Your Destination: Learn to write a short story that will teach the reader a lesson or raise awareness about an issue you are passionate about.
Travel Kit: notebook, Pen or pencil
On the Path:
Step 1 Choose what kind of character development you want your main character to go through.
Step 2 Create a story outline by thinking about the beginning, middle, and end. Do not worry about being too detailed in this stage. Have a general idea of what will happen, and you can list this outline instead of writing full sentences or paragraphs.
Step 3 Where does the story start? To grab the reader’s attention, you must get them caught up with what happened before the main event of the story. Starting the story with the character in the middle of a situation would get the reader hooked into what is going on, and then later give a backstory as an explanation to catch the reader up.
Step 4 Once you complete writing your draft, go back and edit it for any mistakes or changes you want to make.
Group Tour: Ask a classmate or friend to help you. Getting feedback on your work is always helpful.
Extend Your Journey: Try adding more to the short story, and then you can make it into a novel. You can go more in depth about the main character and develop other characters’ backstories.
Learn new vocabulary: backstory
Resources and Visual Aids: Access our blogpost, How to Write a Social Change Short Story or Novel: https://artsphere.org/blog/write-a-social-change-short-story-or-novel/
Watch Our Instructional Video