Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway:writing an Engaging Story With Literary Strategies to Enhance Plot
A learning module that teaches students about writing a short story with a strong plot in seven mini-lessons: Introduction, Choose the Point of View, Figure Out What to Say, Suspend Readers in Midair, Write about a Central Theme, Read A...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: What Got Stolen?
After reading Grandpa's Teeth by Rod Clement, the writer will plan a scene from a story where a character confronts another character about something that has been stolen. Descriptive details need to take precedence in this scene, as...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Writing a Short Story With Well Developed Conflict and Resolution
A learning module that teaches students about writing a short story in six mini-lessons: Introduction, Understanding the Essence, Getting an Idea, Structuring Plot, Building Conflict, and Outlining Your Own Story.
Caro Clarke
Historical Fiction: Who Rules?
This is the fifteenth article in a series designed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on the genre of historical fiction and the role of the author. Is the author a researcher or a story-teller?
Caro Clarke
Not Stopping the Reader: How to Avoid Stumbling Blocks
This is the eighth article in a series that focuses on helping the new novel author. This article looks at how the author can avoid creating stumbling blocks that disrupt the flow of the novel.
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...
Caro Clarke
Explaining Too Much: Why More Is Less
This is the eleventh article in a series that is designed to help the new novel author. This article focuses on how to eliminate needless information in your novel. The key is to not explain too much about the action.
Books in the Classroom
Carol Hurst's Children's Literature Site: Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
This site is a discussion of some of Phyllis Naylor's works and contains information about the author and evaluates the themes and ideas that she expresses in her writing. It also contains some plot summaries of some of her books.