Short Story Assignment
For ALL of these exercises you may: USE your own life as inspiration, someone else’s
life, or totally make up the scenario / characters – the point is to use your imagination
and EXPERIMENT with different literary techniques to both structure and
write/develop a well-written short story.
PART I - Planning:
1. Read “Hills like White Elephants” by Ernest Hemingway.
 Write a short paragraph ranting about a time you were angry at someone, let down, upset etc.
You can also make up two people and an argument. (OR someone you know, OR invent a
scenario)
 Keep this argument in the back of your mind as you freewrite constructing a conversation
between 2 characters. Follow the style of the model short story. Use a scene description at the
beginning and then move into the conversation. Make sure that the tension is created by no one
actually mentioning what the argument is about – only you have that in your mind as you write.
250 words.
 Do what you can to use dialogue to structure the story (formatting correctly), use 3rd person
limited point of view (the observer), use simple syntax such as "They were white in the sun and
the country was brown and dry", active voice, and at least one significant simile (like the title).
 Reflect on the doing of this exercise on your tracking sheet.
2. Read “Roselily” by Alice Walker.
 Think of a song, prayer, saying, poem etc. that you can split into lines just like the priest’s lines
in the model story.
 Use this to separate your character’s inner thoughts from what’s going on around them. Write
approx. 250 words.
 Do what you can to use this ‘outside voice/portal’ into the inner thoughts of the character to
structure the story, use a 3rd person omniscient narrator who can see into the hearts and
thoughts of the character(s), use sentence fragments (incomplete sentences) such as "Of veils.
Covered heads...Joined...Of her father...A romantic hush", precise diction “yoked”, and
alliteration.
 Reflect on the doing of this exercise on your tracking sheet.
3. Read “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty” by James Thurber.
 Create a character in your mind who lives in two worlds - otherwise metaphysically like Neo in
The Matrix, or in his own mind like Walter Mitty, or in time through memories of a past that
actually happened. Write a sentence that describes this person, his problem, and how he deals
with it or ignores it. For example, “a middle-aged man with a nagging wife he can't get away
from, so he escapes his humdrum, impotent life by imagining himself as the hero of a series of
action stories.”
 Graph your character’s real and imaginary worlds, dreams etc. Use arrows to show plot order
and how they all connect. See how in “Mitty” Thurber finds ways to show movement from one
“reality” to another by using ellipsis points … and by having noise or his wife yell at him to jar
him back to reality. Or in The Matrix how they have a system of travel via phone and a visual
style that is totally different so the reader knows which reality they’re in. Find one for your
story and put it in/on the arrows. Write out the first 4-6 paragraphs (250 words).
 Do your best to use flashback to structure the story, develop a cue to signal the change in
realities like …, use action and suspense, dialogue, active voice, simile, and complex sentences.
 Reflect on the doing of this exercise on your tracking sheet.
4. Read “The Blue Jar” by Isak Dinesen.
 Choose a symbol to work with - examples include a black cross necklace, a white lily, a willow
tree branch, a lucky brown 1956 penny, etc. You see how specific it has to be, and original (ie
not a red rose). Cluster this symbol: Put your chosen symbol in the middle and web outward all
the possible things it could mean/ that you or others could associate with it.
 Create an outline using 4 columns: Setting, Character, Conflict, and Plot. Plan out your story
around this symbol by asking yourself and answering questions such as: who owns this thing?
How old is he or she? Do they have a family, what do they wear, do for a living? Where do they
live? What's important to them? What's a defining memory? Why is this object significant to
them? What the person's problem? Where do they live? Are they rich or poor? Etc.
 Write the first 250 words – do your best to use symbolism to structure the story, use passive
voice and/or inverted syntax, figurative language (simile, metaphor, personification, imagery),
and characterization (to show why and how this object is significant to the main character).
 Reflect on the doing of this exercise on your tracking sheet.
5. Read “Happy Endings” by Margaret Atwood.
 Think of a storyline that you could tell in a non-linear fashion - not in a row. There needs to be
one constant - is it the ending like Atwood's? Is it the event as seen by several different people
like the film Vantage Point, is it the setting where lots of different things happen to different
people, is it the character through different vignettes in his life? Pick one constant and build the
story around that.
 Write a storyboard with a minimum of 6 frames in which you work out a story in scenes that
are not linear – ie not told in order. Follow the main idea of the model – choose 1 constant: the
ending, the beginning, a concept or aspect of the plot and work out different ways to tell it.
Write the first 4 paragraphs.
 Do what you can to use non-linear plotting to structure the story, use a matter-of-fact, even
ironic tone, simple and compound sentences, simile and alliteration, and active voice.
 Reflect on the doing of this exercise on your tracking sheet.
PART II – Drafting and Revision:
1. Choose the story draft idea, 1 out of the 5, you want to develop, the one you think has the most
potential.
 Write 3 different leads to this story on a separate sheet of paper
 On the note-sheet from class about all the types of leads, identify which one you have already
used, and then choose 3 different ones to try. Make sure your leads are all different, ie they
don’t retell the same scene 3 different ways, rather you find 3 different entry points into your
story.
 On a new sheet of paper, create 3 new paragraphs: a snapshot describing a person, place, or
thing in your story; a thoughtshot describing the thoughts of a character; and, explode a
moment in your story by adding a scene using dialogue.
 Complete a T-chart – with 5 tired phrases on the left and a revised way to say the same thing on
the right – 1. use alliteration, 2. use a simile, 3. use a metaphor, 4. use repetition, 5. use
personification.
 Revise to be sure that you are using sentence variety, active or passive voice (or both),
interesting diction – precise and evocative verbs, strong nouns, useful clauses.
2. Type a full rough draft of your whole short story. Double spaced.
 Make sure you consult your model short story, ie to make sure your dialogue is formatted
properly etc.
 Make sure you consult the rubric to make sure your draft shows all the work expected.
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Underline by computer and label by hand ALL the techniques you have used!
Staple this typed copy on top of all the rough work for that story, and then include all the rough
work for your story drafts. Staple the rubric last.
Get feedback from your peers on this copy – and make notes to yourself in the margins as to
what / how you will revise based on their feedback.
DO the revisions
PART III – Polishing Final Copy:
1. Review all the feedback
2. Consult the student short story models provided in class and the notes on the blackboard about these
examples to see what student quality looks like and how to achieve it.
3. Make notes about how to revise your short story based on this information.
4.Write the good copy. Title your work. Make sure your finished work meets all the criteria for a good
short story. SEE the RUBRIC
5. Write a REFLECTION for your story in which you:
a. explain the main idea behind your story and how you got that idea, including talking
about the model texts and how they inspired you
b. explain at least 3 writing techniques you used to get the reader engaged
c. explain 1 example of specific feedback you got and HOW you revised your piece to fix
it.
d. explain how you feel about your story and why.
e. Mark yourself on the rubric provided and submit final draft as directed.
SUBMIT the good copy of the short story with all the rough versions and the rubric stapled as
ONE.
SUBMIT the reflection on top, the 5 freewrite exercises, and then the tracking sheet as ONE.