Art is the overflow of emotion into action

[Richard Stone]

Richard Stone stood at the whiteboard at the front of his classroom. Often he wondered if teaching all of the English classes was smart or just plain insane, some days he though the former, but most days it felt like that latter.

With a pen in his hand he wrote Creative Writing in large script at the centre top of the board and underlined it a few times. Under this, to the left, he wrote Short Story Under it he began to write down the lesson. He decided not to bother with handouts for this lesson as it was information the students would either keep or discard.

Beginning
Your beginning should hook the reader. Try beginning with either action or dialogue. Action: They threw me off the hay truck at about noon (Postman Always Rings Twice). Dialogue: “Daddy! I saw Momma! Hurry!” (The Quiet Game).

Characterize
Many people have body language or actions that show their personality. A nervous boy may bite his nails and an insecure girl may look at the floor and avoid eye contact. Using body language clues are much more effective for the story than by telling the reader that “Henry is nervous today.” Also, a character’s actions reveal their personality. A selfish person at dinner may take the last piece of pie, even though he all ready had more than half, without asking anyone else at the table if they want it.
• Static (unchanging) vs. dynamic (changing) character
• Flat (one-dimensional, stereotypical) vs. round (multiple characteristics, complex) character

Conflict
Conflict is the struggle between opposing forces, characters, or feelings. In an external conflict, the character struggles against another character(s), nature (a hurricane or illness), or society. An internal conflict involves a clash between opposing needs or feelings within a character.

Description
Description is writing that creates a picture of a person, place, object, or event by using sensory details that appeal to your senses. An objective description emphasizes factual details in neutral language. A subjective description, on the other hand, creates a mood or impression of its subject by using words with positive or negative connotations.
Objective The morning was cool, misty, and cloudy.
Subjective A penetrating, chilly mist oppressed the village under glowering grey skies. (The impression is one of chill and gloom.)
Objective Laura has black hair, a thin face, and blue eyes.
Subjective Laura swept her gleaming black hair away from her slender face and gazed up with her clear, startlingly blue eyes. (The impression is of a beautiful, young woman.)

Ending
Three types of endings exist: 1) main character achieves his/her objective, a happy ending; 2) the reader doesn’t know if the main character will get his/her objective, an ambiguous ending; 3) the main character loses his/her objective, a negative ending. To make the ending more complicated, a positive ending could result in the main character achieving his/her objective but the result is bad, and a negative ending could result in the main character losing his/her objective but the result is good, which would add a bittersweet feeling for the reader. *Caution: Ambiguous endings only work if done very well. These endings normally frustrate the reader unless the story presents a feeling or a direction to either a positive or negative ending.

Exposition
Nothing will slow down a story faster than too much information that the author tells the reader instead of shows. Remember that exposition should always be a small part of the story; action, dialogue, and setting should comprise the vast majority of your story. Some simple rules follow:
• Act first, explain later: Begin with a character in motion. Drop in information as necessary, in little bits as you go along.
• The reader is smart: If the reader can figure something out, don’t tell it. For instance, if your story begins with a verbal fight about kittens, you don’t need to add that little Susie has wanted one for a long time and has begged and pleaded until this fight, which has lasted for a few minutes, has occurred.
• When you do explain, use the iceberg method: Don’t tell everything about the character’s past history or current situation. Give us the 10% above the surface that is necessary to understand what is going on, and leave the other 90% hidden and mysterious under the surface.
• Set information inside confrontation: Often the best way to let information come out is in a scene of intense conflict. Using the character’s thoughts or words, you can add crucial information. Just remember to use small pieces at a time. You don’t want a character’s thoughts to become a long internal speech that would interrupt the conflict.

Irony
Irony is a contrast between expectation and reality—between what is said and what is really meant, between what is expected and what really happens, or between what appears to be true and what really is true.
• Verbal Irony: This occurs when a writer or speaker says one thing but really means the opposite. Verbal irony often involves understatement and overstatement. Sarcasm is a type of this kind.
• Situational Irony: This occurs when what actually happens is the opposite of what is expected.
• Dramatic Irony: This occurs when the audience or reader knows something important that a character in the play or story does not know.

Point of View
• First-person point of view: The narrator is a participant in the action and creates a sense of immediacy by using the pronouns I and we.
• Second-person point of view: The writer uses the pronoun you, making the reader the main character in the story. This pov isn’t used as much, and it can limit character details.
• Third-person point of view: The narrator has access to all the characters’ thoughts and actions. The writer uses the pronouns he, she, it, and they, which helps create a sense of objectivity and distance. 3rd-person limited: stay only in one character’s mind and describes his/her thoughts, emotions, and actions. 3rd-person omniscient: able to see everyone’s thoughts, emotions, and actions. 3rd-person objective: able to see everyone’s actions but does not reveal thoughts or emotions unless visible through body language, action, or dialogue.

Setting
All action needs to occur in a place—whether inside or outside. Many times, the setting affects the characters either by limiting them (outer space) or by influencing them (Grand Canyon). Be sure to describe the setting. The more real it appears to the reader, the more your story becomes real.

Story Patterns
• The Quest: The main character sets out in search of something, experiences various adventures, and finally returns—either successful or unsuccessful.
• The Initiation: A main character is faced with a new situation that tests his or her abilities or beliefs. How the character deals with the situation determines the direction of his or her life.
• The Union: A boy and girl grow fond of each other, but their parents or some other force comes between them. The couple usually gets together in the end after overcoming various obstacles.
• The Choice: The main character is faced with a difficult decision near the end of this type of story. Making this decision is the high point of the plot.
• Other Patterns: Adventure, Escape, Fall in Power/Wealth, Growing Older/Wiser, Pursuit, Rescue, Revenge, Riddle, Rise in Power/Wealth, Rivalry, Sacrifice, Temptation, Underdog.
• Mythic Structure: Reader introduced to hero’s world, call to adventure, hero may ignore the call, hero crosses into new world, a mentor may arrive to teach hero, various encounters with darkness, hero has dark moment he must overcome, a talisman aids in battle (sword, shield), final battle, hero returns to own world.
** Subplots: You story can also follow a secondary character’s actions. Subplots can be difficult to manage since you need to balance it with the main story. Subplots are effective when it adds to the story’s theme or complicates/collides with the main character’s plot. Be careful, though, since a subplot can end up being a distraction to your main story if you’re not careful.

He was still writing as the students started spilling into the classroom and took their seats. When he had finished writing, as the tardi-bell sounded, he turned around to address the class. "Good morning, one and all. As you can see on the board, we're going to be looking at creative writing and to start off, I thought I would get you to try your and at a bit of fiction.

What I would like from each of you is a three-page short story over a topic your choosing. Please remember that your topic must be school appropriate. I would hate to have to fail someone for writing a raunchy romance novel.

We are going to spend today throwing ideas back and forth if you need them. I'll bring out the mobile white board and write down some more things. One thing to remember is that writing something that simply tells gives the basic information, but writing a piece that shows will make the information more vivid. Some examples of that? I hear you ask. I could just say the likes of: Ms. Simmons was a strict teacher. Or, I could say; When students spoke without raising their hands, Ms. Simmons grabbed their ears and pulled them into the detention room. The former gives you an idea that Ms Simmons could be strict. The latter, however, let's you know exactly how strict she is."

---

Students
Present:

@alana

@anna
@running7
Cortney Smit

Danielle Green
Elizabeth Toman

@maidinmisery
Othello Buskirk
@jasper32

Absent:
@amberpayton
Amelia DeFoe
@calebm
@jasper38
@john
@jacobs
Miranda Florin
Peter Holden
@sergei

[Cortney Smit]

Even after being head cheerleader for all this time, Cortney was still amazed that the student body parted for her when she walked. She guessed the only thing that was strange about her position, was that she didn't have a male following her like a hopeless puppy. It wasn't that she didn't like boys, it was just that she was yet to find just the right one.

She sang softly to herself as she walked, the lyrics for Christina Perri's Jar of Hearts, as it seemed appropriate for her thoughts. And then walked into the classroom. Sitting down at her table, dead smack in the middle of the room, she continued to sing as she pulled everything she needed out of her bag. Her words weren't so loud that the entire class could hear them, but anyone walking by would be able to hear.

She then looked up at the board and her mouth dropped open, cutting the song off. She picked her folder up, hoping for a hand-out, but failed to see one. With a sigh, she began to read what was on the board. She had always prided herself for being an A grade student and didn't want to change that, but he couldn't possibly expect them to remember all of this?

As their teacher started talking, Cortney leaned forward. She didn't like creative writing, mainly for the fact that they were given topics to write on, but with the freedom of choosing their own plot, this might be a fun assignment.

She opened her folder and dated the page in the top left corner and put creative writing in the top right, she then turned her pen over and tapped it on the paper, trying to think of what she wanted to write a three-page story on. She looked back at the board and wrote down each of the headings the man had put down, leaving spaces between each heading so she could jot down notes for her story under each.

[Elizabeth Toman]

Libby stormed trough the hallways, snapping at anyone who didn't get out of her way fast enough. She was half way through her morning classes, and she was still smarting about that morning's training session. It seemed that no matter what she did, she got a tongue-lashing from the coach, so she was now returning the favour to any student who was in her way.

Walking into the English class, she glared around and narrowed her eyes at the cheer captain. It seemed that the girl was always so sickeningly peppy and it really grated on the girls nerves at times. She walked past the girl's desk and rolled her eyes when she heard the singing. Throwing herself ito her seat - which was too close to Little Miss Peppy, but she couldn't be bothered changing her seat now.

After pulling her folder out of her bag, she looked at the board. "You're telling me what?" She exploded. "Mr S, where's the stupid hand-out? Aren't you lot subsidised so that you can print stuff out?" She knew she sounded like a sulky brat, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

She settled down and listened to the man as he spoke about what they would be doing. Libby hated writing and was not looking forward to having to write out three pages of garbage that would end up in a paper shredder anyway.

[Othello Buskirk]

Until this point, Othello had spent his morning in the nurse's office, but had filly managed to talk her into letting him attend his English class. He drank the glass of water she had handed him and proved that it wasn't going to come back up and then sprinted toward the Academic building and down to the English class. He knew he wasn't going to be late, but he wanted to get as far away from the nurse' office as he could manage in as quick a time.

Sliding into his seat, the boy massaged his temples, not regretting the speed as his energy levels weren't as good as they should be. He then looked at the board and raised his eyebrows. He didn't write anything down though, as he was hoping for it all on a sheet of paper. He chuckled at the outburst of a female student.

Settling back as Mr Stone took charge of the class, he listened, chuckling as the man gave them their assignment - with a warning about the content. Leo wasn't much of a writer, but he had a few ideas of what he could write about and began to jot them down as the teacher still spoke.

When Mr Stone had fallen silent, Leo raised his hand. "Are we limited to three pages if we find that our story can't end there?" He asked when the man nodded toward him. The boy didn't even have a story in mind yet, and he felt that he would be lucky to get to three pages, but the question was bugging him.

[Deleted]

 It had been a busy day for Zak and now it was time for his English class. He walked to the classroom holding his messenger bag tightly round his shoulder. He looked through the door to see how many pupils were in the class before entering. There were not many pupils already there but he sat down at the desk closest to the wall.

 He slid the bag under the desk and sat down in his chair, where he held his folder in his hands and looked at the board. It seemed that they would be doing creative writing. Zak already had a thought rush into his head about what the story would be about. Then Mr Stone began the lesson telling them about showing and not telling the reader and that the story can not be a raunchy romance novel. In Zak's mind he was editing the story so it was showing the reader how the characters were and not telling.

 He opened his folder and took two pages of lined paper out of it. He wrote his name and date and wrote a catchy title for his short story which was "The Hostage" and thought for a few minutes about what he could start the story with. Then he began.

[Deleted]

Caroline hurried to her next class. It was English, although the thought of sitting there and analyzing poems and passages didn’t excite her in the least bit, writing her own stories, now that was what she loved. Even though there was no guarantee that this class would do that especially in the first class that she attended. She hoped and prayed that they would get to do a little bit of their own writing today.

With her book bag on her back she walked down the hallway and into the classroom. It looked as though she had hurried as there were only four people currently seated in the desks. Her face lit up when her eyes roved over the board. She quickly took a seat and grabbed her notebook out of her book bag. Opening it up to a fresh page she could feel all the creativeness flowing all around.

She read over the board, most of the information she knew but she reread it anyways. She sat there happy with what was going to happen in class. With a smile wrote at the top of her page, Creative Writing. She then intently listened to what Mr. Stone was saying and jotted down some notes when she felt like they were needed. Her idea was already in her head, but it always helped to hear some.

outfit

[Danielle Green]

Reading and writing and being creative were what she loved to do other than riding of course. She liked every aspect of english literature and this was one of the reasons she was extremely excited to go to class. She walked down the hallway with a ton of pep in her step. Not enough that she looked like she was doing a mom walk; although her strides were longer and she avoided getting caught in the groups that stood in the hallways in between classes at all costs.

She walked into the classroom to see Mr. Stone writing a lot of words down on the board, she took a quick look at the top, Creative Writing, Short Stories. Although this wasn’t her favorite part of an english class, she still liked it a great deal. She took a seat and pulled out her notebook and began to write some things down on the clean page.

Before Mr. Stone was done Danielle took a look around the room to see that she was only the sixth student in the class. Mr. Stone wasted no time in starting class. He gave a run-down of what was on the board and the project that they would be tackling to start with. She smiled and waited for other students to start spit balling some ideas.

[Deleted]

    Anna strode into the room for her English class and found a spot near the front. Per usual, she was feeling confident and ready to take on all her classes. Taking out her notebook and a pen, she took notes from the board, skipping most of the examples and only taking the basics, as well as any new information. She already knew most of it, so the notes were just for the sake of writing something down and having them if she needed them for whatever reason.

    As Mr. Stone began to teach and explain their task, she jotted down the particulars of the assignment and then began to think about what path she would take. She always preferred more focused tasks, and the arts were not her forte, so this assignment probably wouldn't be her favorite. If she was able to get a creative story line down she would be fine, as the writing itself wouldn't be a problem.

    Flipping her notebook over to a blank page, she began to note down her ideas, looking over the different story patterns to try to decide on one. She did not want to go to crazy with a plot that was eccentric and all over the place. Rather, she preferred to have a more subdued story with a deeper meaning.

[Deleted]

Walking into Literature, Ellis took note of everything written on the board as he took a seat some where in the middle of the classroom. He scanned the board and was quite impressed that they were writing a story at the beginning of the year. Most English teachers started off with something simple like verbs, but it was always the same which was boring. He rummaged through his bag before taking out several pencils and a notebook as he wrote down what was on the board, but in a shorten version knowing it would take forever just to write the entire board. 

As the bell rung to start class he perked up at hearing the teachers voice and listened to the instructor as he gave his final notes a once over to make sure everything seemed good. He then started to make a list of some ideas for this creative writing project. Even though it seemed childish, but he was pretty excited for this writing project as it wasn't just something this teacher threw together last minute. He was actually giving the class a challenge within the first day. His gaze went up to the board as he finished his idea list to see if anything else had been written on the board. 

[Deleted]

Alana walked briskly over to English Literature which she had with Richard Stone. She had her map in hand and is getting used to maneuvering through the Academy, although still being new, and she knows it just takes time to get used to everything. Luckily she learns things fast and hopefully it will also be easy at the same time if and when it clicks to her. She stood in front of the door to the classroom for what she hoped was the right one. She looked at her schedule once more to check before taking the cool door handle in her hand and entering the room.

Upon her arrival, she took a quick glance around the room already occupied with a few students. She gave the teacher of the class a shy smile in greeting, but was unsure he recognized anything with him still writing the rest of whatever the lesson was on the board. She didn't want to interrupt as she took a seat in the front, but off to the side, already hoping he was informed about a new student being added to the roster of his class. Her eyes widened at the amount of writing on the board, but know she is capable of this. She shuffled through her book bag for her notebook and a pen as she took the main points of each category from the board.

She added on any new and extra information from Mr. Stone's explanation of their task today and let out a kind of desperate sigh. She was unsure of what to write for her three-page short story, but started to flip to a clean page and titled it up at the top, Creative Writing. She tapped the end of her pen against the paper silently as she wouldn't mind some extra minds speaking out some ideas. Though she knows she also needs to learn to figure it out on her own and not always rely on others. She started jotting down anything that came to mind for ideas on topics to write her story about, even bits of ideas just to get something stirring in her mind.