Writing Fiction: Your Assignment

Hey students! I just wanted to write a quick post to help you with your language arts assignment.

First of all, your rough draft is due on Monday. If you finish it early, I can look at it on Friday and try to help you with corrections. The rough draft needs to be AT LEAST 4 pages long in your notebook. You should have a beginning, middle, and end. You should have characters with names. Your characters should have feelings. They should talk.

Pretend you are writing a story that you are going to read to the kids in Little School or second grade. It needs to be interesting!

Remember that your story should read like a real story, like a book. It should not be a summary. It should not be confusing. To make it easier, try reading a book right before you start writing. That will help you create the right "sound" to your writing.

Also, you should make your plot very interesting. It should all fit together. The problem at the beginning of the story should be the problem that is fixed at the end. There should only be one problem. If you write a long story and the main problem is about a fifth grade teacher who can't speak Spanish, at the end of the story the teacher needs to speak Spanish. That should be the most important part of the story. How did she learn Spanish? What were her problems while she was learning? What was hard? What was the biggest problem? How do we know she spoke Spanish at the end? How did she feel she reached her goal?

Make sure you don't add unnecessary details, like the name of the main character's best friend's sister's cousin's dog. No one cares.

Also, focus on time and setting. Because we have to write stories that are about the 15 year anniversary of Liceo Pino Verde OR the 200 year anniversary of Colombia's independence, parts of the story will need to be true. For example, you can't write a story about Colombia's independence, but have Colombia get independence in 1998. That won't make sense, because then Colombia has only had independence for 12 years, not 200!

Make sure you are using your best grammar, spelling, and words. You should use perfect English, but next week we will fix any grammar problems you have. Right now, I just want you to write the best story ever.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment or email me.