Tag: SEA

Genre

๐ ๐ž๐ง๐ซ๐ž/หˆส’ษ’๐ง๐ซษ™/๐จ๐Ÿ๐ญ๐ž๐ง ๐ฉ๐ซ๐จ๐ง๐จ๐ฎ๐ง๐œ๐ž๐ /๐ฃ๐จ๐ง๐ซ๐ฎ๐ก/๐’‚ ๐’”๐’•๐’š๐’๐’† ๐’๐’“ ๐’„๐’‚๐’•๐’†๐’ˆ๐’๐’“๐’š ๐’๐’‡ ๐’‚๐’“๐’•, ๐’Ž๐’–๐’”๐’Š๐’„, ๐’๐’“ ๐’๐’Š๐’•๐’†๐’“๐’‚๐’•๐’–๐’“๐’†

For SEA narrative responses, young writers are required to write fiction. Fiction is a broad style of writing that includes all types of stories that come from the writerโ€™s imagination. They are made-up stories. There are quite a few subcategories of this genre. In fact, some writers can list up to fourteen! For SEA, however, and what young writers are required to do, there are six that are more applicable than the others.

Genre โ€“ Fiction

Subgenres โ€“ Realistic Fiction, Fantasy, Folktale-Fairytale, Mystery, Adventure-Action, Science-Fiction

GenreSubgenres
FictionScience Fiction
Adventure Action
Myster
Fantasy
Folktale and Fairytales
Realistic Fiction


Science-Fiction is all about discovery and exploration. Characters go into space, time travel to the future or the past, encounter aliens and strange creatures, and maybe even advanced technology.

Think about stories with spaceships and fancy machines that have not been invented yet. Star Trek is one of the most popular science fiction stories.

Can you think of other examples?

Adventure-Action stories are about excitement. Characters have to do dangerous things in order to get what they want and accomplish their goals.

The obstacles they face are not everyday or average, and their actions can lead to serious consequences if things don’t work out right.

Stories like Treasure Island and The Three Musketeers are two great examples.

Can you think of others?

Have you ever heard of “who done it” stories? Those are stories where the main character is a detective trying to find out the person who committed a crime. Crime dramas fall in the category of ‘mystery’.

Mystery stories always involve clues and puzzles that characters have to solve in order to accomplish their goal. There’s often some detective work involved.

Sometimes characters try to find the person who committed a crime, or they try to find the answers to a riddle or strange occurrence.

Scooby Doo, Nancy Drew, and Hardy Boys are great examples.

What modern examples can you think of?

Folktales and Fairytales are stories that are passed down through generations and include some elements of fantasy, as they are often about strange creatures and events.

These stories sometimes claim to be true and people may claim to be eyewitnesses. However, there’s never any solid proof to support these claims.

Trinidad and Tobago, like most cultures, has a vibrant folklore tradition about strange creatures and things that go bump in the night. Most often, these stories were told to scare little children into being obedient.

Some of our well known characters are Papa Bois, Douen, La Diabless, Soucouyant, and Lagahoo.

Can you name any others?

Fantasy stories feature magic and talking objects or animals. They also often involve strange things happening that might seem like they would never happen in real life.

This is a broad category that often works together with other categories.

Harry Potter is one very famous fantasy that involves creatures, wizards, witches, and a wide variety of magic.

What other fantasy stories can you name?

Realistic Fiction are about characters and settings that are made-up, but they seem true to life and the events of the story feel like they could actually happen.

These types of stories are often about characters operating in their everyday life reacting to their experiences and life around them.

They may have to deal with things like navigating school, moving to a different town, making and losing friends, and even the death of a loved one.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid is popular book series that falls into this category.

See if you can name a few other examples. Share in the comments

#WERDCoachYouth#NarrativeWriting#BetterWriters

Understanding Stories

When many writers sit to put their thoughts on paper, they write whatever story comes to mind. Young writers, especially, donโ€™t often think about the type of story theyโ€™re writing. But not all stories are the same, and understanding the different types, genre, and types of conflict will help young writers focus, generate ideas and plan better. Over the next few posts, we will be defining and discussing selected types of stories, genre, and conflict. Then we will discuss how knowing these will help young writers improve their writing.

Today, we are starting with definitions. Itโ€™s always a good place to start.

What are the types of stories?

When we say โ€œtypesโ€ of stories, weโ€™re referring to the variety of plots that stories can have. This is different from genre and conflict as it relates to what the action of the story is about and not style or obstacle characters face. There are several types of stories, but the ones young writers should be familiar with are: Overcoming the Monster, Rags to Riches, The Quest, Voyage and Return, and Rebirth.

What is genre?

Itโ€™s easy to get technical with descriptions and definitions of genre, but weโ€™ll keep it simple. Genre in literature refers to the category or style of writing. There are four basic genres, each with its own subcategory. The four genres are: drama, fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Genre is complex and young writers donโ€™t need to know a whole lot about it, but basic information will help them organize their thoughts.

What are the types of conflict?

Conflict refers specifically to whatever is blocking the main character from achieving his or her goal. Regardless of the type of story or the subgenre (fantasy, science fiction, etc.), characters must have challenges and obstacles to overcome in the pursuit of their desires. Thatโ€™s what makes stories exciting. There are a few different types of conflict, but these six are the ones young writers should be familiar with: character vs self, character vs character, character vs society, character vs nature, character vs supernatural, and character vs technology.

#WERDCoachYouth#NarrativeWriting#BetterWriters

Planning and Plotting

Is there a difference between planning and plotting a story? Writers are told to plan all the time. Young writers, especially, are taught how to plan reports and narratives. They are told planning is important. But why, exactly, is planning important and how is plotting a narrative any different from planning one? ๐‡๐ž๐ซ๐žโ€™๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐š๐ง๐ฌ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ ๐ข๐ง ๐š ๐ง๐ฎ๐ญ๐ฌ๐ก๐ž๐ฅ๐ฅ.

Planning

Deciding on what to write, organizing your thoughts, and laying them out in a coherent order. This is necessary because it allows young writers to generate and gather ideas.

EXAMPLE: My story is about a girl who lives with her stepmother and stepsisters who treat her like a maid. She sneaks away to go to a ball and meets the prince. They fall in love. The girl runs away from the ball and leaves a shoe behind. The prince uses the shoe to find the girl. They live happily ever after. Her stepmother and stepsisters are banished from the kingdom.

Plotting

Deciding on what to write, organizing your thoughts, and laying them out in a way that shows how each event and action is connected to the others. Plot shows cause and effect.

EXAMPLE: My story is about a girl whose father died and left her with her stepmother and stepsisters. Because the stepmother is angry about the fatherโ€™s death, she treats the girl badly. Over time the girl eventually becomes their maid in her own house. One day the rulers of their kingdom throw a ball and the girl is forbidden to go. She cries and pleads for help and her fairy godmother appears to help her get dressed and go to the ball. At the ball, the girl meets and falls in love with the prince, but has to leave quickly because the magic spell stops at midnight. In her rush to get away, the girl leaves a shoe behind. The prince finds the shoe and decides to go looking for her. The stepmother is furious with the girl and tries to hide her from the prince. But the shoe only fits the girl, so the prince eventually finds her. They get married and live happily ever after. The girl, who is now a princess, banishes the stepmother and stepsisters from the kingdom for treating her badly.

The Difference

In addition to being more detailed, the plot shows how the events and actions in the story are connected. Notice how the plot shows why certain actions are taken and shows the consequences too. This Cinderella story is more complex and complicated than the type of story young writers have to produce for SEA. Narrative essays for SEA are much shorter and easier to plot but should still follow the same cause and effect format.

When young writers plot a story instead of just planning it, they are able to see how the conflict works in the story. Rising action is also easier to identify, and writers can effectively plan how to solve the challenges.

To practice plotting with your young writer, first create a plot development list they can follow and use as a worksheet. List each aspect of the plot in the order they should be developed. Then, fill in the information as needed. After several attempts at plotting stories, young writers will become more proficient at creating exciting stories.

For more information on how to plan reports, check out this post.

#WERDCoachYouth#NarrativeWriting#BetterWriters

How to Write “The Events That Follow” From a Prompt

How do you begin a story when the prompt says, “Write about the events that follow”? A few months ago, we posted about understanding writing prompts. Itโ€™s the first step in writing a great narrative.

In this post, weโ€™re expanding on those ideas to answer a specific question – โ€œHow do you start a narrative when the prompt says โ€˜Write about the events that follow?โ€ Before we get to the answer, however, you should know how the average prompt is constructed. Letโ€™s take a look at one of the SEA 2020 prompts.

Note: Not all prompts will be like this one, but the content is pretty standard.

Review of SEA 2020 Narrative Prompt

In this prompt, you can clearly see four separate details.
The Context โ€“ Highlighted in Blue
The Situation โ€“ Highlighted in Red
The Directive Part A โ€“ Highlighted in Green and Written in Yellow
The Directive Part B โ€“ Not Highlighted

The Context tells readers whatโ€™s going on. Usually it includes the characters and partial information to guide background details.

The Situation provides details about the start of the conflict. This information isnโ€™t always in a prompt, but when it is young writers need to pay special attention to what it says.

The Directive Part A tells writers what the story should be about. In this instance, writers are being asked to tell a story about what happens after the incident noted in the prompt.

Young writers could be asked to write about different aspects of the story. For example, they could be asked to write about the experience itself, or even how the characters got into the situation in the first place (what led up to the events of the prompt).

The Directive Part B is a standard guide that reminds young writers that it’s a narrative they’re writing and what type of vivid descriptions and sensory details to include.

Ok, so now weโ€™re on to story beginnings. We pointed out what goes into an introduction when we discussed the 5-paragraph Story Structure in this post. Thereโ€™s a standard format of hook, introduce character, give character a goal, and describe setting that must be included. But what does that look like in this type of story?

Letโ€™s break it down into three points:
1. Since the prompt already gave the context, itโ€™s wise to include some of those details in your introduction. Donโ€™t expect the reader to be going back to the prompt to get the beginning of the story. Young writers have to give the beginning still.

2. Add a few details to support the idea with descriptive language. So, tell readers where you were going with your friends and that you were concentrating on your phone, texting. Maybe even hint at what and who you were texting.

3. This prompt also indicates the complication. The complication is the first problem that starts the conflict, so itโ€™s important to include this detail. What the prompt doesnโ€™t tell you is what your reaction is, and thatโ€™s where you would add in details to expand on the situation with descriptive and vivid language. That would be your introduction.

From there, most of the story would be exploring where your friends were, how you found them again, and what happened to them. And, all of this within a plot that builds the excitement and emotional reactions before solving the problem.

#WERDCoachYouth#NarrativeWriting#BetterWriters

Embracing Technology

With everything online these days, interfacing with technology can be overwhelming. However, there are some great tools out there to help you and your young writer make the most of lifeโ€™s changes. A few weeks ago, we came across two apps that preteens and parents would love. Check them out and tell us what you think.

Study Bunny

There are tons of study apps out there, but this one has a special appeal that makes it great for the digital babies. The app features a lovable bunny who sits with you, studying along while you get your work done. Users can track how much time they spend on studying, monitor their productivity using the built-in To Do List, and color code subjects so they know how much time is spent studying what.

But thatโ€™s not the most awesome part. Not only does your bunny friend study with you, it encourages you by giving you coins for study time. Yup, thatโ€™s right, thereโ€™s a built-in reward system that lets users earn coins for every hour they spend studying. Coins are used to purchase items for the bunny and his little room. This kind of incentive is great because it fits in with the preteen obsession with online games. Of course, adult supervision would assist your young writer in managing time effectively, but having and using this app is definitely something that would make study time less stressful.

Luna Diary

If youโ€™re looking for something to support your young writer in writing regularly, this is a great app to check out. When you write a journal entry, the scenery of the app grows by adding flowers and stars in the sky. Writers also fill the moon when they write. This is a quick reward system that makes writing interesting and provides an incentive for continuing. There are several themes to choose from, so itโ€™s not all about flowers and stars. Consider using one or both of these apps and let us know how it works out for you.

Also, comment below if there are other apps you know of that would be helpful to parents and young writers.

#WERDCoachYouth#NarrativeWriting#BetterWriters