Well done on your short stories! Just take a moment to celebrate: where there was once nothing, there is something. You created people and stories out of thin air. What once was a blank page is now painted with a world that you created. It's kind of amazing when you think about it. Your second drafts are due Friday. We've already discussed and practiced the strategies for micro revision, now let's zoom out and consider your short stories from the macro angle. When we talk about macro, we're talking about structure. Do you have all the major elements you need for a successful short story? In this post, we'll consider three different macro aspects of your story:
1. StructureWhat even is a story, y'all? How can we define it? For our purposes, let's define it like this:
At each step of the way, you're piece must address each of these aspects of story. Another very helpful way to think about your structure is to ask yourself the question: What shifts over the course of my story? Usually, hopefully, there is a shift in at least one of your characters: internal or external or both. Also ask yourself this question: What causes the shift? In other words, what is the nature of the conflict? 2. CharacterConsider your people. Many of us didn't give our characters names. There were some exceptions to this, but in almost every case, the story could have been improved by simply giving the characters names. You want your characters to be unique, and names are the first, most easily accessible unique feature about us. Think about the ways we learn who the people are around us: the words they speak, the decisions, they make, the way they dress, the things they like, the place they live, the actions they take. Then ask yourself: What have I used to build my characters? What do my readers see when they think about my characters? At least one of your characters needs to be well-developed. 3. SettingOne of my writing teachers once told me that it sometimes helps to think about your writing as designing the stage for a play: if you don't put it there, it doesn't exist. For many of us, our characters are floating around in a non-descript place. Not paying attention to the setting is like not paying attention to one of the three dimensions. It's just one of the things that a story needs to come alive. A story needs space, time, problems, and people. Settings are developed through specific details, sometimes filtered through the perspectives of characters. Think about the "Yellow Wallpaper." Then reflect on this question: What is my setting built out of? ConclusionThe awake student will perhaps notice that these are all the same questions we consider when we analyze the literature of other people. Remember my analogy: if we were architecture students there's only so much we tell about Notre Dame by just looking at it from the outside. To really see the bones of the thing, to see how the building works, we have to go through the door and look at the inside. To have a deep understanding of how a short story works, we have to make one.
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AuthorI'm a Houston high school teacher. Welcome to my adapted, socially-distanced, quarantined AP English Literature and Composition classroom. Archives
May 2021
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