people – somewhere far away W r i t i n g
Final Essay Instructions:
Objective: You will write an original flash fiction story. You will write a creative story in 1200-1500 words minimum. There is no maximum word count for the essay. Follow this procedure:
• There needs to be a crafted story with a beginning, middle and end
• An unexpected twist in the story (irony) and
• the story needs to contain specific detail (research Sweetwater Texas images and information),
• color,
• nuance,
• at least 3 characters,
• at least 3 additional pictures that relate to the title image
• a central conflict.
• Remember to include a context/world/catalyst of the story. Either:
“Everything was fine until” or
“Nothing was fine until”
How it should look with everything together in one long document:
Summary Statement (see instructions below)
Essay
Outline Organization in detail
Works Cited in MLA format in proper format
All Rough Notes – Again, you do not have to add the actual rough drafts, only the notes. I do not grade these notes. They are added at the bottom for the accreditation of your essay.
What is the Summary?
OVERVIEW: The summary is the document that is added just below the title, title image. The summary is one paragraph possibly 2. There are about 150-200 words in the summary.
You may wish to name this the Summary, Forward, Prelude, Once Upon A Time or any other creative title you would like.
The purpose of the Summary is to provide the reader with the following information:
- A one sentence summary statement about the story.
- A short motif description – the world of the story. Where are you taking the reader?
- A short introduction to the main characters in the story
- In the end, these characters learn a valuable lesson that is… (thematic statement)
- The journey of the story involves the repetition of a symbol that represents the journey.
- A short statement about what you would like the reader to take away from the story.
- Then end with a cliff hanger that makes the reader want to carry on to learn what happens.
Here is an example – This is from the example I have mentioned throughout this module.
Knights in Special Armor
Summary
Welcome to Sweetwater, Texas, home of rough cowboys and rougher rodeo clowns, sometimes called bull riders. The world is slow in Sweetwater, with prairies and pastures, funny girls and serious boys and always, always…the rodeo. Charlie Patterson is a gifted athlete who dreams of life in the big city performing his daredevil acts in front of millions of people – somewhere far away from the boring little town life of Sweetwater. Throughout his journey, Charlie learns that all that glitters is not gold. As Charlie weaves his way through life, he takes many people in his wake. Brenda, who has adored him since grade school, rodeo managers who admire him, townspeople who worship him and Charlie | gathering people like tumbleweeds. This is Charlie’s stories, for all the ups and downs and, I hope, there is something in this fireball character that readers can see in themselves when they look in the mirror.