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3.1 Produce an extended piece of writing in a selected style

Short story writing

The diversity of style and subject matter used in short stories is huge. For this reason it is important to read a variety of examples to understand how writers have presented their ideas in an interesting and effective way. Find a writer whose style you enjoy, read several of their pieces and make notes on the characteristics of their style. Use the questions in writing process to help you model your writing.

• Read Annotated paragraph of student writing in narrative style (Word 25KB)
• Read Annotated paragraph of student writing in short story style (Word 32KB)

Use poetic techniques such as simile, metaphor, and personification to create pictures with words in your writing and help the reader to visualise the subject better.

Sound techniques can include alliteration, assonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme, and/or rhythm – see The short story - a study in intense brevity.

Mood is the feeling or atmosphere created by selecting details and words to help communicate an overall impression or feeling of the experience. Mood is reinforced by carefully selecting appropriate poetic, language, and sound techniques, scroll down to The setting.

Point of view

The connection or relationship the narrator and reader have to the subject matter is indicated by the pronouns used. If you use first person narrative narrator and reader is directly involved, whereas using third person narrative the narrator and reader are more removed from text. You must have a good reason to change the narrative point of view within your written piece, scroll way down to Who Tells the Story?

Characterisation is not just what the character looks like, how they act, or what they say, but how they have been created with language to show these traits. Use careful observation to collect detail then select only the appropriate information to create your character.

Your writing will be more effective if you show what the character is like rather than spelling it out for the reader. For example:

"I wanted to hold his bristly cheeks and place my thumbs on the corners of his mouth. How long had it been since I had done that? Years, God it felt like years but it was only... what ... thirteen months my brain whispered after quick calculation."

This extract shows us the narrator used to have a close relationship with the subject by using the power of suggestion rather than stating it bluntly, see Creating Characters (scroll two thirds down the page to “Creating Characters - Making them Walk & Talk�).

For more detail see 2.1 Creative writing – Style.

For examples see Words Without Borders.

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