Name:Date:Period:Point Value: _____

Creative Short Story Pre-Writing

Packet

Instructions: This is a pre-writing packet meant to help you organize and work out the details of your creative short story.

Remember: A creative short story should be an original work with characters of your own creation resolving a conflict of your own choosing.

Genre

There are several different types of genre within fiction. Write down an example of a movie or book for each type of genre.

Science Fiction:

Fantasy:

Horror:

Family Drama:

Super Hero:

Romance:

Action/Adventure:

Mystery:

Comedy:

What type of genre would you like to use for your short story and why?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

ConflictThere are five different types of conflict. Write down an example of a movie or book that uses each specific conflict.

Person vs. person:

Person vs. self:

Person vs. society:

Person vs. nature:

Person vs. technology:

What type of conflict would you like to use in your story and why?

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________________.

PlotBased upon your responses so far, brainstorm five potential plots you could use for a story. Use only one sentence to describe each plot.

CharacterA great story must have relatable, charismatic characters. List three reasons why each of these characters are so popular.

Superman:1.

2.

3.

Mickey Mouse:1.

2.

3.

Shrek:1.

2.

3.

Harry Potter:1.

2.

3.

Hint: Remember these qualities as you develop your own characters.

Create Your Own Characters

Instructions: Create at least four potential characters that you may use within your creative short story. Detail each character, and draw and color each character as well. This is a prewriting activity, so all characters do not have to be used in the final draft and changes can always be made later.

Character #1

Name:

Age:

Race:

Hair Color:

Eye Color:

Height:

Weight:

Religious beliefs (if any):

Occupation:

Description of personality: Draw and color your character in the above box

Character #2Name:

Age:

Race:

Hair Color:

Eye Color:

Height:

Weight:

Religious beliefs (if any):

Occupation:

Description of personality:

Draw and color your character in the above box

Character #3

Name:

Age:

Race:

Hair Color:

Eye Color:

Height:

Weight:

Religious beliefs (if any):

Occupation:

Description of personality:

Draw and color your character in the above box

Character #4

Name:

Age:

Race:

Hair Color:

Eye Color:

Height:

Weight:

Religious beliefs (if any):

Occupation:

Description of personality:

Draw and color your character in the above box

Setting

Instructions: Sometimes a setting is just as important as a character to a short story. Below are several possible settings for your short story. Circle all that you would like to work into your short story.

New York City A swamp A planet in outer space

A bedroom Inside a volcano

A jungle

A backyard Inside the human body

A church A desert Another dimension

A school

A remote village A dance competition

A warzone A car Along a river A basketball court

A forest A baseball field

A reality TV show

An abandoned

barn

A city in another country

At the Earth’s core

Any settings you want to use that aren’t listed? List them here:

Theme

Instructions: Theme is an important lesson learned from a story. Oftentimes the author feels very strongly about this message. List five personal values that you think are important in the word balloons below.

Now that you’ve listed five personal

values, put an “x” next to the one

you think you’d like to use as a

theme in your story.

ResolutionIntroduction

Climax

Falling

Action

Rising

Action

Instructions: You’ve brainstormed some plot ideas. Now pick one of those ideas and use it to develop the basic structure of your plot. Try to use only one sentence for each box. Keep it simple! You can always change your ideas later.

Hint: Just like you would never drive across the nation without directions, you should never try to write a story without understanding the ending. The story will always be richer if the writer has a good idea how it ends as it is being written.

Introduction:

Rising Action: Falling Action:

Climax:

Resolution:

You are now ready to write! You’ve done everything necessary to plan a wonderful short story. To review, you’ve

Decided upon a genre Picked a conflict style Brainstormed and constructed a plot Developed both main and supporting characters Analyzed and selected a theme Settled on a setting

But remember, even though you’ve done a great job with the prewriting stage, there’s more to be done as you perfect your short story. Of course, you’ll need to

Write the rough draft Have a peer edit and critique it Read it out loud to yourself in order to edit and critique it as well Make all of the necessary revisions Read it over one last time

After having done all of this, you’ll be ready to publish! Publishing opportunities include

Handing it in to your teacher Running off copies for your friends and family on a Xerox machine Posting it to your blog Publishing it as an e-book through Amazon Direct Publishing, which is just one

example of an e-publisher Use a Print-On-Demand publisher to produce a hard copy book. Examples

include Amazon’s CreateSpace and iUniverse Seek out a traditional publisher such as Random House, Harper Collins, or

Simon and Schuster

Write on!