words that describe important objects in the story? What adjectives could describe these objects?
- What are some verbs that describe what you or other characters do in the story? Are any of them moving from place to place? What adverbs could describe these actions?
- What are characters doing with their hands or feet?
- Can you describe the facial expressions of your character?
Crafting a Scene by Writing Dialogue
How to format dialogue:
Example:
"Bet I can pick more blackberries than you can," he jeered at me one day.
"No you can't."
"Can so."
"Cannot!"
"Can," he whispered.
"Not," I said louder.
"Can!" he whispered so low that I could hardly hear him.
"Not!" I screamed back.
--from My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, by Patricia Polacco
- Each line of dialogue by a different character is a new paragraph. Be sure to indent by hitting "tab" once.
- Surround what the characters say with quotation marks.
- Punctuation goes inside the quotation marks. If it isn't the end of the sentence, use a comma.
Example:
"Bet I can pick more blackberries than you can," he jeered at me one day.
"No you can't."
"Can so."
"Cannot!"
"Can," he whispered.
"Not," I said louder.
"Can!" he whispered so low that I could hardly hear him.
"Not!" I screamed back.
--from My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, by Patricia Polacco
Crafting a Reflective Ending to your Memoir
This was intended for Friday - but apparently it didn't make it to you. Watch the video now to get the lesson on how to write two different types of reflective endings for your memoir.