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Short Story:A Short story needs:A character or more than one character A settingA conflict A climaxIn a story, something has to happen. It happens to someone (a character) and it happens somewhere (a setting) and it has a problem (conflict).An idea for conflict (for example- bullying) can lead to both character ideas (Who are the bully? What motivates him? Who are the victims? How will they respond?) and also to setting ideas (What kind of school do these characters attend? Where is this school located? Is it a rough public school, a snooty school, a private one?)An idea for setting can also lead to conflict and character ideas- example: (cotton plantation before the civil war).How do you get ideas for characters?People Watch Observe people who pass you on the street; go to a mall or a café and watch the people around you. Look at how they dress, and present themselves. Watch their facial expressions, their gestures, how they move, how they interact with each other. Try to imagine their lives. Watch people in line at the supermarket. Listen to their conversations, pay attention to what they are buying. Do they live by themselves or with children? Do they have pets? Do they cook a lot, or do they keep pre-cooked food in their freezer? Are they planning a party? Get ideas from newspapersWhen you read about ordinary people in extraordinary situations, try to imagine the people behind the headlines. What might have caused a woman to shoot her husband? What kind of a person was she or what might her husband have been like. The people you imagine are likely to be different from the real people in the news story. That is where the fiction comes from. Wedding announcements and obituaries are also another great place to look for ideas. Use your imagination to fill in the blank space around the information the newspaper reports. Get ideas from namesA name triggers a lot of responses. Take a moment to picture a woman named Gertrude or a woman named Marcella. The names bring different images to mind. Choose names from a phone book or another directory. Write down the first three things that occur to you. Try to picture the people with the names you have chosen. Mix and MatchOften, writers base their characters on people they really know. You can try and create a character that mixes several aspects of different people. For example, you can invent a character who is based on your father, but you make that character a woman. You could base your character’s physical appearance on someone you saw at a restaurant. Turn characters into more characters. Who is in your character’s family? What are your characters like? Who is your character’s best friend? Who is your character’s enemy? What kind of a person gets on your character’s nerves? What kind of person attracts your character romantically? How to develop a character:Imagine the aspects of your character’s life. Here are some questions to ask when developing your character:What’s your character’s occupation?What’s the character’s family like?Is the character in a relationship?What’s his or her partner like?What is the character’s home like?What is the neighborhood like?Does your character have hobbies?What are your character’s greatest strengths?What are his/her weaknesses?What is his/her greatest fear?What is something this character would like to change about himself/herself?You will not likely write all this in your story, but you will be able to understand who you are writing about as you think about these questions. Start your IDEA JOURNAL for characters. Why Do You Need a Conflict?A story conflict is a problem facing a main character. This problem might be a romantic rival or a horde of attacking zombies. It might be an internal struggle, for example, the character has to overcome a particular fear or bad habit. Here are some examples of conflicts:Mary falls in love with the perfect man, but she’s already married to someone else. John wants to be president of his high school class, but he is terrified of public speaking.Harry Potter has to save the world from the evil wizard Voldemort. Conflict is important because it makes things happen. If everything in your character’s life is perfect, there is no reason for her to take action. There is no reason for anything to change. And no change equals no story. The keys to effective conflict:If readers care about the result of your story conflict, they will keep reading to find out what happens. The result of the conflict matters a lot to your character. The readers identify with your character- in other words, readers imagine themselves in your character’s place. A view point character is a character whose perspective is used to tell the story. Readers see the story through that character’s eyes. Readers tend to identify with a viewpoint character, and feel as if they are resolving the story’s conflict along with him or her. They’re frustrated when the character encounters obstacles and relieved when the obstacles are overcome. They’re triumphant or in despair at the end of the story when the character either succeeds or fails. When writing a short story, it’s generally better to have one viewpoint character and develop a conflict that matters to that character. This gives your reader who identifies with the character a stake in what happens. If the starting point for your story idea is the conflict instead of the character, then come up with a viewpoint character who will be directly affected by the result of that conflict. Seven ways to get conflict ideas from your characters:Here are seven surefire ways to turn a character idea into an idea for a conflict, which gives you the seed for your story. You can repeat the techniques with new characters and come out with a completely different story every time. What is something the character deeply desires? Imagine a situation in which your character has the chance to obtain this desire, but there is a terrible obstacle in the way! (What obstacle? You decide!)What is one of your character’s greatest fears? Imagine a situation which forces your character to face this fear in order to achieve an important goal. Who is someone your character hates? Imagine a situation which forces your character into a major struggle with this person. Who is someone your character loves? Imagine a situation which threatens to cut your character off from this person. How does your character react?What is one of your character’s greatest weaknesses? Imagine a situation in which your character must overcome this weakness or risk losing something he or she cares about. Imagine a situation in which something your character doesn’t know about himself or herself is about to ruin his or her life, unless the character is capable of making drastic changes. Who are the people your character cares about most? Imagine a situation in which your character must choose between two of them. Plot:The plot is the structure of the story’s action: the main events and the order in which they happen.A story plot normally goes like this:The character and the conflict are introducedThe character struggles with the conflictThe character’s struggle builds to a win-or lose moment, which will decide if the story ends happily or not. This moment is called the story’s climax.The character either is either successful or unsuccessful in resolving the conflict. If you have a character idea or a conflict idea you have everything you need to plot your story. Setting:You will need to decide what setting your characters are going to be in before you begin writing. Be creative and imaginative and build your story around your topic, creating your setting with details, images, descriptive language, and lots of spice and interest. Here are a lots of short story ideas that you can use as writing prompts. Use these story starters, on their own, or use these ideas humorously or dramatically.Choose a set of three elements and write a story that contains all three. 1.A stolen rug, fear of spiders, and a sinister stranger. 2. A taxi, an old enemy and Valentine’s Day3. Identical twins, a party invitation, and a locked closet4. A broken wristwatch, peppermints, and a hug that goes too far5. Aerobics, a secret diary, and something unpleasant under the bed6. An ex-boyfriend, a pair of binoculars, and a good luck charm7. An annoying boss, a bikini and a fake illness8. The first day of school, a love note, and a recipe with a significant mistake9. A campfire, a scream, and a small lie that gets bigger and bigger10. A babysitter snooping around her employer’s house finds a disturbing photograph11. At a Chinese restaurant, your character opens a fortune cookie and reads the following message: “Your life is in danger. Say nothing to anyone. 12. You must leave the city immediately and never return. Repeat: Say nothing to anyone.”13. It’s your character’s first day at a new school. He or she wants to get a fresh start, develop a new identity. But, in his or her homeroom, your character encounters a kid he or she knows from summer camp. 14. At the airport, a stranger offers your character money to carry a mysterious package onto the plane. The stranger assures your character that it’s nothing illegal and points out that it has already been through the security check. Your character has serious doubts, but needs the money and therefore agrees…..15. A man elbows your character in a crowd. After he is gone, she discovers her cell phone is too. She calls her own number and the man answers. She explains that the cell phone has a lot of personal information on it and asks the man to bring it back to her. He hangs up. Instead of going to the police, she takes matters into her own hands. 16. At a garage sale, your character buys an antique urn which she thinks will look nice decorating her bookcase. But, when she gets home, she realizes there are some ashes in it. 17. Your character is caught shoplifting. The shop owner says he will call the police unless your character agrees to….18. Your character is visiting his parents over the holidays. He is returning some books to the library for his mother and is startled to notice that the librarian looks exactly like him, only about 30 years older. He begins to wonder about how this can be….. He starts to worry that….19. Your elderly character escapes from an old folks home where his or her children have placed him or her20. It’s a freezing cold night. Your character finds a homeless family on his doorstep and invites them into his home to sleep. But, in the morning, the family doesn’t leave…21. Think of a big problem one of your friends had to face. Write a story in which your character battles with that problem.22. What is one of your bad habits? Invent a character with this bad habit and make it much worse that you have. Write a story where this bad habit gets your character into trouble. 23. What is one of your greatest strengths? Create a character that does not have this strength and create a situation in which having this strength is very important for your character. ................
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