Questions We Can Help You To Answer

Paper instructions:

Creative Narrative (Nonfiction Memoir or Short Story)


Purpose: Entertainment (not argumentative but thematic)

Audience: Your classmates and Sami

Length: 1300+ words ~ 5.5 pages



PRIMARY PROMPT: NONFICTION
Pick a story from your life that is entertaining to tell. Consider the following topics:


your most extraordinary day at work/school (the tragedy, the riot, the customer, the bad day, the free day, et cetera),
your worst job/boss/customer/coworker,
your holiday/vacation/celebration gone wrong (where things didn't quite go as planned, or where traditions were broken),
or your favorite experience of a holiday/celebrations/vacation,
a moment when you were a crappy sibling/child/friend that you look back and laugh at or regret (childhood is about mistakes and learning),
produce a portrait--dynamic-- no hero worship-- of a family member or family friend (mom, dad, grandparent, sibling, pet, cousin, aunt, uncle, neighbor) through a handful of snapshots with them to show how they affected your sense of home or of family or of tradition that revolves around some conflict
A pivotal moment or epiphany for you!

Topics that should not come up in the story you tell:

The birth of a child
Hospital visits
Illness
Death of a loved one
Hurricanes/natural disasters
Crimes
Broken hearts
First love

Produce an epiphany, or show how you changed, or make us reconsider our own values and traditions, by having a single theme in the introduction/concluding paragraphs.  Do not be explicit; subtlety is key to sounding like your intended audience is adults, not children. Don't tell me the moral of the story. I can figure it out. You must use figurative language, strong verbs, imagery, artifacts, and dialogue to show an understanding of each element.




SECONDARY PROMPT: FICTION

For those who feel up to the challenge, you may instead write a short story.  A fiction narrative. Tell a story you would want to read that makes us reflect on major themes like: love, lust, friendship, technology, attention span, brotherhood, complacency, activism, duty, responsibility,  rebellion, war, health, politics, freedom, faith, the supernatural, the paranormal, the future, or whatever. Have a theme, not a moral.

Create original characters (not based on people you know), going through original internal and external conflicts (not based on anything you've been through), in an original setting, not any place you've ever been (or potential a place you only visited once).