Part I: Creative Component
For the first part of the assignment, you will write an original work of fiction. More specifically, you will compose a short story of 4-6 pages (typed doubled-spaced using Times New Roman font). You have two options as to how you may approach this creative component:
1. Create your own original, fictional story with original characters and plot and conflict.
2. “Cover” a story we have read this semester: significantly update, substitute, or change elements of an existing story that we have read (plot, tone, characters, setting, point of view, etc.).
Regardless of which option you choose, your story should include the following:
• A consistent point of view
• A well-described, well-wrought setting
• A protagonist: who wants something, who yearns for something, who is undergoing some sort of internal or external conflict, who experiences some sort of change (slight or significant) as a result of the story • An antagonist (or antagonistic force) that seeks to thwart the want/yearning of your protagonist
• At least one moment of dialogue between characters (or, if your story has only one character, include at least one moment of self reflection/interiority).
• Some level of direct or indirect characterization of the protagonist and important characters— be it through exposition, backstory, appearance, behavior, movements, diction, eccentricities, etc.
• The story should reach a climactic point (in which the conflict is at its greatest emotional tension), and one force (the protagonist or the antagonist) should prevail over the other
• At least one symbol that reinforces the central theme or conflict of the story
Part II: Story Reflection and Writing Process
For the second part of this assignment, you will write a 2-3 page (typed double-spaced using 12point, Times New Roman font) essay in which you reflect on the fiction you have written. You will explore both the writing process and your use of literary elements. Some of the questions to consider in your response are listed below:
•
• What is the conflict?
• When does the story reach its greatest emotional tension (the climax of the story)?
• Why did you choose a certain setting?
• If you had to guess at the theme of your story, what would it be? In other words, what is the story’s central meaning or takeaway? (And it’s okay to not necessary know this.)
• What inspired the writing of the story?
• If you included any symbols, where are they? Why did you include them? What could they represent?
• What was your writing process like?
• How did you approach forming an idea for a story?
• Did you face any challenges in the writing process?
• Did anything surprise you in the story?
• Are there any sentences that stylistically you really like?
NOTE: You have a lot of freedom in terms of how you approach the second part of this assignment. You may answer some or most of the above questions in essay form or question by question. Or you may explore other issues concerning your story and the writing process. What I care about most is that you write a thoughtful response that addresses the following topics in some way:
• What it was like to write a story of fiction • Reflection on the story you wrote and its literary elements.
• What you discovered about fiction (its possibilities, how it functions, for example) as a result of writing fiction.
