Creative Writing: Prompt #2

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Select ONE of the following options:

Option #1: (250-500 words):

Writers often write about traumatic national events. Your job: Write a short short story about a real tragic local, regional, or national event that has taken place somewhere in Macedonia from the perspective of a victim. You may use first (“I”) or third (“he/she”) person.

Option #2 (Refer to the Handout “Creative Writing: Story Structure,” page 7):

2a. Write an outline for a short short story, set somewhere in Macedonia, using the following outline structure:

• Clearly defined beginning
• Rising action
• Climax
• Epiphany
• Falling action
• Resolution/denouement

2b: In addition to #2a (250-500 words):

Write a short short story based on the outline you have developed from Option #2a. (If you don’t have time to do this part of Option #2, you can save it for another time. The outline itself may keep you busy enough.)

Option #3 (250-500 words):

Write a story in which the real YOU are the main character. However, the events in the story should be total fiction (in other words, a fictional lie).

Option #4 (250-500 words):

Rewrite Robert Frost’s poem “Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening” into a short story:

Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening

by

Robert Frost
Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark and deep.
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.

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From The Poetry of Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1923.

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NOTE: Don’t worry if you don’t finish this piece of writing, today or ever; you might discover that this prompt, for you, is a “false start.” Writers often experience a lot of false starts. ☺