Stuck on Lesson 8

[chippy]

You say you are trying to submit 3 stories. I am assuming that the assignment 9 you are talking about is for the Writing for Children and Teenagers course. If this is the case, you only need to submit one story, from the outlines you did in assignment 8. Has your instructor suggested one that she would like to see?

You don't say when your deadline is. If you have time, work on one that is further along and put the problem one away for now. Go back to it after a few days and you might see things differently. But do remember it is only one story not 3 that you need to submit.

I don't have a story to share that would help you, but hopefully by bringing your work down to one story, you will find things a little easier.

[ctnyrene]

Oh I so feel for you.  I had two fiction and one NF that I submitted for 8, and I literally prayed and prayed that she wouldn't request to see the NF (because I kinda stink at NF) and what do you know, she picked NF for the very reason I didn't want her too.  I needed some work with my NF writing.  So I agonized over it, researched it until I was blue and waited until it was almost due and then finally I just sat down and wrote it.  Good luck.  I am with ya.

ctny

[jfields]

Ahhh...then you're not writing a story, just a plan. As an instructor, I'm looking for a condensation of plot action in the fiction plans. I want to see what you plan to have the main character DO in response to story pressure. And I'm looking to see how you intend to have the main character resolve the story. I'm not looking for a lot of inner stuff in the plan because mostly students do fine with inner stuff and end up with no plot. So focus on what action will the main character take as much as you can, what results from the action, how does it resolve the story.

Joelle's worst enemy from summer camp has moved to her town and is in her class! Joelle's best friend wants to welcome the new girl but Joelle responds by pointing out all of Camp Girl's flaws in public, thus alienating her best friend. Afraid she's going to lose her best friend to her worst enemy, Joelle cooks up a plot to break up this budding friendship. But when the plot blows up in her face, both girls confront her. Joelle has to face the reality that the only Frenemy is herself.

Now that's about the minimal amount I would want to see from a plot plan. Since this one came off the top of my head, I don't know what Joelle's plan would be or how it would blow up. But if I DID know, I would put in more specifics of action. It's still very compressed though and basically maps out the plot action. I also want it to sort of give me an indea of what scenes will be involved. In what I wrote above, a person might assume a scene with the Camp Girl entering the classroom, to the horror of Joelle...and we would see the BF's positive response to the girl in that scene. I would need to put the NEXT scene in a fairly public place where Joelle could really be jerky...maybe the lunchroom?

So my overall setting is probably school, but the specific setting of the first two scenes is probably homeroom and lunchroom.

Now, for nonfiction, I'm basically looking for focus and organization. So I want to see that you're planning to write about something specific -- so not "Everything In the World About Wild Horses" but maybe "Saving Wild Horses" which would look at why man needs to interfere with the feral horse population in the US and how they go about it.

So my organization for this would be presented differently. I might do it like this:

Intro -- Here I might give my actual hook paragraph.

Body Answers These Questions in Each Section:
Where Are All the Feral Horses?
How Did They Get There?
What Problems Do They Face?
How Do People Help?

Closing -- What Does the Future Look Like for the Feral Horse Population?

This can be super simple because it shows (1) I have a focus and (2) how I plan to organize that focus.

[stephie]

I am so happy that I went into this chat room and found people having the same issues as me.
I was so stumped on Assignment 8.  After reading all these replies I am clear on what I need to do.
When I get to Assignment 9 I guess I'll be right back here again reading some more.

Thank you all for your input.

[SpiritWalker]

It is great that you have gotten unstuck.  Just remember we are always here to help when ever you get stuck.  Someone will always answer your questions.

Eve

[Truth_about4ever]

So, I was kinda confused, too, but for a different reason. So we send in three outlines, but they don't have to be 3 different parts for the same story?

I hope you can figure out what you need to for your ideas, Mexican_Devil. What ideas do you have so far, or don't you want to say? Totally understandable if you don't, but just wondered if I might be able to help a bit myself. 

[Truth_about4ever]

Thanks bunches, Jan! It's all clear now. I do have plenty of ideas, so I don't think I need to worry; just wanted to make sure I didn't have to do three parts of the same plot. But if I wanted to, could I do that? I'm not too serious about it, but it is an interesting idea.

And since I'm writing for teens, the limit is not more than 1,500 words. Correct?