Writing a Short Story Task for The Divine

Writing a Short Story Task for The Divine Wind by Garry Disher Task for The Divine Wind © AATE 2015

Storytelling The story so far So far, in planning to write a short story based on an event in your own life, you have: Selected a true story from your own life. Prepared a one-minute pitch to explain why you should be able to participate in a storytelling ‘slam’. Written an author’s note (250 words) to explain how you plan to transform a recounting of the event in your own life into an interesting short story based on that recounting. You have also started work on a setting for your story, described several characters and thought about the use of figurative language (similes, metaphors and symbolism) to enhance the story. Task for The Divine Wind © AATE 2015

Storytelling The next step List in time order all of the things that happened in the event that you are recounting from beginning to end. Then go back through your list and remove any actions that are unnecessary. You should then add other actions that did not happen in your event but will make your story more gripping. Task for The Divine Wind © AATE 2015

Storytelling The plot Re-arrange the actions from your recounting into the shape of a story plot: Orientation (the setting, the background, the characters) Complication (the conflict inherent in the situation) Rising action (tension produced by the complication) A climax Falling action including an evaluation by the narrator (trying to make sense of the action) Resolution Task for The Divine Wind © AATE 2015

Storytelling The plot: playing around with time Begin your story in the middle (‘media res’) with something really exciting or interesting about to happen. Then you can move backwards to provide some background information about the story and forwards to move your story to its climax and resolution. Make sure that you withhold information from your readers until the very end of the story. Task for The Divine Wind © AATE 2015

Storytelling The narrator will also be the main character of the story because you want to write a story in the style of The Divine Wind. The story will be told through the thoughts, feelings and observations of this narrator. Just as in The Divine Wind, readers will want to see this main character change and develop in response to the events in the story. Task for The Divine Wind © AATE 2015

Storytelling The theme Think about the event on which your story is based and try to identify what theme your event illustrates. A theme is just a central idea that emerges from a situation. There are many possible themes but some that you could explore are: Standing up for your individual beliefs in the face of peer pressure; Coming back from an initial failure to achieve success; Growing towards maturity and leaving some childish ideas behind; Struggling with a piece of technology and winning. Task for The Divine Wind © AATE 2015

Storytelling Figurative language A story can be made more vivid by the use of figurative language. This includes: Similes (‘the sea was like a wolf trying to eat the pebbles on the shore’); Metaphors (‘the wolf sea snarled at the pebbles on the beach’); Symbols (the word ‘Wolf’ with a picture of a wolf could be inscribed on the side of a security firm’s vehicle to frighten criminals). Task for The Divine Wind © AATE 2015

Storytelling Sentences Write sentences which achieve different purposes: Obviously some sentences will explain the situation and describe the action of the story. Other sentences will evaluate the meaning of the action. These sentences will express the narrator’s thoughts, feelings and reflections. There will also be some sentences about the ‘I’, the narrator, who is the protagonist of this sort of story, a first-person narrative. Task for The Divine Wind © AATE 2015