How to Begin Your Story

The Orientation... The first few paragraphs of your short story tell the audience: Who is in the story When the story is happening Where the story is taking place What is going on (introduces the conflict or crises)

Introducing Characters... You can introduce your characters by establishing some basic facts about them: Their name Their age Occupations Likes/Dislikes Physical Characteristics Personality

Introducing the Setting... Describe the surroundings Ensure it is evocative: Use verbs and modifiers (adverbs, adjectives) Incorporate the senses: taste, smell, touch, sight, sound Use similes, metaphors

Where to start? Describe a place Describe a character Describe an object/action Begin with a thoughtful comment

Describe a Place: “The Fall of the House of Usher” by Edgar Allen Poe DURING the whole of a dull, dark, and soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I had been passing alone, on horseback, through a singularly dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of the evening drew on, within view of the melancholy House of Usher. I know not how it was —but, with the first glimpse of the building, a sense of insufferable gloom pervaded my spirit. I say insufferable; for the feeling was unrelieved by any of that half-pleasurable, because poetic, sentiment, with which the mind usually receives even the sternest natural images of the desolate or terrible. I looked upon the scene before me —upon the mere house, and the simple landscape features of the domain —upon the bleak walls —upon the vacant eye-like windows —upon a few rank sedges —and upon a few white trunks of decayed trees —with an utter depression of soul which I can compare to no earthly sensation more properly than to the after-dream of the reveller upon opium —the bitter lapse into everyday life-the hideous dropping off of the reveller upon opium —the bitter lapse into everyday life —the hideous dropping off of the veil.

Describe a Character: “The Musgrave Ritual” by Arthur Conan Doyle An anomaly which often struck me in the character of my friend Sherlock Holmes was that, although in his methods of thought he was the neatest and most methodical of mankind, and although also he affected a certain quiet primness of dress, he was none the less in his personal habits one of the most untidy men that ever drove a fellow-lodger to distraction. Not that I am in the least conventional in that respect myself. The rough-and-tumble work in Afghanistan, coming on the top of a natural Bohemianism of disposition, has made me rather more lax than befits a medical man. But with me there is a limit, and when I find a man who keeps his cigars in the coal-scuttle, his tobacco in the toe end of a Persian slipper, and his unanswered correspondence transfixed by a jack-knife into the very centre of his wooden mantelpiece, then I begin to give myself virtuous airs. I have always held, too, that pistol practice should be distinctly an open-air pastime; and when Holmes, in one of his queer humours, would sit in an arm-chair with his hair-trigger and a hundred Boxer cartridges, and proceed to adorn the opposite wall with a patriotic V. R. done in bullet-pocks, I felt strongly that neither the atmosphere nor the appearance of our room was improved by it.

Describe an Object/Action: “The Hedgehog” by Saki A "Mixed Double" of young people were contesting a game of lawn tennis at the Rectory garden party; for the past five-and-twenty years at least mixed doubles of young people had done exactly the same thing on exactly the same spot at about the same time of year. The young people changed and made way for others in the course of time, but very little else seemed to alter. The present players were sufficiently conscious of the social nature of the occasion to be concerned about their clothes and appearance, and sufficiently sport-loving to be keen on the game. Both their efforts and their appearance came under the fourfold scrutiny of a quartet of ladies sitting as official spectators on a bench immediately commanding the court. It was one of the accepted conditions of the Rectory garden party that four ladies, who usually knew very little about tennis and a great deal about the players, should sit at that particular spot and watch the game. It had also come to be almost a tradition that two ladies should be amiable, and that the other two should be Mrs. Dole and Mrs. Hatch-Mallard.      "What a singularly unbecoming way Eva Jonelet has taken to doing her hair in," said Mrs. Hatch-Mallard; "it's ugly hair at the best of times, but she needn't make it look ridiculous as well. Some one ought to tell her."

A Thoughtful Comment: “The Ultimate Ritual” by Jim Westergren Aliath felt the wind blowing through his white bear. The cold air made an effect on him even though he was a High-Elf. He was the last person existing who had been around since more than thousand years - almost the beginning of time. He has done everything that could be imagined, seen man performing all kinds of action but yet the basic riddle of man he could not comprehend - why was man fighting each other? Why? Aliath felt ashamed to not know the answer. Who else would know, if not him? And this had been the motivation for his travel. He will carry out his ultimate ritual - his life achievement. Then he will get his answers.

Task 1 This place is going to be the scene for your story. Describe it in detail as your introduction.

Task 2 Choose one of these characters and describe them as the opening of your story

Task 3 Describe the ritual in detail as the opening of your story