Other
Robert J. Sawyer: Writing Workshops
This site features a list of columns written by Robert Sawyer. They include: Great Beginnings, Point of View, Constructing Characters, Show, Don't Tell, Description, Research, and more. W.9-10.3, 3a, 3b, 3c, 3e Narratives, W.11-12.3, 3a,...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Counting Up or Down Stories
The writer will brainstorm situations where individuals or people in a group count up or count down out loud together. Using the ending of chapter 5 of Wringer by Jerry Spinelli as a model, the writer will plan a story where someone (or...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Writing Alternative Plots for Robert O'brien's Z for Zachariah
Lesson in which students are required to write an alternative plot to O'Brien's science fiction novel. Includes an interactive graphic organizer, handouts, and a rubric.
Caro Clarke
Caro Clarke: What Is Conflict?
This is the sixth in a series of articles designed to help the new writer with their novel. This article focuses on conflict and how it effects the characters and the plot of the story. W.11-12.3a Narratives
Writing Fix
Writing Fix:left Brained Writing Prompt: Mini Workshop:favorite Person & Song
Do you have a favorite person--a friend or a family member? Do you have a favorite song? Think about putting your favorite person and your favorite song together in a fictional scene. Make an interesting piece of writing by using really...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Planning Story Characters Using Interactive Trading Cards
Learners use trading cards to examine fictional characters in a story.
EL Education
El Education: A Beaver Story
This children's book about beavers was written and illustrated by 6th graders after extensive field research with experts in the field. The book is unique in that it offers a continuous fictional narrative at the top of each page, an...
Other
Web Worksheet Wizard: Narrative and Descriptive Prompts
Come and check out this list of narrative and descriptive writing prompts. These can be used as springboards for your writing.
Harvard University
The Harvard Chaucer Page: English Romance
A survey of Geoffrey Chaucer's work, which was much influenced by romance, the dominant mode of secular fictional narrative in his time.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Back Story
This lesson introduces the back story in fiction writing. W.11-12.3c Narrative Org
Caro Clarke
Caro Clarke: Pacing Anxiety, or How to Stop Padding and Plot!
This is the seventh installment of a series giving advice to the author who is new to writing novels. This article focuses on how to take your characters and use them and their conflicts to develop the plot of your story. W.9-10.3b...
Caro Clarke
Describing Your Characters Through Their Actions
This is the tenth in a series of articles designed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on how to develop characters through their actions instead of simply relying on dialogue and description of thoughts. W.11-12.3d...
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Education: Telling Your Story
A lesson in which students gain empathy for people who lived during a historical time period by writing a first-person story with experiences that would have happened during that time.
Caro Clarke
Caroclarke: Dialogue: The Best Action
This is the fourteenth article in a series published with the goal of helping the new novel author. This article focuses on using dialogue to advance the action of the story. Links on the left offer other information about story writing.
EL Education
El Education: Diseased
This fictionalized journal was created by a high school student in Denver, Colorado. It tells the haunting story, through a combination of text and images, of a young woman who is stricken with tuberculosis (and later HIV). This...
EL Education
El Education: Dwarf Dwelling
A student from a 5th/6th grade classroom in Shutesbury, Massachusetts, created this illustration of a dwarf dwelling as part of a Learning expedition on architecture. The task given to students was to create a prehistoric cave home in...
Utah Education Network
Uen: Cinderella Stories From Around the World
In this lesson plan, 5th graders will compare and contrast different versions of the fairy tale "Cinderella." Students will use a compare and contrast chart chart. After the shared readings, students will use all the elements of a fairy...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Neh: Edsit Ement: Go West: Imagining the Oregon Trail
A 2,000-mile trek across a continent-with no idea what awaits you on the other side. Tell your students to put on their traveling shoes and prepare for the journey of their lives! In this lesson, students compare imagined travel...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Character Development
This lesson explains how characters develop in fiction writing. W.11-12.3d Sensory/precise lang narratives
Georgetown University
Georgetown University: Edgar Allan Poe (1809 1849)
This site is a professor's guide for students. This guide features information on how to distinguish between Poe and his narrators in his stories.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Character
This lesson introduces the purpose and types of characters in fiction writing. W.9-10.3b Narrative techn