Rough Draft Due Wed.,
Sept. 17th
• Compose a 4-7 page
fictional short story on any
subject.
• Write the story in any
P.O.V., verb tense, style,
genre, etc. Just be
consistent!
• Follow Freytag’s Pyramid
for story structure. Don’t
forget the conflict.
• Must be school appropriate.
What are the specifics?
• Double-spaced. Do NOT put extra space between
paragraphs. Don’t forget to indent each new
paragraph AND to start a new paragraph with
each new quote.
• One-inch margins all the way around
• 12 pt. serif font, black
– What’s serif?
– Example: Times New Roman, Century, Calisto, Cambria,
Georgia, Baskerville, etc.
How do you begin a story?
Suggestions:
• In the middle of the
action or an important
event
• With a thorough
description of the setting
or a character
• In the middle of
narrative reflection
• With an anecdote (not a
cliché)
Let’s look at some first pages.
From Ivanhoe by Sir Walter Scott
Let’s look at some first pages.
From The 14th Reinstated by Bryce Towsley
Let’s look at some first pages.
From Clashes by Night by Doreen Owens Malek
How about top ten best opening lines of novels?
1. Cat’s Eye, Margaret Atwood, 1998
“Time is not a line but a dimension, like the dimensions
of space.”
2. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury, 1953
“It was a pleasure to burn.”
3. Gone With The Wind, Margaret Mitchell, 1936
“Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom
realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton
twins were.”
4. The Gunslinger, Stephen King, 1982
“The man in Black fled across the Desert, and the
Gunslinger followed.”
5. The Hobbit, J. R. R. Tolkien, 1937
“In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit.”
How about top ten best opening lines of novels?
6. Lolita, Vladimir Nabokov, 1955
“Lolita. Light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul.”
7. Middlesex, Jeffrey Eugenides, 2002
“I was born twice: first, as a baby girl, on a remarkably
smogless Detroit day in January of 1960; and then again,
as a teenage boy, in an emergency room near Petoskey,
Michigan, in August of 1974.”
8. Peter and Wendy, J. M. Barrie, 1911
“All children, except one, grow up.”
9. Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, 1813
“It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man
in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a
wife.”
10. Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut, 1969
“All this happened, more or less.”
General tips for writing
creative fiction?
• Find your voice and be
true to it.
• Avoid clichés. Be unique in
your style.
• Experiment. Write in ways
and about things that are
different to you.
• Be visceral. Descriptions
are meant to come to life,
not just have a bunch of
adjectives.
More Writing Tips
1.Use active voice, not passive voice!
•Passive Voice: the subject is the receiver of the action.
The tax return was completed before the April 15 deadline
by Mr. Doe.
•Active Voice: the subject does an action to an object.
Mr. Doe completed the tax return before the April 15
deadline.
2.Vary your sentence structure!
•Simple: Tom and Mary got lunch at the sandwich shop.
•Complex: Although both ate meals there, they had not
come to eat together.
•Compound: They sat on opposite ends of the shop from
one another, and they never made eye contact.
•Compound-Complex: As he rose from his table, Tom
intensely stared at Mary, and then he violently sneezed.
More Writing Tips
3.Avoid wordiness!
•Wordy: The reason that General Lee invaded Pennsylvania
in June 1863 was to draw the Army of the Potomac away
from Richmond.
•Revised: General Lee invaded Pennsylvania in June 1863 to
draw the Army of the Potomac away from Richmond.
•Avoid Redundancies: My personal opinion, at the present
time, the basic essentials, connect together
•Avoid Unnecessary Phrases/Clauses: The reason why is
that, this is a subject that, in spite of the fact that, due to the
fact that, in the event that, because of the fact that, until
such time as, by means of
4.Write good!
•Hopefully everyone corrected me: “good” is an adjective; it
should say “Write well!”
How do we identify good writing?
What are some characteristics that you
identified as exceptional narrative writing?
Let’s take a look at some criteria we should
consider when writing narrative text.
We want to establish what we consider
Exceptional, Good/Fair, and Poor
How do we identify good writing?
Stimulating Ideas
Exceptional
Good/Fair
• Focuses on a specific event
or experience:
• Presents an engaging
picture of the action and
people involved:
• Contains specific details
and dialogue:
• Makes readers want to
know what happens next:
How do we identify good writing?
Logical Organization
Exceptional
Good/Fair
• Includes a clear beginning
that pulls readers into the
essay:
• Presents ideas in an
organized manner:
• Uses transitions to link
sentences and paragraphs:
• Flows smoothly from one
idea to the next:
How do we identify good writing?
Engaging Voice
• Speaks knowledgably
and/or enthusiastically:
• Shows that the writer is
truly interested in the
subject:
• Contains specific nouns,
vivid verbs, and colorful
modifiers:
Exceptional Good/Fair
How do we identify good writing?
Grammar/Conventions
• Sentence structure
and variety:
• Spelling, punctuation,
capitalization:
• Word choice and
usage:
Exceptional Good/Fair