Have you ever wondered what skills young writers need to write short stories well?It’s one of those areas that can be overwhelming. Many of us think specifically about grammar, vocabulary, spelling, and punctuation when it comes to writing, but there’s a lot more to it than that. Here’s a list of 21 Things Young Writers Should Know to Respond Well to SEA Prompts:
How to interpret prompts effectively.
How to recognize/choose the type of story and fiction subgenre they’re writing.
How to select and name characters, keeping the number to a minimum.
How to plot stories within 10 minutes.
How to engage readers with an effective hook.
How to introduce the main character in the introduction.
How to express what the main character wants.
How to give background information in the introduction to establish context.
How to describe setting in the introduction.
How to introduce the conflict and show the main character’s reaction to it.
How to escalate the conflict over two or three incidents while showing how the character responds to the escalating drama.
How to make the conflict significant and relevant to the story and the character’s situation.
How to describe setting as part of the story, gradually through the perspective and experience of the main character.
How to describe the main character throughout the story, gradually as the readers learn more about who the person is, what they want, their reactions, and emotions.
How to explain the climax as the main character gives the final push to achieve their goals.
How to resolve the story through the falling action and the lessons the main character has learned from the experience.
How to use imagery to show readers what’s happening.
How to focus on the story and the relevant details.
How to move the action of the story forward, transitioning between ideas.
How to include dialogue in appropriate ways.
How to review and edit their own writing.
What would you add to the list?
(NOTE: This list does not highlight grammar and other skills for general writing proficiency. It focuses specifically on the abilities required for creating great stories. The assumption is that writers have a good grasp of the English language, even if not a perfect one. Grammar, punctuation, sentence construction, and spelling should be taught in separate lessons.)
Climax is touted as the most exciting part of the story. It’s also a main focus as it features prominently in the plot diagram. There’s a reason for this, of course. The climax is the point when challenges are overcome, solutions are implemented, and heroes are made.
The climax is the part audiences anticipate and some writers dread. Young writers, especially, can encounter some difficulty with writing the climax of their stories. What many don’t quite understand is that a great climax is the result of a compelling goal and engaging conflict. The entire story is a journey toward the climax.
So, how do you write a great climax? Here are five steps young writers should follow:
Give the main character a strong desire for something, then spend the beginning of the story making them fight for it.
Build the tension to the point where they feel like they will never get what they want.
Introduce a last minute hope, motivation, or tool that can help the main character achieve their desire.
Make the main character work for their desire. Even with the last minute help, finally achieving the goal cannot be easy, and should never be convenient.
Ensure the main character’s feelings are absolutely clear. Feelings should move from hopeful to distressed to desperate, before becoming determined and finally triumphant.
Young writers often struggle with generating ideas for writing stories. Even when they have a prompt, sometimes they get stuck trying to put their thoughts together. This is one of the reasons planning takes a long time or doesn’t get done at all. When a young writer is faced with a narrative prompt, one of two things generally happens. Either the prompt is taken literally and the young writer tries to fit all their ideas within reality, or the prompt is seen as an opportunity to let imagination run wild. Neither one of these situations gets the young writer to what they need – a manageable story that’s creative and interesting, yet makes sense to readers.
So how do we allow for innovation while keeping logic and wisdom in the equation?By teaching young writers about genre, types of stories, and types of conflict.
When these three groups intersect, there’s a sweet-spot that allows for great ideas to come forward. That’s because each of these three groups creates a point of focus while simultaneously boosting memory and imagination. So, young writers have the benefit of a process which jogs their memory, stimulates their imagination, and focuses their thinking to reign in the wild ideas.
That is a great place to start if your young writer is having challenges coming up with ideas. Think about it this way, if a young writer knew a handful of genres, a few types of stories, and the six basic types of conflict, they could easily make a selection to apply to any narrative writing task.
Try this activity with your young writer. Go through the different types of stories, genre, and conflict, then attempt the prompts below.
1. You went to buy bread and milk at the shop. On your way back, you accidentally dropped the milk. Write a story about the experience.
2. You are doing chores at home. Write a story about your experience.
These prompts were purposely selected because they don’t immediately scream “exciting story”. Encourage your young writer to select a genre, a type of story, and a type of conflict as a starting point. Then get them to plot the story, including exposition, details of the conflict, setting, characters, climax, and resolution.
Conflict is a major part of storytelling and one of those areas young writers often find challenging. Without effective development of conflict, there is no rising action. The story might seem interesting but the struggles and obstacles to overcome make it seem more realistic and exciting. Many young writers don’t quite understand conflict, so here’s a list of the six types of conflict they need to know. Any one of these can be applied to a story.
For example, let’s consider a prompt such as: You were walking home from school one afternoon and something jumped out at you from behind some bushes. Write a story about what happened next.
Person vs selfmight look like – a stray dog or cat that you want to take home but can’t because your sister is allergic and no pets are allowed at home. You are torn between the love of the animal and the love of your sister. Knowing that you can’t care for the animal properly, what do you do?
Person vs Person might look like – a bully who pounces on you and torments you. This is something you have to deal with every day and the bully becomes like a villain in your hero story. How do you deal with this bully?
Person vs Societymight look like –another child jumps out of the bushes, and this child was trying to hide from other members of your class. It’s the new kid, and in your school, there is a tradition of making fun of the new kids. You don’t like this and decide you’re not going to support it. This brings you up against the majority of the class. How will you face the class and help the new kid?
Person vs Naturemight look like – an animal jumping out of the bushes at you, like a mean dog or another animal that could hurt you. The story would be about you escaping or fighting the animal. How would you triumph in this situation?
Person vs Technologymight look like – a robot of some kind coming out of the bushes, or something to do with technology that threatens you. This leads you to dealing with killer or alien technology that poses a danger to you and your community. How do you face this strange menace?
Person vs Supernaturalmight look like – a stranger jumping out of the bushes and scaring you, and as they leave something falls from them. It’s a strange object, and as you touch it, something crazy happens, taking you perhaps to another world or unleashing paranormal events. How do you deal with the unknown? While there are some prompts that suggest what type of conflict young writers need to address in their story, any story can be written to shift the conflict to what that young writer is interested in. This is where creativity can shine through.
Does your young writer know what type of story they’re writing?
Sometimes, when the question is asked, a young writer might respond with, “I’m writing a fantasy” or “I’m writing a realistic fiction”. It’s great that they understand those concepts, but recognizing the difference between genre and type is the next step in really understanding stories. Genre refers to the category of story. That covers the general content and style of writing. For example, fantasy stories have certain elements that mystery stories don’t have. In fantasy stories, you will expect to read about fairies or magic and potions. In a mystery, readers expect lots of questions to be answered, clues to find, or pieces of a puzzle to put together in order to find out what’s really going on. This information is all about what details are in the story. When writers talk about type of story, however, they’re referring to the action or plot of the story and the process that characters go through from the beginning to the end of the story.
Overcoming the Monster: when characters have to fight a creature that comes between them and accomplishing their goals.
The focus of the story is on where the creature comes from and how it is defeated. In these types of stories, conflict development is about the battle becoming more and more intense until the main character seems to be losing. Then something miraculous happens to turn things around and the character wins in the end.
Think of stories like Jack and Beanstalk or Jurassic Park where are literal monsters roaming around. Or, perhaps the monster is less distinguishable as in Avatar when the “monster” was the invading humans.
Stories like these fascinate us because it shows heroism and triumphs over obstacles.
What modern monster movies can you think of?
The Quest: follows characters as they search for someone or something that is vital to overcoming their obstacles and accomplishing their goals.
In this type of story, characters set out to accomplish something but soon realize that there’s a missing piece. In order to get this missing piece, they must go on a journey that often involves some danger. When they recover the item or meet with the person, they get critical information that they can now use to vanquish their foe or solve their problem.
Think of stories like Shrek going off to find the princess so he can get his swamp back, or Indiana Jones in search of treasure and lost artifacts.
Quest stories are filled with adventure and fulfill our sense of curiosity.
Can you name other popular stories that fit this description?
Rags to Riches: refers to a story in which the main character starts off poor and through a series of events becomes rich.
The story can be about how the person becomes rich, or what happens after they become rich. It can even be about a situation where a rich character becomes poor and tries to become rich again.
Think of the iconic Cinderella or Aladdin. Both these stories show main characters who come into a life of riches after enduring poverty and hardship.
Readers love these types of stories because it instills hope and gives them something to look forward to.
Name a few other Rags to Riches stories in the comments.
Voyage and Return: is about characters leaving their home, having experiences, and returning wise and more capable of accomplishing their goals.
In these types of stories, there’s usually a major event that causes the character to leave, often in disgrace or under emotional circumstances. While away, they learn what is needed so they can return home with skills and knowledge that will help them overcome the obstacle, solve their problems, and attain their desires.
This of stories like The Lion King and Moana. In both these stories, circumstances lead to frustration that forces the main characters to leave their home and when they returned, they had the answers they needed to overcome their problems.
People love these kinds of stories because they show how life has a way of working things out. Characters grow and develop and readers identify with their struggles.
What other Voyage and Return stories can you identify? Share them in the comments.
Rebirth: stories which focus on character development as the main character learns and grows and becomes a better person.
In many cases, the main character starts off with a flaw. Perhaps they are mean or have a bad habit that hurts them and those around them. The story follows the character as they encounter situation after situation which leads them to changing their negative ways. The character learns valuable life lessons and in the end expresses gratitude for those lessons.
Think of stories like A Christmas Carol and Beauty and the Beast. In these stories, there’s a main character who is demanding and unkind, but their situation changes after the experiences of the story.
In A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge changes from a vile man into a kindhearted person. In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast is transformed emotionally into a nice person and physically from a beast back into a human being. Both are redeemed.
These stories are fun and interesting because readers like to see changes in characters, especially on such an epic scale as they are completely transformed from one thing to another.
Can you think of other Rebirth stories? We’d love to hear your list. Write them in the comments below.
