Questions and Answers
Unit 9 Writing a Story
What Makes a Great Story Remember to follow these guidelines when you tell or write a story: Develop a plot with a beginning, a middle, and an end. Introduce the main characters, the setting, and the problem in the beginning in an interesting way. Show how the characters deal with the problem in the middle and how the problem works out in the end. Describe the events in an order that makes sense. Leave out events that are not important to the story. Use details and dialogue to show rather than tell about the characters and setting. Use details to make your story scary, funny, serious, or sad.
Start Thinking Who will be my audience? Will I write this story for my classmates? Younger students? My family? What will be my purpose? Do I want to make people laugh? Scare them? Take them on an adventure? How will I publish or share my story? Will I make a book with pictures? Put on a radio play? Act it out?
Choose Your Story Idea List 5 story ideas you could write about (a bargain)
Who? Where? What could happen? Dog & cat Food, yard owners Have a disagreement Amanda At home Broke a promise chores Lion & tiger Jungle compete Jake Littered A magic curse Julie & her parents job Job for prom dress
Story Ideas Character? Find a jeweled box Does next? Secret message? Jake Internet, police Money from a bank robbery Sarah Advice & news ad Jewelry & love note, initials
Timmy Visits address Address, name, Lucy Internet, phone book Key, name
Jake characteristics Carefree about his appearance, usually wore blue jeans and a t-shirt His bedroom is cluttered. Dirty laundry is thrown about the room and unmade bed Extends to his schoolwork; incomplete homework; doesn’t prioritize “Why should I make my bed when I’m going to sleep in it tonight?” “I won’t use math when I grow up.” After he eats a McDonalds he litters; he is lazy He doesn’t sort out the garbage into recyclables such as newspapers, plastics, aluminum etc. leaves the faucet on Strange dream turns into an eagle; feathers Meets the eagle who tries to teach him about protecting the environment; doesn’t listen Mounds of garbage are blocking the streets and building. People are being smothered by garbage. Black lakes, and dead fish, dark clouds and thunderstorms.
Edgar the Eagle Endangered Tries to teach Jake the importance of protecting the environment and recycling Teaches Jake through a dream Turns Jake into an eagle
Planning Characters Give your story at least one main character and as many minor characters as it needs. Use details. Help your readers get to know your main character inside and out. Here are some ideas to get you started. What does your character look like? Describe your character’s face, hair, clothes, and other features What is your character’s personality? Is he or she smart? Funny? Dreamy? What does your character say? Does he or she recite poetry? Make jokes? What are your character’s feelings? Is he or she curious? Lonely? Brave? How does your character act? Does she or he whistle? Shuffle? Pout? Blush? What are your character’s interests? Does he or she collect posters? Love sports? Think of 2 main characters that you might like to use in your story.
Planning Setting and Plot The setting for a story is where and when the story tkes place. A good story has a plot that focuses on a problem The plot has three main parts: a beginning, a middle, and an end Beginning: Introduces the main characters, introduces the setting, and introduces the problem Middle: tells how the characters deal with the problem End: explains how the problem works out Make a story map for your story. Plan the beginning, the middle, and the end. Add notes about the characters, the setting, and the problem
Developing Characters Details Once you have planned what your characters are like, you can Give Details. Describe how your characters look, sound, and act. Example: Will Trek slung a stuffed backpack over his shoulders, looped three cameras around his neck, grabbed two heavy suitcases, and slapped on his biggest smile before anyone could say, “Let’s go!”
Developing Characters Actions Show characters through their actions. Let the characters’ actions reveal their personalities Telling: Mr. Trek told his family about the city’s famous sites. Showing: In his I-know-everything voice, Mr. Trek rattled off fifty zillion facts as he dragged his dazed family all over the city.
Developing Characters Dialogue Show characters through dialogue. You can show your characters’ thoughts, feelings, and personalities by what they say Telling: Liane is always bragging. Showing: “My family take trips all the time, and we see the best places. Pretty soon we’ll start space traveling, I bet,” Liane sighed. Write some dialogue for the main characters in your story, Use it to show what your characters are like
Developing the Plot - The Beginning Catch your audience’s interest in the first sentence. Beginnings such as My story is about … are boring. A good beginning makes your readers wonder. What is going to happen? Here are some ideas for how to begin. Describe the setting: Long vines looped around tree trunks and snaked along the ground in the thick rain forest. Describe a character: Sneaky Pete twisted the tips of his mustache and flashed a yellow-toothed grin at Clyde Clemhopper. Describe an action: The white horse pushed its hind legs against the ground and flew majestically into the clouds. Write three beginnings for your story. Choose the beginning you like best.
Developing the Plot - The Middle Include only that events that are important to the main idea. If your story is about a baseball game, include only important events related to the game. Don’t include everything the characters did before, during, and after the game. Remember to begin a new paragraph for each new event.
Write the events in an order that makes sense. Use time clues such as before, after, later, and the next day, to make the order clear. What are some possible events for your story?
Develop the Plot - The Ending A good ending makes sense of how the problem works out. But the limb broke and the birds fell to the ground into the black soot, which burned their beautiful feathers into charcoal. If the story had ended there, you might have wondered. Then what happened to the birds? The last paragraph tells you. It finishes the story. And their voices were gone. They couldn’t get any sound out, until one day they learned to say “Caw, Caw.” For this, they were ashamed and never returned to the beautiful forest they once knew.
Writing with Voice As the writer, you can give your characters a voice by letting your audience know your characters’ thoughts, feelings, and personalities. You use another voice to tell the story. The details you write help to make the story sound sad, or funny, or scary. It’s up to you! Weak Voice: Once there was a big pig. He was pink. He went up in the air. He fell down. Strong Voice: Once there lived a roly-poly young pig. He was a lovely pink fellow. UP in the air he flew. DOWN to the ground he crashed!
Writing a Play A play is a story written to be performed on a stage by actors. The author tells the story through the characters’ words and actions The list of characters tells who is in the play The props are the items the characters will use A scene presents the action that happens in one place at a certain time The setting tells where and when the action takes place The stage directions tell what the characters do, how they do it, and how they speak The dialogue is what the characters say. It can reveal what they are thinking, seeing, and feeling
How to Write a Play
Revising Strategies Elaborating Word Choice: Exact words help your audience picture the characters, setting, and actions in your story Without Exact Words: Lindy’s uncle completed the contest quickly while people watched. With exact words: Lindy’s favorite uncle completed the skateboarding contest in record time while her friends watched Find two places in your story where you can add exact nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs
Elaborating Details Insert prepositional phrases to add more information to a sentence Without Details: Carlos wrote a story. Elaborated with Details: Carlos wrote a story with his friends for a class assignment. Add at least two prepositional phrases to your story
Sentence Fluency Avoid stringy sentences. Your audience may get lost if your sentence has too many ands. Rewrite your sentence to make it clearer. Stringy Sentence: Jessica had a lot of trading cards and one was old and a collector offered her fifty dollars for it. Smoother Sentences: Jessica had a lot of trading cards. One was old. A collector offered her fifty dollars for it. Jessica had a lot of trading cards. One was old, and a collector offered her fifty dollars for it. Look for stringy sentences in your story, and rewrite them to make them clearer
Proofreading Checklist Indent each paragraph? Begin and end sentences correctly? Write dialogue correctly? Make subjects and verbs agree? Spell all words correctly?
Proofread Grammar and Spelling Connections Writing Dialogue: Put quotation marks around a speaker’s exact words. Put the end punctuation inside the quotation marks Example: “Watch out for the runaway horses!” warned Jake Johnson. Theresa said slyly, “I know who can solve the mystery.” Subject-Verb Agreement: Use singular verbs with singular subjects. Use plural verbs with plural subjects. Spelling Long i: The long i sound is often spelled, i, igh, or i-consonant-e Example: mild, slight, strike
Publish Your Story Make a neat final copy of your story. Be sure you have fixed all mistakes Title your story. Make your audience curious with a title that attracts their attention Publish or share your story. Think about your audience to help you decide how to share. Write about your writing experience: What did you enjoy most about writing your story? What was hard to do? How does this story compare with other papers you have written?
Ideas for Sharing Write it: Make your story into a picture book for a young child Plan what part of the story you will put on each page Include interesting pictures to illustrate the story Make an eye-catching cover with a title Write your story in the form of a comic strip Say It: With a partner or small group, read your story aloud as though it is on the radio Show It: Make puppets of the main characters Act out your story with props
Writing a Play
How to Write a Play: Think Think about your audience. Choose a story idea for a short play that will interest or entertain them. You will need characters who do a lot of talking. Include only a few characters and one or two settings. You can use a T-chart to help you list details about your characters.
Mr. Doe Nut Mrs. Ham Burger Own a food shop Owns a food shop Competes with Ms. Ham Burger for business Competes with Mr. Doe Nut for business forgiving prankster
How to Write a Play: Plan Plan your play. Just like a story, a play has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Look at the story map below to help you plan your play. Add more details about your characters, setting, and plot as you plan.
Character Setting Plot Beginning
Middle
End
How to Write a Play: Plan Plan your play. Just like a story, a play has a beginning, a middle, and an end. Look at the story map below to help you plan your play. Add more details about your characters, setting, and plot as you plan.
Character Setting Plot Beginning
Middle
End
Write Your Play List your characters Write stage directions telling what actions the characters will be taking at the beginning of the play Write the dialogue. Write it the way you think the characters would talk. The dialogue should help tell the story Write more stage directions throughout the play to tell how the characters talk and act. If the action moves from one place to another, divide your play into scenes. Describe each setting in stage directions. End your play in a way that wraps up the action. When you have finished, write BLACKOUT or CURTAIN
Write Your Play: Revise
Revise your play. Ask yourself these questions: Is the plot clear? Does the characters’ dialogue sound natural? Should any characters be taken out or added? Do the final events make the play feel finished? Proofread your play. Use a dictionary to check your spelling. Check that you have included punctuation such as exclamation points and question marks. These will help the actors read their lines with feeling Make a neat final copy Perform your play for an audience, such as your classmates.
Stuck for an idea? Try one of these: A favorite story or scene from a book A story of your own An exciting, funny, or surprising experience that you or someone else had
Dramatizing Actors dramatize, or act out, characters from stories, poems, or plays. They do this by speaking and moving the way they think the characters would Put yourself in your character’s shoes. What is the character like? How does the character feel? Use your speaking voice. Change the volume, rate, pitch, and tone of your voice to show your character’s feelings and mood. A shaky, high voice could show fear. A low, loud voice might show courage. Use facial expressions. A wink might tell your audience that your character is up to something.
Guides for Dramatizing Use movements instead of words to show what you mean. A character might shrug his shoulders when he doesn’t know how to answer a question. Speak clearly but naturally. Think about your audience and the place in which you will be performing. Be sure everyone can hear you. Practice reading your lines. Write key words or entire lines on note cards. Use these if you need a hint to remember your lines. Volume - means loudness Rate - means speed Pitch - means how high or low it sounds Tone - means mood Choose a poem or part of a story or play to dramatize.
Comparing Stories in Books and Movies
Movies are often made from stories that were first written in books. Often moviemakers change the stories. That’s because books and movies tell stories in different ways. Some of the reasons why telling a story in a book is different from telling it in a movie include:
Books vs Movies Reading the Story Watching the Story Books use words to tell the story. The words describe the characters and the setting. Readers use the words to create pictures in their minds. Movies use images and sounds to tell the story. The audience sees and hears the characters. Often, the action takes place in settings built by the moviemakers. Readers can tell what a character is thinking or feeling from what the writer says about the character. Actors show what the characters are thinking and feeling. They look, speak, and behave the way they think the characters would. Readers can flip back and forth in a book to reread or to look ahead in the story. They can read the book as quickly or as slowly as they like. People watching a movie in a theater cannot go back to watch something they have already seen. They also must wait to see what happens next and how the story ends.
Thinking Further Written stories can be long or short, but most movies are about 2 hours long. When a story is too long for a movie, moviemakers may choose to leave out parts of it. They may add scenes when a story is too short. Plot: Are there events in the book that weren’t in the movie? If so, why do you think they were left out? Are there events in the movie that weren’t in the book? If so why do you think they were added? Does the movie end the same way as the book?
Guides for Comparing Stories in Books and Movies Characters: Are there any characters in the book who don’t appear in the movie? Are there any characters in the movie who aren’t in the book? Are the main characters the same in both versions? Are they different? In what ways? Setting: Is the setting in the book the same as in the movie? If the setting is different, how does it change the story? Which did you like better, the book or the movie? Why? What were the biggest differences between the book and the movie? Why do you think these changes were made?
Apply It Choose a book you have read that has been made into a movie. Some suggestions are: Jumanji Harriet the Spy The Secret Garden Sarah, Plain, and Tall James and the Giant Peach
