Week 4 –
Short Story
This week’s activity:
To write a 99-word short story using your plot box and character sketches.
Thanks for joining in with the Summer Writing Challenge, a summer of words, ideas and stories
- one step at a time!
Well done for getting to Week 4 of the Summer Writing Challenge!
I hope you’ve seen how focusing on your story step-by-step, has helped you to reach this point with confidence. By approaching your writing this way, you have avoided the writer’s most daunting enemy – writer’s block, or as I call it: "the blank page problem".
It’s all about having words to work with and the next step in mind.
In my class earlier in the year, we had a competition to write a 99-word story with the title: ‘Being Somewhere Else.’ Not an easy task, but it was part of an 8-week course, with me in the room to answer questions and suggest ideas.
If you click here, you can read the entries and it will help you see the length of the stories we’re looking to write as part of the Summer Writing Challenge.
Now, to move onto the final step, using the framework from your plot box to write the story itself.
My advice is to write two stories.
Story One
First of all, write a short story based on your plot box as it is. Don’t worry about your new characters just yet. Your plot box is based on a memory of yours, you have it clearly in mind. So:
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Write it up and aim to keep to the word count – (but, don’t over worry about getting 99 words exactly).
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Expand each of the notes from your plot box into two or three sentences and keep the writing flowing.
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When it’s down on the page, leave it for an hour or two, come back and make any changes that you want.
With that one finished, you can then relax and experiment with a second story.
Story Two
This time, see if you can introduce one or both of your characters that you outlined in Week 3. Ask yourself:
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How would those characters change the plot?
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Would the story need to be set in a different place?
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Would the ending need to change?
Don’t worry about changing ideas from your plot box, let the character or characters take over a little. Go with the flow.
By doing this, the story will convince the reader as authentic, with characters that are believable, acting within a plot that fits them.
Please have a look at my 99-word story on the SWC Examples tab below and let me know what you think.
I'd love to see what you create, so feel free to post your short story in the comments or email it to me – david@davidwritingtutor.com.
Next week, I’ll post a summary of the writing we’ve done during this Summer Writing Challenge and give you a couple of ideas for your next step to help you build on what you have learned.
Here's to a summer of words, ideas and stories – one step at a time!
David