Story Crafting: Classroom-Ready Materials for Teaching Fiction Writing Skills in the High School Grades by Marks Arlene F

Author:Marks, Arlene F. [Marks, Arlene F.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Education
Published: 2014-04-08T04:00:00+00:00

WSR 16

WSR 17

Part III

Writing Longer Fiction

Grade 11 (16 Years) and up

Fiction is an organic creature—once a story has taken root in an author’s fertile mind, the tale can take on a life of its own, sprouting new characters and revealing unsuspected aspects of old ones, branching and intertwining plotlines, and stubbornly refusing to be resolved in one thousand or even five thousand words. That is when a student finds her/himself writing a novelette—or even a novel—instead of a short story.

This Writing Longer Fiction module is meant to provide additional writing skills for those students who have undertaken the challenge of creating longer fiction. Here they will learn how to deepen and strengthen characterizations, how to make optimum use of minor characters, how to weave in subplots, how to put settings to work, and how to build dramatic tension. In the process, they will also increase their literary and media awareness as they practice molding language into the most effective vehicle for their storytelling.

STORY LENGTHS

Short-short story—200 to 1,200 words (1 to 5 manuscript pages)

Short story—1,200 to 7,500 words (5 to 30 manuscript pages)

Novelette—7,500 to 20,000 words (30 to 80 manuscript pages)

Novella—20,000 to 35,000 words (80 to 140 manuscript pages)

Novel (hardcover)—35,000 to 100,000 words (140 to 400 manuscript pages)

Novel (softcover)—50,000 to 150,000 words (200 to 600 manuscript pages)

Novel for preteens—18,000 to about 35,000 words (72 to 140 manuscript pages)

A manuscript page is here considered to be typed or printed out on every second line, with an inch (2.54 cm) of margin all around, using a non-proportional typeface such as Courier or Pica (10 characters per inch).

Students who are interested in submitting material to a specific publication or publishing house should be encouraged to research that publisher’s guidelines, which should indicate the manuscript lengths required.

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