In my semester report, I will be going over three different main points that all fit together when writing a story.
The first point that I will talk about is the three forms of literature, the second topic will be genre, and the last topic will be parts of a story.
In this first point, I will be talking about the three forms of literature. The three forms of literature that I will talk about are novels, short stories, and novellas. I will give the definition and some examples of each type of literature.
Novels are the longest type of literature. When you think of your favorite book, that book is probably a novel, and that is because novels are among the most commonly thought of types of literature. The definition of a novel is a long prose (prose is the typical language that people use in speaking or writing) narrative that describes fictional characters and events. They are usually in the form of a sequential story.
Some well-known novels are: “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone” by J. K. Rowling, “A Tale of Two Cities” by Charles Dickens, and “The Little Prince (Le Petit Prince)” by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.
Short stories, just like novels, are written in prose. There is no set word length that defines a short story. Components (a brief story about something interesting or funny in a person’s life), yet to a far lesser degree than a novel.
Some examples of short stories include “To Build a Fire” by Jack London, “Rikki-Tikki-Tavi” by Rudyard Kipling, and “All Summer in a Day” by Ray Bradbury.
A novella features fewer conflicts than a novel, but it has more complicated ones than a short story. The story is generally longer than a short story, but it has a simplified plot line compared to a novel. Novellas are not classified by length, but rather by the complexity of the style of writing.
Some examples of novellas include “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens, and “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck.
Let’s say that you are writing a story, and you don’t know where to start. First, you will need to decide what form of literature you are going to write. It could be a novel, which is the most common, a short story, or a novella. I talked about that in the last section. Next, you will need to choose what genre you will want to write (there are so many different genres that I will not be going over all of them in this paper). This last part is not necessary for writing a story, but I believe that it is necessary to know, because if you know especially the author’s style, in this case your style of writing, then you will be able to know if you like your style of writing, or if you want to change your style of writing. I believe that it is essential for the writer to know even more about their writing, I believe that it will make the author an even better writer to know more about his/her writing. It will not hurt to know even more about writing, even if you are not a public author, so that is why I am going to be talking about parts of a story in this paper.
In section two, I will talk about genre and some types of genre, like comedy and fiction. I will also talk about some different genres that fall into the fiction category.
The definition of genre is the term for any category of literature or other forms of art or entertainment based on a set of stylistic criteria.
Comedy is one of the many different types of genres. Comedy is any discourse or work generally intended to be humorous or to amuse by causing laughter, especially in theatre, television, film, and stand-up comedy.
Some examples of comedy include: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, which is one of my favorite movies to watch, and Who’s Harry Crumb?, which is another favorite. Some examples of comedy movies include: “The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza” by Mac Barnett, and “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” by Douglas Adams.
Now I will talk about fiction and two of the genres that fit into the fiction category.
The definition of fiction is something that is feigned, invented, or imagined. Two of the genres that fit in the fiction category (that I will talk about) are science fiction and fantasy.
Science fiction is a story based on the effect of actual, imagined, or potential science, usually set in the future or on other planets.
Some examples of science fiction books include “The Dresden Files” by Jim Butcher, “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins, and “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle. Some of my favorite science fiction movies are as follows: Mission Impossible, The Matrix, Minority Report, The Fifth Element, Terminator, Inception, Independence Day, and Serenity.
The definition of fantasy is fiction with strange or otherworldly settings or characters; diction which invites suspension of reality.
Some examples of fantasy include “The Sword of Shannara” by Terry Brooks, “The Wheel of Time” by Robert Jordan, and the two series “The Belgariad” and “The Malloreon” by David Eddings.
In this next section, I will talk about the parts of a story and will give a definition for each of the five parts.
The first part of a story is the setting. The setting of a story is the time and place where a narrative unfolds, encompassing a story’s geographic location, historical period, and social environment.
Author style is a unique way that a writer uses language to express their ideas, encompassing (to form a circle about) choices in a word choice (diction), sentence structure (syntax), tone, and the use of literary devices. The reason I added author style is because I believe that as the writer, you should be able to know what your style as the author is. I believe that it will make you a better writer in the long run, and then you will know what your style is as the writer, and knowing that, you will be able to change your style if you want a different “voice” when writing. It also gives you more freedom when writing. That is why I added this section because I think that it is very important to know.
Character development is the process of a character evolving throughout a story, becoming more complex and realistic as they react to events, conflicts, and challenges.
Themes are ideas that are central to a story.
The last part of the story is the plot. Plot is the story’s series of events. A good way to think of a plot is thinking of it as the story’s skeleton: it defines what, when, and where of the story, which allows for everything else to develop, for example, the character and theme.
In the first section, I talked about the three forms of literature. In that section, I talked about novels (which are the most popular), short stories, and novellas.
In this section, I talked about genre and some categories that fit in the genre category. I talked about comedy and fiction. In the fiction category, I talked about science fiction (sci-fi), and fantasy, and I gave examples of all of the categories.
In the last section, I talked about the parts of a story, including setting, author style, character development, theme, and plot.
In conclusion, these three topics are the big three things I took away from the first semester of my English 7 class.
