Nothing buggers me more than writing a short story for exams. We have a set time to complete the writing and we don't know what the prompt is going to be. Sometimes the story turns out fine right from the beginning, while at other times, the story takes a new form somewhere at the middle. So to help tackle this, Kezang Choden, a student from RTC gives us her take on writing effective short stories for exams. The following is her tried and tested method which will certainly help many students.
Taking in the Prompt
In grade eleven, our English teacher asked my class to write a short story using the prompt,
“Suddenly the light went off and I heard screaming outside…”
As expected, almost everyone had written a ghost story which in the end turns out to be a dream.
“Suddenly the light went off and I heard screaming outside………………….. I woke up and realized that it was just a dream.”
“Suddenly the light went off and I heard screaming outside……………………..the alarm went off and I woke up with a start. Everything was only a dream.”
That’s too common! That way, the students lose marks, because everyone’s stories are somehow the same. The moment we get the prompt, we often tend to write down the first thing that comes in our mind. Probably because we fear that the ideas might vanish if we ponder too much on it, or merely because we are nervous. But chill out. Why the rush?
Read the prompt carefully, take a deep breath, smile and then get to work.
First of all, DO NOT write down the very first thing that comes in your mind because everyone else is sure to have thought the same thing. Just like in the example I gave above, the moment they saw the prompt, the first thing that came in their mind was an eerie scene where the lights suddenly go off and a heart wrenching cry rings in the dark. They instantly decided to write a scary story and since they could not come up with a decent ending, they concluded the story as a dream.
That (!) is why; do not jump on to your first thoughts. Try to think of a unique plot.
For instance, instead of dumping your beautifully created story into the oh-my-gosh- it-was-only-a-dream pit, you could come up with something different; a concrete ending, in which (for ex.) the monster that has been causing trouble in your story either gets apprehended or even killed.
But if at all you couldn’t get to the point where you kill your villain because you’re poor with fighting scenes, you could always give it a suspense-filled ending.
For example:
…when I finally forced my eyelids open, a bright light blinded me for a moment. After my eyes got adjusted to the light, I realized that I was lying on a bed in a spotless white room. Several weird looking tubes which were connected to various machines were plastered on to my skin. Even though my body seemed to have been numbed by anesthetics, I could still feel the scalding pain that had stung every fiber of my being when that wretched monster dug its razor-sharp claws into my flesh. I felt sick.
It must have shown on my face, because the policeman who was standing at the door walked over to me and said, “Everything’s alright now. We could not catch that ogre but we’re glad we could save you. Your parents are on their way here.”
I breathed out in relief. I really was safe. Even thought that devil was still roaming free, I was no longer in its treacherous clutch. That was more than I could wish for. I vowed to never go near those ruins next to the old cremation ground.
Just then the policeman received a phone call.
“What?” his face turned white with terror. “Another girl went missing near the ruins?”
The End
Ta-da! Now that was a bit different from the it-was-only-a-dream idea, wasn’t it?
If I give another example, the prompt “The lion gave a deafening roar and instantly the entire jungle settled into a hush of awe…” tries to imply a story in which the animals play the lead roles.
So obviously almost everyone will start writing a fable. But you, yes you! cough…cough* being a brilliant person that you are, *cough* can surely think of something unique and better. Yeah.
Example:
“The lion gave a deafening roar and instantly the entire jungle settled into a hush of awe. The trees stopped rustling and the animals cowered away – ”
“Ugg!” groaned Che chey. “Come on, uncle Jigme, you already read me this story a million times.”
“No, I did not!” Jigme argued.
“Yes you did, uncle Jigme,” said Che chey. “Read me a new story!”
“Oh all right, all right.” Jigme dropped his chin to his chest. He wondered how on earth he was
going to survive an entire day with this little noisy complaining niece of his.
There you are, with a completely different plot.
Easy pesy lemon squeezy!
Ok, so now you’ve decided to write something unique. Only what?
And while I know that the plot of a story depends entirely upon the writers, I’ll try giving you a few ideas which might help fuel your imaginations.
The Plot
First things first. In a short story, there has to be a beginning, followed by the body and then the ending. Every story has to have all the elements of a short story (which I’m sure you learned in grade 9); introduction, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action and finally a spectacular resolution. I’ll talk very briefly on each one of them.
1. Introduction
This is when you introduce your characters and the settings, and also a subtle idea about what this whole story is all about. Now from what I’ve observed, most of the students go head on with introducing the characters. For ex. Dechen is tall, has long black hair, usually wears long maxi skirts, she loves drawing and she has a driver’s license.
Uhh, what was that again? Sorry I fell asleep.
You ‘do not’ introduce your characters like that.
2. Conflict
The most important and also the most difficult (if you don’t include the part where you rack your brain coming up with a reasonable resolution) element is the conflict. A story must have an effective conflict because that’s what the entire story will revolve around while the characters struggle to find a solution to it. So you can’t simply go, “There were a cat and a dog. The cat loved the dog and the dog loved the cat. They lived happily ever after.”
Where’s the conflict in that?
3. Rising action
Once you have the conflict, the characters should work towards resolving it.
Rising action leads to the most intense part of the story, the climax.
4. Climax
Climax is the highest point in the story. Everything’s going as planned but suddenly something horrible happens and the next moment, your characters are in a real fix. They must decide what to do next and they don’t have a lot of time and options. That’s when you keep your readers so hooked to the story they won’t want to go have lunch until they’ve found out what the characters did next.
5. Falling action
A story doesn’t end right after the climax is over. Whatever happens after the main character solves the problem and is out of that fix is called the falling action.
6. The resolution
You cannot leave your readers hanging onto the climax. You must give them a concrete ending or else they’ll feel betrayed. They’ve followed your story all the way till the highest point and suddenly it’s “The cops burst open the door and Thinley froze. The End”. It’s like saying, “Yeah, take that, sucker” right in the readers’ face. You don’t want to do that. Not when your reader is a teacher who has been sitting on that hard wooden chair grading papers for hours.
What I’ve again observed is that students often tend to start writing the moment they get the prompt without having a clear idea of where they’re headed.
This will lead to a lot of “The hermit went inside the cave and never came back… No, not that… The hermit went inside the cave and never came back returned with a pot of gold… Uhh, nope… returned with a pot of gold an old book.” Getting the idea?
You don’t want your answer sheet to look like a rough work.
That is why, always plan before you begin writing. Create a quick web of ideas. Jot down your characters, the settings, conflict, resolution and the plot as a whole. That way, you won’t be lost in the middle of your story. You will be completely aware of where you’re going. Makes it a lot easier, especially if you’re inside a super silent classroom, sweating your palms out and wrecking your brain to rubble with three more pages of grammar questions and an essay to nail.
If you can, try for a twist in the end. It’s difficult, yes. So if you’re not very sure, it’s better you drop it. You can’t write a science fiction but turns out the robot was actually a fairy.
Uhh, robot and fairy? Naah, I’d rather the robot stayed a robot. Yeah.
The most popular stories students come up with are love stories. These are very common as well. You are often advised not to write love stories in exams. Because in the typical love stories, the only things that happen are;
1. Boy meets girl. They fall in love and start going out. The girl gets pregnant but the boy refuses to accept the baby. The girl commits suicide (or falls in love with somebody else). The boy regrets.
2. Girl meets boy. She falls in love but the boy doesn’t love her. She meets another boy. They fall in love. The first boy regrets. (or it can be the other way round)
3. Boy and girl meet each other. They fall in love. One of them cheats on the other. They break up. They can’t get over it and the one who cheated tries to win back the other. Things don’t work out or they do if the writer’s a happily-ever-after lover.
That’s it! Nothing compelling, really. So it’s always wise to avoid writing love stories in exams. Instead, you can always switch to themes regarding humanity, environment, culture, tradition, friendship, parent-children relationship etc.
But if you really want to write a love story, that’s okay. As long as you can come up with something different and new from the ones I stated above and you can pull it off without sounding mundane, that’s completely all right.
HOW ‘NOT’ TO BEGIN A STORY YOU’RE WRITING FOR EXAMS
The types of beginning you should avoid
1. You’re a high school student, so never begin a story with “Once upon a time…” Now, like I stated above, some of the tips might not apply to some good writers who are reading this post. You might argue that these things don’t really matter as long as the plot is good.
After all Paulo Coelho did begin his successful novel “Eleven minutes” with the same phrase.
But these tips are for students who’ve yet to learn how to write a decent short story for their English 1 paper. They don’t want to sound downright amateurish right from their opening line. So trying to pull it off like the great writers might be quite risky.
2. One of the most common beginnings I see beginner writers writing is the alarm going off waking up the protagonist.
Beep… beep… beep!
“Karma! Wake up!” yells my mom from the kitchen.
“Ugg!” I hide under the pillow. “Five more minutes.”
“You’ll be late for school.” Mom walks into my room and yanks the duvet off
me. “Get up!”
*Yawn!* I’m na go grab a cup of coffee.
3. Another frequently used beginning line is “Once in a village there lived a girl named Dechen.”
Oh gosh sweetheart, no. Not that, please. If you’re trying to keep your readers hooked, you’re doing a lousy job.
4. Do not describe everything about your main character right in the very first paragraph.
Tashi is the only son of the richest man in town so obviously he’s a spoilt brat. He loves to toy with girls’ hearts like they are soccer balls. He has long auburn hair and a few stubbles on that sexy chin of his.
Naah. That’s a major turn off. Try to slowly reveal things about what your characters look like and what they’re like as you go on writing more.
Some students I’ve seen memorize the beginning paragraph of somebody else’s story and write it in the exam as if it was their own. I’d rather you didn’t do that.
The brick-paved street is full of people today. Not that it’s any empty on any other day, but today the place is practically bustling with people trying to get a glimpse of what is going on. It’s a lovely summer day, only most of the sunlight is blocked by the thick black smoke rising from the mill on the eastern hill.
“Whatever is the matter with you, Miss. Abigail,” Says a man wearing a posh velvet tail coat. “Wouldn’t you calm down for a moment!”
“Good heavens, Lord Alden,” the lady in a silver carriage responds. “I am very much calmed down!”
“I can very well see that,” Lord Alden nods at the carriage driver. “Now, how about I suggest that you return home and leave this matter to me, Miss. Abigail.
Would that be all right with you?”
Just then an old man in ragged gho climbs out of the subway entrance. He sees another man wearing gho and greets him. “Kuzuzangpo la, Lopen.”
Seriously, the teachers aren’t stupid. They’ll know.
Many have this misconception that writing a good piece is including loads of fancy words. If you try to use super complicated bombastic words while writing stories;
1. There is near to no way your readers will completely understand your work. What’s the point of writing?
2. You might land up sounding downright amateurish, desperate to sound like a good writer.
It is an indubitably congenial witching hour. The air is clement and clammy due to the cumbersome deluge from twenty four hours ago. The orb of night has a silvery sheen to it. The vicinity is inarticulate, however, hundreds of phosphorescent bugs are sailing in the atmosphere.
Wow. That was…..amazing. But I’m sorry, what was that again? You lost me there. Let me first go grab my dictionary.
It is a pleasant night. The air is quite warm and also humid from the heavy downpour the previous day. The full moon hangs low in the starry sky. The neighborhood is silent, with only hundreds of fireflies floating in midair.
See? Nice and simple.
Your stories are never complete without a few dialogues. No, seriously.
Where’s the fun without your characters talking among themselves? Now from what I’ve observed, this is how some students write dialogues in their stories:
What said Karma. No this is wrong. But what else can we do replied Pema. We don’t have any choice.
Whoa-oh, what? This isn’t how you write dialogues. Nada.
Direct speeches (the words your characters say directly) should always be enclosed inside parenthesis/inverted commas (“…”). I’m betting you learned these in grade six.
“What?” said Karma. “No, this is wrong.”
“But what else can we do?” replied Pema. “We don’t have any choice.”
Dividing your story into small readable paragraphs also plays a vital role in keeping your readers interested. I mean, just imagine. Your teacher has forty more papers plus the ones from the rest of the sections to grade. Do you expect him/her to go through every piece properly? Ha. But they’re always going to want to finish the good ones.
Read. And then critically analyze.
First read a professionally written short story for the sake of knowing the plot. You’ll find loads in your English II textbook. Check the supplementary section as well.
Then re-read it. Only this time, carefully observe how the writer has begun, how he/she has moved forward, the transition from one scene to the next, the climax, the dialogues and the ending. Do the same thing with a few more stories.
You’ll start getting some ideas about what a typical short story looks like. I promise you.
Copyright (c) Kezang Choden, RTC, Thimphu, Bhutan, 2015
Vurrently she works in Royal Civil Service Commission
The writer blogs at http://kezangchoden.blogspot.com
Vurrently she works in Royal Civil Service Commission
The writer blogs at http://kezangchoden.blogspot.com