We began exploring fiction when we played with the idea of story . . . iMotion stop animation clips!
What do I need to create fiction?
- Characters
You each created a character either by costuming or finding a picture in a magazine. Then you wrote a little bit about the character - thoughts, speech, emotions, and physical description. Once that was done, your character went to a party with 100 people, and through that the readers got to see even more of your character.
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What do I need to create fiction?
- Showing not telling
Two-sentence horror stories!! With character we created a character and wrote a little bit about the character. It seems only fitting that we explore showing and not telling, too! Go to the following page: Create Fear! Follow the directions on this page and create your own two-sentence horror story. Obviously - - seek showing, not telling!
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The Show, Don't Tell rule encourages writers to keep from directly stating any facts, instead using descriptive language to reveal those facts to readers. In other words, Show, Don't Tell advises writers to avoid inserting their presence into the novel via exposition or summarizations and instead allowing their characters' thoughts, senses, actions, and emotions to drive the story forward.
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What do I need to create fiction?
- Setting!
You have read plenty of books in your time in high school - even short stories! Is there one in particular where the setting was really created for you well? I want you to each bring an example to class tomorrow from a book (or short story) you have read where the writer did a nice job of setting up the setting.
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Fiction has to have settings. It has to have descriptions of the places where the events happen. The question is, how much space, how many words, should be given over to describing setting?
In the classic French theater the rule was that you never put a chair on stage unless someone was going to sit on it. The set was kept simple and uncluttered. If something wasn't going to be used, it didn't belong. That's not a bad rule to bear in mind -- and act on. Applied to describing setting, it would mean limiting yourself to a few vivid details. And in a very short story, you might use only a couple of sentences. So the thing to do is to move in close, to describe your setting as though you were standing a few yards away, like this: The rain stopped as Nick turned into the road that went up through the orchard. The fruit had been picked and the fall wind blew through the bare trees. Nick stopped and picked up a Wagner apple from beside the road, shiny in the brown grass from the rain. He put the apple in the pocket of his Mackinaw coat. (Ernest Hemingway) How many words you spend describing setting will depend partly on how long your story runs. Whatever the length of the story you're writing, don't tell your readers more than they need to know. It's easy, especially for a writer, to get carried away with descriptions. But for most readers, setting is probably the least interesting part of fiction. Keep your readers in mind as you write and as you revise what you've written. And think of setting as background, as so much scenery for your characters to perform in front of. Avoid piling up details. If you spend too many words on setting, the background will overpower your characters and their actions and, what's worse, bore your readers. |