English Short Story

Hayezer

Hey does anyone have any stock short story ideas? Like just real general storylines, as I often struggle to come up with ideas on the spot . I don't plan on learning off essays, I just want a couple of general stories that aren't cliched and could maybe slot into a number of different story titles.

I'll try and contribute if I think of any!

SureYWouldntYa

Ya cant beat a love story between the ugly guy and the beautiful girl

finality

Mine are usually psychological thrillers. :L In the pre I wrote about a woman struggling to stay sane after an oppressive government imprisoned her husband because he was seen to be opposed to them. :P

Hayezer

finality wrote: »

Mine are usually psychological thrillers. :L In the pre I wrote about a woman struggling to stay sane after an oppressive government imprisoned her husband because he was seen to be opposed to them. :P

Sounds a bit heavy for me finality :P! Any other ideas people?

Wesc.

Haha, mine always turn out to be extremely tragic :P I try to make them as gripping as possible. The weather plays a key role here too. In the mocks I wrote about two young boys running home from a hurling match, they took a short-cut and eventually regretted it because one of them dies on the way.... I made it really dramatic too!


If you're stuck for ideas you could always read newspapers or even ones online. There are tonnes of stories out there and by reading of more and more you'll become much more imaginative!

Bears and Vodka

Haha Wesc., sounds like a horror movie! xP

I think examiners are sick and tired of stories that mimick console games or movies. Like a child dies on the way home from a hurling match. Thats very tragic and unlikely if thinking in terms of real life.

Examiners prefer more realistic tales, told tastefully. Or if you want to write a gripping story go for something historical, yet real.
Heres a few ideas:

A girl is moving away from home to go to college. She is worried about lots of things like what her flatmates gonna be like, will she make good friends, will she be able to cope with college work. If you tell it in an interesting way it will be a very nice read.

If you are looking for gripping stories then: Nazi Germany. A small Jewish boy and his family are taken away to a concentration camp. While in the train carriage the small boy finds a spot where the timber panels of the carriage are rotting away and he picks them and eventually makes a hole big enough to escape. He falls out and hides in the forest but the Nazis are chasing him with dogs. And the ending can be whatever. Still a tragic story but fairly realistic and probably happened at some stage during the Holocaust. Plenty to write about if you're doing history.

Another great essay I saw once was written from the perspective of a small boy who was going to Spain on holiday for the first time. To a grown up the experience is very ordinary but to a small boy! Imagine the fascination looking at airplanes, pilots, a different country etc. Can be a very nice descriptive essay!

spurious

'...and then I woke up and realised it was all a dream'.

Words to give examiners nervous breakdowns.

smurphy11

also indirectly try to relate to the examiner, as strange as this sounds, such as briefly mentioning something teachers feel strongly about like how teachers dont get paid enough it never does any harm,

Mysteriouschic

Some short stories might not work well with the title if you learn one off.
You could just be given a image or another title which doesn't fit the story.
You could try practicing writing short stories and planning in the amount of time and then learning descriptive verbs, and make sure it has a beginning , middle and end , a easy to follow plot.

ChemHickey

spurious wrote: »

'...and then I woke up and realised it was all a dream'.

Words to give examiners nervous breakdowns.

Hahah hilarious..

Earlier in the year I wrote one in which I was in a haunted mansion (all mine seem to be horror-orbited) but in the end, it was pretty much like "The House of Usher" by Poe, and I was dead all along (saw my corpse)- I was a ghost... pretty weird... but the teacher liked it... she's a little strange too though.....

Manic2

I'm totally protective over my short stories, if I get a good idea it's like a treasure and I keep it.

However I always go for more unconventional plots, usually are quite shocking. Like one was where I was in the mind of a murderer, as he sat in a the room with his dead fiance and the man she was seeing behind his back, and just his twisted thoughts as the police came. :P

0mega

I think that if you're going to go down the gripping/dramatic route, don't have some kind of accident or murder as it's all been done before.

A descriptive essay with a sinister/eerie element could be just as effective and stand out as original.

Bears and Vodka

Lads, can you tell a few storyline ideas that ye are NOT overprotective of? :rolleyes: I'm just really interested what people write about. 'Eerie, dramatic, gripping' - that's all very general. Any actual storylines that you can share? I always find myself thinking for ages on what to write and then I have to rush! Not great at all.

Mysteriouschic

subz3r0 wrote: »

Lads, can you tell a few storyline ideas that ye are NOT overprotective of? :rolleyes: I'm just really interested what people write about. 'Eerie, dramatic, gripping' - that's all very general. Any actual storylines that you can share? I always find myself thinking for ages on what to write and then I have to rush! Not great at all.

I'm the same but I'm worse at personal essays, my teacher actually told me to stick to the short stories. I can write a okay short story if there is a good title.
If the title isn't good it takes me a while to think of something to write. I've begun timing myself with the set 80mins and I have to plan and write an essay in that amount of time to practise. How does everyone develop the character? sometimes I don't describe the character enough or give them any real character traits.

Canard

Sometimes I barely even have a character...I used to do stories with tons of dialogue and usually got B1s or B2s and once got an A1 (but in fairness when I read back over it, it was pretty kick ass ). I switched to a more descriptive style and it's great for showing vocabulary and things like that, I dont think you need character development - after all, many short stories are mainly descriptive and the exam is testing "aesthetic use of language".

leaveiton

Don't have much to contribute as far as ideas go, but if you find it very difficult to think of ideas then why do the short story at all? I can never think of anything to write about myself, so I find it a lot easier to do the personal essay/speech option.

Bears and Vodka

Patchy~ wrote: »

Sometimes I barely even have a character...I used to do stories with tons of dialogue and usually got B1s or B2s and once got an A1 (but in fairness when I read back over it, it was pretty kick ass ). I switched to a more descriptive style and it's great for showing vocabulary and things like that, I dont think you need character development - after all, many short stories are mainly descriptive and the exam is testing "aesthetic use of language".

I'm actually craving for an A1 for an essay but the rumour is my teacher never gave anyone an A so far. The most I ever got from him was a B1 a couple of times and both times he said ''in the exam situation, that will probably get an A''. I'm writing a descriptive essay now, doing my best, so there's hoping

leaveiton wrote: »

but if you find it very difficult to think of ideas then why do the short story at all? I can never think of anything to write about myself, so I find it a lot easier to do the personal essay/speech option.

You need ideas if you're writing ANY type of essay. For example I did a personal essay 'on a place I consider beautiful', I had a really good think about it before choosing a place. Any essay requires planning and a lot of people like me just take too long.

Canard

Tbh I cant do anything but the stories - I tried to do a personal essay and it just requires too much fact or something, and I cant get past an opening paragraph. :S Stories can be whatever you like (to a degree), but one year the titles were horrendous - think it was 2005. Still would have opted for it over the essays, but thats just me.

subz3r0 wrote: »

I'm actually craving for an A1 for an essay but the rumour is my teacher never gave anyone an A so far. The most I ever got from him was a B1 a couple of times and both times he said ''in the exam situation, that will probably get an A''. I'm writing a descriptive essay now, doing my best, so there's hoping

Hahaha yeah my teacher's done that a few times kinda - he reads my story, decides its B1 standard, gets down to mechanics and since he cant take marks off there he has to redo it :pac: I got 83% in my modern love story and I could see it had added up to 85 but he scribbled it out :P
Highest I got was 94, then I got 91 once and 84 for a really good one but my teacher has a history degree, and I do history, but I messed up simple WWII facts that just ruined it for him so yeah, I was crushed :L

Mysteriouschic

I always find with personal essays I can't think of enough to say, or sometimes I can't put enough feeling into it depending on the title .
The speech would be what I'd do if I couldn't think of a good story .

leaveiton

subz3r0 wrote: »

You need ideas if you're writing ANY type of essay. For example I did a personal essay 'on a place I consider beautiful', I had a really good think about it before choosing a place. Any essay requires planning and a lot of people like me just take too long.

Of course you do, I wasn't disputing that. It's just I often see people here, or hear people in school, saying that they can never think of anything to write for the short story and it just makes me wonder why you'd limit yourself to that one option if you find it so difficult. (Using you in the general sense, not you personally. Same with the other post actually, that might not have been clear, sorry!) In general, I just think it's easier to think of something to write about for a personal essay/speech, rather than trying to think of an idea for a plot, characters, how you'll develop the situation, and all the other stuff that goes along with the short story.

Bears and Vodka

A short story is the most challenging essay type to do because top students in the country tend to opt for it and the competition is strong. Also it requires more skill than other types because you have to have a good story, interesting characters, clear structure, good control of dialogue and very good descriptive skill.
A lot of students have this notion from the Junior Cert that you have to write a short story. They dont even look at other titles.
Personally, I'm best at descriptive essays but they don't come up every year so I'll probabaly end up doing the short story which is my second best.

For both the short story and the descriptive essay you must have a good vocabulary. Like I'm doing a descriptive essay now and I'm using words like 'gamut', 'metropolis', 'suburbia', 'inveterate', 'impecuniosity', spectrum' etc. In a personal essay or a talk you can do fine by using everyday vocabulary. So yeah for me short story is the most challenging.

bscm

Can't say I can give many examples. I loved the short story option throughout 5th and 6th Year. Got an A1 in the exam and I must have gotten close to full marks in the essay because I didn't get to finish question B

Go for the unexpected. Read the titles before you begin and think of ideas as you go. Read loads before the exam, you'll pick up little locations, examples for characters, scenarios etc which you can mix together and make your own.

Don't go for the obvious stories. Stay away from "teenager goes to college", "a day at the match", "first holiday", because unless you're a prolific author, you're going to end up sounding mundane despite your best efforts not to. Don't develop characters, it defeats the purpose of a short story. If your characters change drastically by the end of the story, then you've gone wrong. It's ok for a little development in one character, you need to set the scene, but don't give them too much of a life story.

Make it exciting if you can. The examiner would love to read about a 40 year old man escaping from being held hostage for 5 years (maybe elude as to why he had been captured, but don't give it away) after 100 speeches on "Effective ways to eradicate racism in schools".

Mysteriouschic

Would you say a speech is the easy to get marks in?
I was thinking of doing that instead of a story rather then risk not writing a good story even though I like writing them , the speech would be my next choice. I just don't know if it'd worth the risk to write a narrative on the day unless a really good title comes up. I wouldn't do any of the others like the article , diary or the personal essay.

ElvisChrist6

subz3r0 wrote: »

A short story is the most challenging essay type to do because top students in the country tend to opt for it and the competition is strong. Also it requires more skill than other types because you have to have a good story, interesting characters, clear structure, good control of dialogue and very good descriptive skill.
A lot of students have this notion from the Junior Cert that you have to write a short story. They dont even look at other titles.
Personally, I'm best at descriptive essays but they don't come up every year so I'll probabaly end up doing the short story which is my second best.

For both the short story and the descriptive essay you must have a good vocabulary. Like I'm doing a descriptive essay now and I'm using words like 'gamut', 'metropolis', 'suburbia', 'inveterate', 'impecuniosity', spectrum' etc. In a personal essay or a talk you can do fine by using everyday vocabulary. So yeah for me short story is the most challenging.

Wow! They're fancy words! Not only will you have an A1, but you've gotten your point across so well!

leaveiton

subz3r0 wrote: »

A short story is the most challenging essay type to do because top students in the country tend to opt for it and the competition is strong. Also it requires more skill than other types because you have to have a good story, interesting characters, clear structure, good control of dialogue and very good descriptive skill.
A lot of students have this notion from the Junior Cert that you have to write a short story. They dont even look at other titles.
Personally, I'm best at descriptive essays but they don't come up every year so I'll probabaly end up doing the short story which is my second best.

Exactly! That's why it makes me wonder why so many people opt for it if they find it difficult. It's the hardest option, especially under pressure.

For both the short story and the descriptive essay you must have a good vocabulary. Like I'm doing a descriptive essay now and I'm using words like 'gamut', 'metropolis', 'suburbia', 'inveterate', 'impecuniosity', spectrum' etc. In a personal essay or a talk you can do fine by using everyday vocabulary. So yeah for me short story is the most challenging.

I wouldn't necessarily agree. I've written short stories before where I haven't used any particularly fancy words and done well in them.

Canard

I agree too. Sometimes it can get you a really high mark but one time I wrote a line that was waaaaaay too flowery and my teacher said it was OTT. You have to use suitable language, but often they can be pretty big words. Just dont overdo it.

Bears and Vodka

Patchy~ wrote: »

I agree too. Sometimes it can get you a really high mark but one time I wrote a line that was waaaaaay too flowery and my teacher said it was OTT. You have to use suitable language, but often they can be pretty big words. Just dont overdo it.

I read a sample descriptive essay on a marking scheme or something once, and God, it was borderline Latin ! :pac:

DepoProvera

bscm wrote: »

Don't go for the obvious stories. Stay away from "teenager goes to college", "a day at the match", "first holiday", because unless you're a prolific author, you're going to end up sounding mundane despite your best efforts not to. Don't develop characters, it defeats the purpose of a short story. If your characters change drastically by the end of the story, then you've gone wrong. It's ok for a little development in one character, you need to set the scene, but don't give them too much of a life story.

Make it exciting if you can. The examiner would love to read about a 40 year old man escaping from being held hostage for 5 years (maybe elude as to why he had been captured, but don't give it away) after 100 speeches on "Effective ways to eradicate racism in schools".

I would completely disagree. You don't have time to develop a good plot in an exam and short stories are meant to be character focused. Leave the elaborate plots for novels. Your character should have changed by the end of your story. Character development is always good, it stops your story from becoming stale.

If I were an examiner I would much prefer to read a story about one solitary, minor event and our character's reaction to it, that to trawl through some student's regurgitation of the last action movie they saw. Describing how 'the blood oozed slowly from the laceration in his neck' is not, I assure you, good short story writing.

Canard

subz3r0 wrote: »

I read a sample descriptive essay on a marking scheme or something once, and God, it was borderline Latin ! :pac:

Haha yeah exactly! :P And did it get a high mark?
I wrote 'The spry scene from just moments before had evanesced with intriguing dexterity' and my teacher was like THAT SOUNDS SO PRETENTIOUS :pac: Learned my lesson, I thought it was an all out language party :P

Bears and Vodka

Patchy~ wrote: »

Haha yeah exactly! :P And did it get a high mark?
I wrote 'The spry scene from just moments before had evanesced with intriguing dexterity' and my teacher was like THAT SOUNDS SO PRETENTIOUS :pac: Learned my lesson, I thought it was an all out language party :P

My teacher is different. Whenever he sees something flowery he writes 'v.good' or 'excellent' beside it. I think it all boils down to the examiner's/teacher's preference too.

Here is the PDF in question. It has sample extracts for all types of essays, I think it's a good read to have an idea of what people write.
http://www.leavingcertsolutions.com/mall/leavingcertsolutions/Downloads/Marking_Scheme_for_Higher_and_Ordinary_Level_leaving_cert.pdf

Canard

subz3r0 wrote: »

My teacher is different. Whenever he sees something flowery he writes 'v.good' or 'excellent' beside it. I think it all boils down to the examiner's/teacher's preference too.

Here is the PDF in question. It has sample extracts for all types of essays, I think it's a good read to have an idea of what people write.
http://www.leavingcertsolutions.com/mall/leavingcertsolutions/Downloads/Marking_Scheme_for_Higher_and_Ordinary_Level_leaving_cert.pdf

haha yeah my history teacher is an english teacher and loves my flowery language when i put it into history essays, and his summaries are usually 'your expression is great', not very helpful for history though :rolleyes: Thats a really good link, thank you

one thing though - 'And the Gaelic is grafted on, seamlessly, like a corporate creole' - what the heck does it mean by creole? Google's definition of it is 'A person of mixed European and black descent, esp. in the Caribbean' which makes no sense

Bears and Vodka

Creole is a language in Haiti, it's a mix of French and tribal languages. I think the author is using the word 'creole' in a sense that it's a mix of two languages or something.

0mega

subz3r0 wrote: »

Lads, can you tell a few storyline ideas that ye are NOT overprotective of? :rolleyes: I'm just really interested what people write about. 'Eerie, dramatic, gripping' - that's all very general. Any actual storylines that you can share? I always find myself thinking for ages on what to write and then I have to rush! Not great at all.

Walking home late at night with eerie sounds and sights, building up the tension to make the reader think that something bad is going to happen - and then you can choose how you want it to end.

They don't have to be catastrophes on a grand scale, I think less is more personally and I like to keep stories realistic.

spurious

Nothing worse than 'fancy' words or phrases used incorrectly.

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