Pages 75-86 Notes

Michael Grossett (w/ help from Anna Benson)
Beginnings – Endings
78-82

Beginnings
• Stories→ beginning, middle, and end→ not entirely true
o Some have no conventional beginning or ending (what is conventional?)
o Ideas developed since childhood from stories we have heard.
• Vast majority of stories have some form of opening section; a middle, where characters, situations, and ideas are developed; and an ending which brings the story to a conclusion.

• Possible Story openers:
o Straight into narrative
o Scene is set by giving explicit background info.
o Reader informed using suggestions or implication rather than direct description
o Opening is direct, holds reader’s attention. Capturing using a word or phrase. (Hook)
• Opening of story is vital→readers attention must be captured immediately to have impact
o To encourage reader to continue
o Must set the stage for the story, give background info.
o Constraints of length under short story contributes to compression of info.
• Writer must quickly and efficiently create picture
o Writers of short stories→ “How much can we omit while at same time creating the impression of completeness and continuity?”
Narrative Line
• Short stories order events described in particular way
• Story line allows range of effects:
o Suspense, rising action to climax point, resolving problems, (mis)leading reader strategically, open ends for reader interpretation
o Writer must organize timeline and tell story in order that maximizes effects of writing.
• Often narrative structure→straightforward progression→moving towards conclusion
• Often complete resolution in end, but not always.
• Playing with structure of timeline can create certain effects.
• Focusing on Narrative structure:
o Make a list of he key events in the story
o Look at order in which events are related by writer
o Time structure of story – told in simple chronological order, or is there use of flashbacks or cutting back and forth?
o Any details or pieces of info. The writer admits or particular points that are emphasized.
• Short stories often have a moment in the plot upon which the whole structure of the story turns and which affects the outcome of tale.
o Sometimes trigger is trivial incident or experience→moment of revelation to central characters.
• Endings
• As many important ways to end as to begin. Endings are an important part of overall structure.
• Often point that reveals meaning, significant theme, or provide resolution.
• Endings with resolution should leave reader satisfied with sense that story is completed.
• Open ending should not answer questions, leave reading pondering story, or slightly unsettled. This could be the intended response.
• Some endings have a ‘sting in the tail’. This is distinct from a trick or twist at the end that allows reader to seProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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something fundamental to the story as a whole.

Notes on pages 83-85

NARRATVE VIEWPOINT

• The term viewpoint can encompass two similar but distinct ideas.
o In addressing viewpoint we need to consider the question of who is actually seeing the events described and who is narrating them.
o Narrator and person experiencing events could be one and the same or two very different entities.
o Internal narrators tend to describe events from directly within a story.
o External narratives come from “outside”.
• It is necessary to be sensitive to how writers use viewpoints within their stories.
o Be sensitive to subtle shifts and their effects on your perception of events.

CHARACTER

• When we read stories we create mental images of fictitious characters based on our real life experiences.
• We must not lose sight of the fact that they are the creations of the author.
• In man cases writers fabricate characters to serve particular functions and give impression to prove a point.
• We must consider how characters interlock with all the other elements of the story to create a unified whole/how they effect us.

LANGUAGE AND IMAGERY

• The style in which a story is written is the choices that a writer makes in the language they use and they specific ways they choose to use it.
• A story can be written plainly, intensely or intricately to effect the reader differently.
• Style is a key element in the ways authors manipulate the reader to feeling desired effects.