Elements of a story

Think about the following

1. What should be included/considered/remembered when writing a story?

2. What would a cliché or typical story about chasing a dream (this year’s theme) look like? In other words, what plotlines should be avoided?

3. How will your stories be different to the grade 7 stories that will be submitted to the competition?

• Characters- protagonist and antagonist.• Imagery/descriptive writing.• Point of view- first person, third person. Remember that third person has

many types- Omniscient, for example. • Plot (plot triangle) make sure to include a climax! Similar to climax is

conflict- there has to be a problem.• Make sure it flows for the reader• Add literary devices- don’t forget the theme or other big ideas- get the

audience to be thinking about something• Other big ideas! We’ll talk about it later.• Setting- be descriptive • Genre (science-fiction, horror, slasher, thriller, teen fiction, mystery,

romance, western, fantasy) • Keep the tempo- if you’re story’s going at one speed and then like changes

to another speed, keep the flow. Vary the speed. Hard to do when you only have a thousand words

• Different vocabulary (NOT in grade 7 anymore)

• Consider your verb tense.• Like tone (what’s your attitude about this subject?) Ms. Patterson says, “nobody

achieves their dreams.” • How many characters should be in a short story, ideally? But again, you only have a

thousand words to tell a story, so six characters is a bit much. Four is even too many, probably.

• Does the antagonist have to be a person? NO! • One more thing. Okay this is a big one too. Pause for a second, Ezra.• Start the action immediately. Don’t have a big, long, build up.• The story should take place within 24 to 48 hours. You can still include flashbacks.• Maybe add a twist?• Big rule: if anyone ends their story this way, I’ll give it back to you: they wake up,

and the whole thing was just a dream. ZERO!• Come up with your own story. Can you write about your own personal experience?

Yeah! But fictionalize it.• Don’t make it easy for that person to achieve their goal. Let’s face it- dreams are

hard to achieve.