Fiction Writing Assignment: The Short Story

EngC 1011 University Writing and Critical Reading

Kevin L. Callahan

EngC Writing Instructor

call0031@tc.umn.edu

(612) 623-7685

Educational Goals:

1. One of the goals of English Composition is to expose students to different genres of writing and to practice writing for different audiences. In addition to academic research there is an entire "parallel universe" of fiction writing which includes creative writing such as short stories, children's stories, science fiction, poetry, etc.

2. Students should be able to compose a short story which demonstrates their understanding of this specific genre of writing. It should include: 1) a title that will intrigue the reader, 2) "The Hook," or an interesting setting, character, problem, or question that "grabs" the reader in the first sentence or paragraph, 3) the creation of suspense using: a) an obstacle or conflict, b) "high stakes" for failure, c) escalation, d) a complication, e) a climax and f) a resolution; 4) above all the "surprise" or unexpected "plot twist," (the "I gotcha"), and 5) a moral or thought provoking point for a conclusion.

Short stories require a certain cleverness akin to the surprise of humor. Plot twists give gothic stories their chill and comedies their humor. Good storytelling is successful when readers want to repeat the story to others. As H.C. Scweikert pointed out, "Someone has said . . . that plot is nothing more than getting characters into trouble, and then getting them out again." A plot has a struggle and a complication. The struggle can be external or internal.

Typical examples of short stories that have been turned into TV shows include, The Twilight Zone, The X-Files, and some early Star Trek episodes. Authors of classic short stories include Edgar Allen Poe (e.g. The Fall of the House of Usher), Nathaniel Hawthorne (Young Goodman Brown), Washington Irving (e.g. Rip Van Winkle, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow), Isaac Asimov, Jack London (The Call of the Wild, To Build a Fire), Mark Twain (The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County), O. Henry (The Gift of the Magi), Rudyard Kipling (Riki-Tiki-Tavi), Arthur Conan Doyle (The Red Headed League) and many others. On the web, many exemplars of short stories can be found at http://www.shortstoriesmagazine.com or at some science fiction websites.

Short stories can be written as reality based tales, gothic horror stories, science fiction, satires, humorous stories, dramatic incidents, children's stories, detective stories, animal stories, etc. so the subject matter and "atmosphere" are quite variable. This genre however follows a certain basic format with the components listed above and the stories are characterized by their shortness. The entire story is told well in only a few pages. A short story is designed to be read in one sitting (not more than 3 hours), entertain, and provide what Edgar Allan Poe described as "a single effect to which everything else is subordinate" (Schwekert, 1934, xvii). In the final analysis the reader should think that it is a good story.

Instructions for The Short Story Workshop:

1. Read the short story called "The Sniper" by Liam O'Flaherty.

2. Analyze the components of the story. Is the title interesting? Is there an engaging setting, problem, environment, character, or landscape? Is the reader engaged with the story within the first paragraph? Is there an interesting character and a conflict or obstacle? Is there a high stakes conflict with escalation, a climax, and a resolution. Is there a surprise or plot twist where the author "gotcha?" Is there a point or moral to the story? Is the story brief in its presentation?

A plot line involving an unexpected victim and the unintended effects of violence is one of the oldest stories told in "tragedy" beginning with the Greek play Oedipus whose main character mistakenly kills his own father.

Group work. Pair up with another student and brainstorm to create two new stories (one for each of you): Using O'Flaherty's story as a starting point, change the "duel" of the snipers to a different setting, with different characters, and give it a new plot twist.

Change the setting, e.g., to the jungle, underwater, outer space, a cemetery, the Egyptian desert, Napolean's retreat from Russia, etc. Make it new and interesting.

Change the contestants, e.g., the driver of a Volkswagon convertible and a semi truck in a "road rage" duel on a remote stretch of desert highway, an American submarine and a British submarine during the Cold War who mistake each other for Russians off the coast of Iceland, two spaceships from different civilizations who meet in an asteroid field or while orbiting a remote planet, a polar bear hunting an Inuit (Eskimo) hunter's family during a blizzard, a kitten up a tree trying to evade firemen, a drug deal that results in a drive-by shooting that mistakenly kills the gunman's own child, two suitors of the same woman, a worker who eventually goes "postal" from an escalating series of little humiliations, a visitor to a cemetery who hears a voice from underground.

Change the victims to give the story a new plot twist, e.g., the road rage unexpectedly ends up being with the person's wife or boss, the "cat and mouse" maneuvering of two submarines (or space ships) escalates tensions to the point where a torpedo is fired which circles in the water and destroys the firing submarine. Investigators discover that the other submarine was a sonar echo from a field of icebergs (or asteroids). A visitor to a cemetery hearing voices at night turns out to have had a repressed memory that suddenly comes back.

4. In-class Pre-writing Assignment (10 points). Outline or list in writing the following for your short story and hand it in to the instructor at the end of class.

1) the title

2) "The Hook,"

3) how you will create suspense

4) what the obstacle or conflict is about

5) what "the stakes" are

6) how you will escalate the situation and provide a complication

7) what the climax will be

8) how the conflict or situation will be resolved

9) what the "surprise" or unexpected "plot twist" will be and

10) what the moral or thought provoking point of the story will be.

The Short Story Writing Assignment. (40 points).

Assigned: Tuesday, April 17. Two to three pages long. Note: There is NO CLASS on Thursday April 19.

First Draft Due: Tuesday, April 24 with copies for the Editing Practice/Peer Review Workshop on that day.

Pregrading Draft Due: Thursday, April 26 with one copy for the Pregrader.

Final Draft Due: Tuesday, May 1. The Final Draft of some of the short stories will be read out loud to the class and all of them should be posted on the Class Bulletin Board on that day.