Finding the Story

In our first class session you were assigned to go outside and eat snow. I asked that you do this  with all of your senses alert and while paying careful attention to everything around you. When you arrived back in class, you wrote briefly about the experience and reflected on it for just a few minutes.

What I'd like you to do now is develop a good short story based on the experience. That is, use the event as the groundwork for a story, with developed characters, setting, plot, and so on.

You have full artistic liberty, of course, to either adhere to facts-exactly-as-they-happened or to modify facts. Your aim is a good story.

Some basics to consider:

1. How does a writer find material for a story? Where do stories come from? How can any event become a "story"?
2. What is your story about, exactly?
3. Who is the main character?
4. What is the plot (the sequence or pattern of events)?
5. What is propelling the plot? That is, what is the story's "narrative question"?
6. How plot-heavy is the piece? Does the story rely primarily on action for its meanings, or is character development, setting, imagery, or theme, etc. the primary focus of the story?
7. From whose point of view is the story told, and why have you used that point of view?
8. What kind of language have you used for the narration as well as any dialogue, and why?

Evaluation Criteria

To understand criteria for good fiction, you should also read A Fiction Checklist.

Make your story original and interesting. Provide a title. Pay attention to pacing. Make your characters well-developed and DISTINCTIVE. (The reader should be able to tell one person from another as human beings. The characters--or at least the main character--should leave an impression.) Avoid sentimentality, cliches, and pat, closure-heavy, twist endings, sensation endings (suicide, murder), etc. . Minimum of 4 double-spaced pages with standard margins. Edit your sentences and proofread carefully.

A = Exceptional. Meets all criteria very well and includes the "zing" factor: originality, memorableness, creativity, smarts.   5 pts.

B = Good. Meets most criteria well, though one or two aspects of the story may be a bit weak. Lacks the originality or polish or "zing" factor of an A.    4 pts.

C = Fair. Meets some criteria fairly well but is conspicuously weak in several areas. May lack editing and proofreading.   3 pts.

D = Poor. Very weak in almost all areas, but is saved by at least minimal attention to one or two important criteria.   2 pts.

F = Unacceptable. None of the criteria are met, or two or more areas are so agregious that the rest of the story fails as a result.   0 pts.

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