grade 7 short story writing assignment

Short Story Writing for Students and Teachers

What Is a Short Story?

The clue is in the title!

Short stories are like novels only…well…shorter! They contain all the crucial elements of fully developed stories except on a smaller scale.

In short story writing, you’ll find the key story elements such as characterization, plot development, themes explored, etc., but all within a word count that can usually be comfortably read in one sitting.

Short stories are just one of many storytelling methods; like the others, they help us derive meaning from our world.

How Do Short Stories Differ From Novels?

The reduced scale of a short story explains most of the differences the form has with longer forms such as novels.

Short stories usually have a tighter focus on a single main character and rarely shift between perspectives the way we often find in longer works of fiction.

Space is of the essence in this form, so long passages of exposition are usually avoided and the story starting at the last possible moment.

In purely numerical terms, short stories can be anywhere between about 1,000 to around 20,000 words or so, though many would consider even 10,000 too long.

A short novel clocks in at around 60,000 words, with word counts between 20-60,000 words being taken up by that red-headed stepchild of prose, the novella.

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How to Write a Short Story

Good storytelling is an art. But, luckily it’s a craft too and, like any craft, the skills and techniques can be learned by anyone.

In this article, we’ll first take a look at some ways to kickstart the short story writing process, before taking a look at some of the structural considerations essential for students to understand before they write their short stories.

We’ll also explore some simple practical activities that will help students to draw on their creative resources and personal experiences to help bring their stories to life.

Finally, we’ll look at some general tips to help students put a final polish on their masterpieces before they share them with the world.

How t o begin a story

Create a Dramatic Question

The first thing a student needs to do when writing a short story is to create a dramatic question. Without a dramatic question, readers will have no motivation to read on as there will be no story .

This dramatic question can take many forms, but as it will be the driver of the plot, it will be the single most important element of the story.

Take the movie Rocky as an example. In it, an aging journeyman boxer, Rocky Balboa, answers two dramatic questions:

1. Will Rocky find love?

2. Can he become the Heavyweight Champion of the World?

Often the dramatic question is of this will she/won’t she type. But, whatever form it takes, there must be some obstacles put in the way of answering it.

These obstacles can come in the form of an external obstacle, such as an antagonist or a negative environment, or the form of an internal obstacle, such as heartbreak or grief.

This is the conflict that creates the crucial element of suspense necessary to engage the reader’s interest.

Whatever form a student’s dramatic question takes, it will provide the plot impetus and how the student will explore their story’s theme.

Practice Activity: Identify the Dramatic Question

It is good practice for students to attempt to identify the dramatic question any time they read a book or watch a movie. Ask the students to think of some classic or popular books and movies that they are already familiar with. Can they extract the major dramatic question from each?

Find Inspiration in the World Around

One of the most common complaints from students, when asked to write a short story, is that they don’t know what to write about. This is the age-old curse of writer’s block.

Figuring out what to write about is the first hurdle students will need to overcome. Luckily, the inspiration for stories lies everywhere. We just need to help students to know where to look.

As writers, students must learn to see the world around them with the freshness of the eyes of a young child. This requires them to pay close attention to the world around them; to slow things down enough to catch the endless possibilities for stories that exist all around.

Luckily, we have the perfect activity to help our students to do this.

Practice Activity: Breathe Life into the Story

We can find stories and the details for our stories everywhere.

Students need to tune their ear to the fragments of stories in snatches of overheard daily conversations. They need to pay enough attention to catch their own daydreaming what-ifs on the bus to school or to keep an eye out for all those little human interest stories in the local newspaper.

Once the living details of life are noticed, students need to capture them quickly by recording them in a journal. This journal will become a great resource for the student to dip into for inspiration while writing their stories.

Those half-heard conversations, those anecdotes of street life witnessed through a bus window, the half-remembered dreams scribbled down while gulping down a rushed breakfast. All these can provide jumping-off points and rich detail for a student’s short story.

Outline and Prepare

Preparation is important when writing a short story. Without a doubt. There is, however, a very real danger of preparation becoming procrastination for our student writers.

Students must learn to make their preparation time count. The writing process is much more productive if students invest some time in brainstorming and organizing their ideas at the start.

To organize their short story, students will need to understand the basic elements of structure described in the next section, but the following activity will first help them to access some of the creative gold in their imaginations. The discipline of structure can be applied afterward.

Practice Activity: Dig for Nuggets

For this activity, give each student a large piece of paper, such as a leaf from an artist’s sketchbook, to brainstorm their ideas. Employing a large canvas like this encourages more expansive thinking.

Instruct students to use colored pens to write sentences, phrases, and fragments, even doodles. Anything that helps them to dump the contents of their mind onto the paper. This is all about sifting through the rubble for those nuggets of gold. Students shouldn’t censor themselves, but instead, allow their mind’s free reign.

To help your students get started, you can provide them with some prompts or questions as jumping-off points. For example:

• What is your basic premise?
• What is the story about?
• Who are your main characters?
• Where is your story set?  

Encourage students to generate their own questions too by allowing their minds ample room to roam. Generating new questions in this way will help them gather momentum for the telling of their tale.

SHORT STORY WRITING STRUCTURE

Even getting off to a great start, students often find themselves in difficulties by the middle of their story, especially if they haven’t achieved a firm grasp of structure yet.

The main elements students will need to master are plot, theme, and character development.

In this section, we’ll take a look at each of these in turn.

Plot refers to the events of the story. This is the what of the tale. It’s useful for students to understand the arc of the plot in five sections: exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution.

Exposition: This is the introductory part of your story. It should introduce the reader to the central characters and orientate them to the setting.

Rising Action: Here the student begins by introducing the central dramatic question which will be the engine of the story. A series of obstacles must be placed in the way of the main character that will increase suspense and tension as the story moves forward toward the climax.

Climax: The climax is the dramatic high point of the story. This is where interest peaks and the emotions rise to their most intense.

Falling Action: Now the conflict is resolving and we are being led out to the story’s end.

Resolution: The central dramatic question has been answered, usually in either a happy or tragic manner, and many loose ends are tied up.

Practice Activity: Instruct students to use the five-part plot structure above to map an outline for their tale before writing .

If the plot consists of the series of events that constitute the story, then the theme refers to what those events mean.

The theme of a story is the underlying message of the story.

What is the ‘big idea’ behind all the action of the plot? This is open to a certain amount of interpretation on the part of the reader, but usually, a little reflection by the student writer will reveal what the events of the plot mean to them.

If, as described in the introduction, stories are how we derive meaning from the world, the theme will reveal the writer’s perspective on things.

Practice Activity: Organize students into groups and ask them to list their Top 5 movies or books of all time. Instruct them to briefly outline the main plot points using the plot structure above. When they’ve completed that, instruct the students to discuss what they think the main themes of each of the works of fiction were.

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Character Development IN SHORT STORY WRITING

No doubt about it, characterization is essential to the success of any short story. Just how important characterization is will depend on whether the story is plot-driven or action-driven.

In the best writing, regardless of genre or length, the characters will be at least plausible. There is a lot that students can do to ensure their stories are populated with more than just cardboard cutouts.

One effective way to do this is to reveal a character through their actions. This is the old show, don’t tell trick at work.

A good short story writer will allow the character to reveal their temperament and personality through their actions.

For example, instead of merely describing a character as putting a mug on the table, perhaps they bring it down with a thud that betrays their anger.

Another great way to reveal character is in the use of dialogue. How characters speak to each other in a story can reveal a lot about their status, mood, and intent, etc.

Our students must learn to draw complex characters. Archetypes may serve us well in some contexts, but archetypes are not real people. They are caricatures. If our students want to people their fictional world with real people, they need to create complex, even contradictory characters, just like you and I are.

If their characters are too consistent, they are too predictable. Predictability kills suspense, which in turn kills the reader’s interest.

Practice Activity: Reveal Mood through Action

For this simple activity, provide the students with a list of emotions. Now, challenge the students to concoct a short scene where a character performs an action or actions that reveal the chosen mood.

To start, you might allow the students a paragraph in which to reveal the emotion. You might reduce this to just a sentence or two as they get better at it. Remind students that they need to show the emotion, not tell it!

HOW TO POLISH AND REFINE A SHORT STORY

Now students have already had a look at how to begin and how to structure a story, we’ll take a look at a few quick tips on how they can polish their stories generally – especially during the editing process.

Write Convincing Dialogue:

For students, investing time in learning how to write great dialogue is time well spent.

Not only is well-written dialogue great for revealing character, but it will break up intimidating walls of text too.

Dialogue is a great way to move the story forward and to provide subtle exposition.

 As mentioned earlier, journals are the perfect place to dump interesting snatches of conversation that become a valuable resource for writing convincing dialogue – except, of course, if you are passing through North Korea or the like!

Vary Sentence Length:

 When finished with their first drafts, encourage students to read their work out loud when editing and rewriting.

Often, students will be surprised to realize just how regular the rhythm of their sentences has become.

Like musicians, writers have chops. It’s easy to fall back on the same few favored structures time and again. Students can do a lot to spice up their writing simply by varying sentence lengths.

Shorter sentences are pacier and punchier while longer sentences can slow things down, calming the reader, then, boom!

Varying sentence length throughout a story prevents the writing from becoming stale and monotonous.

Punctuation:

As with varying sentence length above, the rhythm of a story can be altered through the choice of punctuation.

Students can think of punctuation as musical notation marks. It’s designed to help the reader understand the composer’s intention for how it is to be read and interpreted.

Students should understand punctuation as an imperfect but effective tool. Its use affects not only the work’s rhythm but also the meaning.

It is well worth the student’s time to perfect their use of punctuation.

To Conclude                                                  

There are a lot of moving parts to short stories.

From the nuts and bolts of grammar and punctuation to crafting a plot and exploring big thematic ideas, mastering the art of short story writing takes time and lots of practice.

With so much ground to cover, it’s impossible to address every aspect in a single unit of work on short story writing.

Be sure to offer students opportunities to see the short story in action in the work of accomplished writers, as well as opportunities to practice the various aspects of short story writing mentioned above.

Draw attention to writing best practices when they appear even in work unrelated to the short story.

Lots of time and plenty of practice might just reveal a latter-day O. Henry or Edgar Allen Poe sat in one of the desks right in front of you.

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The short story is a fiction writer’s laboratory: here is where you can experiment with characters, plots, and ideas without the heavy lifting of writing a novel. Learning how to write a short story is essential to mastering the art of storytelling . With far fewer words to worry about, storytellers can make many more mistakes—and strokes of genius!—through experimentation and the fun of fiction writing.

Nonetheless, the art of writing short stories is not easy to master. How do you tell a complete story in so few words? What does a story need to have in order to be successful? Whether you’re struggling with how to write a short story outline, or how to fully develop a character in so few words, this guide is your starting point.

Famous authors like Virginia Woolf, Haruki Murakami, and Agatha Christie have used the short story form to play with ideas before turning those stories into novels. Whether you want to master the elements of fiction, experiment with novel ideas, or simply have fun with storytelling, here’s everything you need on how to write a short story step by step.

The Core Elements of a Short Story

There’s no secret formula to writing a short story. However, a good short story will have most or all of the following elements:

• A protagonist with a certain desire or need. It is essential for the protagonist to want something they don’t have, otherwise they will not drive the story forward.
• A clear dilemma. We don’t need much backstory to see how the dilemma started; we’re primarily concerned with how the protagonist resolves it.
• A decision. What does the protagonist do to resolve their dilemma?
• A climax. In Freytag’s Pyramid , the climax of a story is when the tension reaches its peak, and the reader discovers the outcome of the protagonist’s decision(s).
• An outcome. How does the climax change the protagonist? Are they a different person? Do they have a different philosophy or outlook on life?

Of course, short stories also utilize the elements of fiction , such as a setting , plot , and point of view . It helps to study these elements and to understand their intricacies. But, when it comes to laying down the skeleton of a short story, the above elements are what you need to get started.

Note: a short story rarely, if ever, has subplots. The focus should be entirely on a single, central storyline. Subplots will either pull focus away from the main story, or else push the story into the territory of novellas and novels.

The shorter the story is, the fewer of these elements are essentials. If you’re interested in writing short-short stories, check out our guide on how to write flash fiction .

How to Write a Short Story Outline

Some writers are “pantsers”—they “write by the seat of their pants,” making things up on the go with little more than an idea for a story. Other writers are “plotters,” meaning they decide the story’s structure in advance of writing it.

You don’t need a short story outline to write a good short story. But, if you’d like to give yourself some scaffolding before putting words on the page, this article answers the question of how to write a short story outline:

https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-story-outline

How to Write a Short Story Step by Step

There are many ways to approach the short story craft, but this method is tried-and-tested for writers of all levels. Here’s how to write a short story step by step.

1. Start With an Idea

Often, generating an idea is the hardest part. You want to write, but what will you write about?

What’s more, it’s easy to start coming up with ideas and then dismissing them. You want to tell an authentic, original story, but everything you come up with has already been written, it seems.

Here are a few tips:

• Originality presents itself in your storytelling, not in your ideas. For example, the premise of both Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Ostrovsky’s The Snow Maiden are very similar: two men and two women, in intertwining love triangles, sort out their feelings for each other amidst mischievous forest spirits, love potions, and friendship drama. The way each story is written makes them very distinct from one another, to the point where, unless it’s pointed out to you, you might not even notice the similarities.
• An idea is not a final draft. You will find that exploring the possibilities of your story will generate something far different than the idea you started out with. This is a good thing—it means you made the story your own!
• Experiment with genres and tropes. Even if you want to write literary fiction , pay attention to the narrative structures that drive genre stories, and practice your storytelling using those structures. Again, you will naturally make the story your own simply by playing with ideas.

If you’re struggling simply to find ideas, try out this prompt generator , or pull prompts from this Twitter .

2. Outline, OR Conceive Your Characters

If you plan to outline, do so once you’ve generated an idea. You can learn about how to write a short story outline earlier in this article.

If you don’t plan to outline, you should at least start with a character or characters. Certainly, you need a protagonist, but you should also think about any characters that aid or inhibit your protagonist’s journey.

When thinking about character development, ask the following questions:

• What is my character’s background? Where do they come from, how did they get here, where do they want to be?
• What does your character desire the most? This can be both material or conceptual, like “fitting in” or “being loved.”
• What is your character’s fatal flaw? In other words, what limitation prevents the protagonist from achieving their desire? Often, this flaw is a blind spot that directly counters their desire. For example, self hatred stands in the way of a protagonist searching for love.
• How does your character think and speak? Think of examples, both fictional and in the real world, who might resemble your character.

In short stories, there are rarely more characters than a protagonist, an antagonist (if relevant), and a small group of supporting characters. The more characters you include, the longer your story will be. Focus on making only one or two characters complex: it is absolutely okay to have the rest of the cast be flat characters that move the story along.

Learn more about character development here:

https://writers.com/character-development-definition

3. Write Scenes Around Conflict

Once you have an outline or some characters, start building scenes around conflict. Every part of your story, including the opening sentence, should in some way relate to the protagonist’s conflict.

Conflict is the lifeblood of storytelling: without it, the reader doesn’t have a clear reason to keep reading. Loveable characters are not enough, as the story has to give the reader something to root for.

Take, for example, Edgar Allan Poe’s classic short story The Cask of Amontillado . We start at the conflict: the narrator has been slighted by Fortunato, and plans to exact revenge. Every scene in the story builds tension and follows the protagonist as he exacts this revenge.

In your story, start writing scenes around conflict, and make sure each paragraph and piece of dialogue relates, in some way, to your protagonist’s unmet desires.

4. Write Your First Draft

The scenes you build around conflict will eventually be stitched into a complete story. Make sure as the story progresses that each scene heightens the story’s tension, and that this tension remains unbroken until the climax resolves whether or not your protagonist meets their desires.

Don’t stress too hard on writing a perfect story. Rather, take Anne Lamott’s advice, and “write a shitty first draft.” The goal is not to pen a complete story at first draft; rather, it’s to set ideas down on paper. You are simply, as Shannon Hale suggests, “shoveling sand into a box so that later [you] can build castles.”

5. Step Away, Breathe, Revise

Whenever Stephen King finishes a novel, he puts it in a drawer and doesn’t think about it for 6 weeks. With short stories, you probably don’t need to take as long of a break. But, the idea itself is true: when you’ve finished your first draft, set it aside for a while. Let yourself come back to the story with fresh eyes, so that you can confidently revise, revise, revise .

In revision, you want to make sure each word has an essential place in the story, that each scene ramps up tension, and that each character is clearly defined. The culmination of these elements allows a story to explore complex themes and ideas, giving the reader something to think about after the story has ended.

6. Compare Against Our Short Story Checklist

Does your story have everything it needs to succeed? Compare it against this short story checklist, as written by our instructor Rosemary Tantra Bensko.

Below is a collection of practical short story writing tips by Writers.com instructor Rosemary Tantra Bensko . Each paragraph is its own checklist item: a core element of short story writing advice to follow unless you have clear reasons to the contrary. We hope it’s a helpful resource in your own writing.

Update 9/1/2020: We’ve now made a summary of Rosemary’s short story checklist available as a PDF download . Enjoy!

Click to download

How to Write a Short Story: Length and Setting

Your short story is 1000 to 7500 words in length.

The story takes place in one time period, not spread out or with gaps other than to drive someplace, sleep, etc. If there are those gaps, there is a space between the paragraphs, the new paragraph beginning flush left, to indicate a new scene.

Each scene takes place in one location, or in continual transit, such as driving a truck or flying in a plane.

How to Write a Short Story: Point of View

Unless it’s a very lengthy Romance story, in which there may be two Point of View (POV) characters, there is one POV character. If we are told what any character secretly thinks, it will only be the POV character. The degree to which we are privy to the unexpressed thoughts, memories and hopes of the POV character remains consistent throughout the story.

You avoid head-hopping by only having one POV character per scene, even in a Romance. You avoid straying into even brief moments of telling us what other characters think other than the POV character. You use words like “apparently,” “obviously,” or “supposedly” to suggest how non-POV-characters think rather than stating it.

How to Write a Short Story: Protagonist, Antagonist, Motivation

Your short story has one clear protagonist who is usually the character changing most.

Your story has a clear antagonist, who generally makes the protagonist change by thwarting his goals.

(Possible exception to the two short story writing tips above: In some types of Mystery and Action stories, particularly in a series, etc., the protagonist doesn’t necessarily grow personally, but instead his change relates to understanding the antagonist enough to arrest or kill him.)

The protagonist changes with an Arc arising out of how he is stuck in his Flaw at the beginning of the story, which makes the reader bond with him as a human, and feel the pain of his problems he causes himself. (Or if it’s the non-personal growth type plot: he’s presented at the beginning of the story with a high-stakes problem that requires him to prevent or punish a crime.)

The protagonist usually is shown to Want something, because that’s what people normally do, defining their personalities and behavior patterns, pushing them onward from day to day. This may be obvious from the beginning of the story, though it may not become heightened until the Inciting Incident , which happens near the beginning of Act 1. The Want is usually something the reader sort of wants the character to succeed in, while at the same time, knows the Want is not in his authentic best interests. This mixed feeling in the reader creates tension.

The protagonist is usually shown to Need something valid and beneficial, but at first, he doesn’t recognize it, admit it, honor it, integrate it with his Want, or let the Want go so he can achieve the Need instead. Ideally, the Want and Need can be combined in a satisfying way toward the end for the sake of continuity of forward momentum of victoriously achieving the goals set out from the beginning. It’s the encounters with the antagonist that forcibly teach the protagonist to prioritize his Needs correctly and overcome his Flaw so he can defeat the obstacles put in his path.

The protagonist in a personal growth plot needs to change his Flaw/Want but like most people, doesn’t automatically do that when faced with the problem. He tries the easy way, which doesn’t work. Only when the Crisis takes him to a low point does he boldly change enough to become victorious over himself and the external situation. What he learns becomes the Theme.

Each scene shows its main character’s goal at its beginning, which aligns in a significant way with the protagonist’s overall goal for the story. The scene has a “charge,” showing either progress toward the goal or regression away from the goal by the ending. Most scenes end with a negative charge, because a story is about not obtaining one’s goals easily, until the end, in which the scene/s end with a positive charge.

The protagonist’s goal of the story becomes triggered until the Inciting Incident near the beginning, when something happens to shake up his life. This is the only major thing in the story that is allowed to be a random event that occurs to him.

How to Write a Short Story: Characters

Your characters speak differently from one another, and their dialogue suggests subtext, what they are really thinking but not saying: subtle passive-aggressive jibes, their underlying emotions, etc.

Your characters are not illustrative of ideas and beliefs you are pushing for, but come across as real people.

How to Write a Short Story: Prose

Your language is succinct, fresh and exciting, specific, colorful, avoiding clichés and platitudes. Sentence structures vary. In Genre stories, the language is simple, the symbolism is direct, and words are well-known, and sentences are relatively short. In Literary stories, you are freer to use more sophisticated ideas, words, sentence structures and underlying metaphors and implied motifs.

How to Write a Short Story: Story Structure

Your plot elements occur in the proper places according to classical Act Structure so the reader feels he has vicariously gone through a harrowing trial with the protagonist and won, raising his sense of hope and possibility. Literary short stories may be more subtle, with lower stakes, experimenting beyond classical structures like the Hero’s Journey. They can be more like vignettes sometimes, or even slice-of-life, though these types are hard to place in publications.

In Genre stories, all the questions are answered, threads are tied up, problems are solved, though the results of carnage may be spread over the landscape. In Literary short stories, you are free to explore uncertainty, ambiguity, and inchoate, realistic endings that suggest multiple interpretations, and unresolved issues.

Some Literary stories may be nonrealistic, such as with Surrealism, Absurdism, New Wave Fabulism, Weird and Magical Realism . If this is what you write, they still need their own internal logic and they should not be bewildering as to the what the reader is meant to experience, whether it’s a nuanced, unnameable mood or a trip into the subconscious.

Literary stories may also go beyond any label other than Experimental. For example, a story could be a list of To Do items on a paper held by a magnet to a refrigerator for the housemate to read. The person writing the list may grow more passive-aggressive and manipulative as the list grows, and we learn about the relationship between the housemates through the implied threats and cajoling.

How to Write a Short Story: Capturing Reader Interest

Your short story is suspenseful, meaning readers hope the protagonist will achieve his best goal, his Need, by the Climax battle against the antagonist.

Your story entertains. This is especially necessary for Genre short stories.

The story captivates readers at the very beginning with a Hook, which can be a puzzling mystery to solve, an amazing character’s or narrator’s Voice, an astounding location, humor, a startling image, or a world the reader wants to become immersed in.

Expository prose (telling, like an essay) takes up very, very little space in your short story, and it does not appear near the beginning. The story is in Narrative format instead, in which one action follows the next. You’ve removed every unnecessary instance of Expository prose and replaced it with showing Narrative. Distancing words like “used to,” “he would often,” “over the years, he,” “each morning, he” indicate that you are reporting on a lengthy time period, summing it up, rather than sticking to Narrative format, in which immediacy makes the story engaging.

You’ve earned the right to include Expository Backstory by making the reader yearn for knowing what happened in the past to solve a mystery. This can’t possibly happen at the beginning, obviously. Expository Backstory does not take place in the first pages of your story.

Your reader cares what happens and there are high stakes (especially important in Genre stories). Your reader worries until the end, when the protagonist survives, succeeds in his quest to help the community, gets the girl, solves or prevents the crime, achieves new scientific developments, takes over rule of his realm, etc.

Every sentence is compelling enough to urge the reader to read the next one—because he really, really wants to—instead of doing something else he could be doing. Your story is not going to be assigned to people to analyze in school like the ones you studied, so you have found a way from the beginning to intrigue strangers to want to spend their time with your words.

Where to Read and Submit Short Stories

Whether you’re looking for inspiration or want to publish your own stories, you’ll find great literary journals for writers of all backgrounds at this article:

https://writers.com/short-story-submissions

Learn How to Write a Short Story at Writers.com

The short story takes an hour to learn and a lifetime to master. Learn how to write a short story with Writers.com. Our upcoming fiction courses will give you the ropes to tell authentic, original short stories that captivate and entrance your readers.

Rosemary – Is there any chance you could add a little something to your checklist? I’d love to know the best places to submit our short stories for publication. Thanks so much.

Hi, Kim Hanson,

Some good places to find publications specific to your story are NewPages, Poets and Writers, Duotrope, and The Submission Grinder.

“ In Genre stories, all the questions are answered, threads are tied up, problems are solved, though the results of carnage may be spread over the landscape.”

Not just no but NO.

See for example the work of MacArthur Fellow Kelly Link.

[…] How to Write a Short Story: The Short Story Checklist […]

Thank you for these directions and tips. It’s very encouraging to someone like me, just NOW taking up writing.

[…] Writers.com. A great intro to writing. https://writers.com/how-to-write-a-short-story […]

Hello: I started to write seriously in the late 70’s. I loved to write in High School in the early 60’s but life got in the way. Around the 00’s many of the obstacles disappeared. Since then I have been writing more, and some of my work was vanilla transgender stories. Here in 2024 transgender stories have become tiresome because I really don’t have much in common with that mind set.

The glare of an editor that could potentially pay me is quite daunting, so I would like to start out unpaid to see where that goes. I am not sure if a writer’s agent would be a good fit for me. My work life was in the Trades, not as some sort of Academic. That alone causes timidity, but I did read about a fiction writer who had been a house painter.

This is my first effort to publish since the late 70’s. My pseudonym would perhaps include Ahabidah.

Gwen Boucher.

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Story of a Motion – Tim, Grade 7

  Story of a Motion                                                                                       

“He hasn’t kicked in hours. I’m worried; he may be sick,” said Celina.

“Oh, don’t worry, Celina; he’ll kick soon,” replied David, sipping the last drop of his tea.

“Are you sure, David?” asked Celina.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” said David, “you should probably rest now; take a nap.”

Celina walked towards the rocking chair by the window, picked the new blue jacket up and sat down, “Maybe you’re right. Maybe I just need some rest.”

A few minutes later, David stood up and left the room, leaving Celina alone. Celina felt a great feeling of sadness that seemed to overwhelm her. It felt like something in her life had been removed, and without it, she could hardly breathe. A tear trickled down her cheek as she stared at the blue jacket in her hands.

It was bright blue with a zipper straight up the middle. There were ripples all over the fabric and a knitted picture of a birthday cake in the very center. Celina stared at the jacket with grief and sadness in her eyes. She had recently bought the jacket for him, but now she didn’t care about it. She felt lonely, scared, and cheerless. Soon she was in tears, sobbing and shaking as if all her beloved ones had vanished into thin air.

She remembered the time when he kicked her gently for the first time. She didn’t feel hurt or mad. She felt happy. It felt like something in her body was alive, free, and happy. Indeed, something was alive. The kick didn’t feel like he was expressing his anger to her; instead, it felt like he was showing existence. Every time he kicked, Celina would whisper, “Kick again, my dear.”

And he would kick again as if he was responding to her whispers in kicks. And she would whisper again, and he would kick again. She was always waiting for the next kick, enjoying every one of them and getting more and more impatient for the next one.

But he hadn’t responded to her whispers since her visit to the hospital. It wasn’t her fault. She just slipped and fell on the kitchen floor. The doctors at the hospital assured her everything was fine, but she was sad and worried. She had started to talk to him loudly; at times she prodded him to get a response, but to no avail.

Suddenly, she was interrupted by something in her body hitting against her. It felt strong, powerful, and loving. She didn’t know what it was, but it came deep down from her womb. “Could it be?” thought Celina, “could he really be doing this?”

She jumped up and ran as fast as she could out the door. She now knew what it was, and she wanted to tell the whole world what a wonderful thing her baby was doing.

“He’s kicking; he’s kicking. After all this time, he’s finally started kicking!”

Her husband rushed up to her.

“What’s wrong? What’s going on?” asked David while anxiously looking around as if the house was on fire.

“David, he finally kicked. He finally kicked!” shouted Celina while tears flowed down her cheek.

“Oh, did he?” replied David excitedly.

“I feel so happy,” replied Celina, while looking up in prayer.

David embraced her and kissed her tears. Soon he was in tears, too. Suddenly he remembered his mom telling him of the times he wouldn’t kick in his mom’s womb and how sad she would feel for hours before the feeling of the next kick. It didn’t make sense to him when his mom once told him that she badly missed the feeling of his kicks. What seemed so weird and vague for years was beginning to make sense for David, who was about to be a father soon. He finally broke the silence, which was only occasionally disturbed by the sound of Celina’s sobs, and quietly whispered in her ear, “Who is there to embrace a kick with a smile except for a mother?”

7th Grade Writing Prompts

This webpage contains a 7th grade writing prompts PDF worksheet, useful for 7th grade students, language arts teachers, homeschooling parents, and creative writers. The writing prompt sheet has 20 questions / writing topics to work from. The topics presented in these writing prompts vary, and range from creative questions that require imaginative solutions, to meaningful questions that will ask students to reflect on their own beliefs and perspectives.

To download the PDF version, please click the thumbnail image below. You can also read online further down the page.

7th Grade Writing Prompts List

• Describe some of your life goals.
• Write a mythological explanation for why the sky is blue.
• Write a fictional explanation for why the earth is actually flat instead of round.
• Write a mythological explanation for why the sun rises every morning.
• What would you do with your time if you had a billion dollars?
• If it were possible, would you choose to be immortal? Why or why not?
• Why is truth important?
• Please explain the meaning of life in 140 characters or less.
• Describe one thing you can do today that will help you succeed tomorrow.
• Describe something you want to accomplish in your life. List the necessary steps needed in order to accomplish this.
• What does it mean to be successful?
• Is it better to be a big fish in a small pond, or a small fish in a big pond? Why?
• Write a persuasive argument why ostriches are better than koala bears, or vice versa.
• When is it important to lead, when is it important to follow?
• What would you do if you discovered you could control time?
• Is fighting crime as a super hero an effective way to improve the world? Why or why not?
• Describe an unusual but legal way to earn money.
• Describe one thing you have learned this week.
• Are some ideals worth dying for?
• How did books change the world?

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59 Writing Prompts For 7th Graders

By Suzanne Brown | Last Updated May 4, 2022

Children will be inspired to reflect on their experiences and consider their future objectives due to the seventh-grade writing prompts. 7th grade symbolizes the start of academic education and the transition to secondary school. It presents unique difficulties for many children. This is the ideal moment to encourage pupils to begin a notebook in which they can reflect on their daily activities and moods.

As seventh graders prepare to enter their difficult adolescent years, teachers must do all possible to keep their children focused and grounded. For many children, seventh grade is a very difficult year—they may feel a newfound maturity and pride. Still, they will also likely feel the burdens of higher demands and greater obligations.

These 60 writing prompts will educate your pupils on how to express themselves via their writing and how the power of words can help them through both difficult and happy situations.

1. Who would you prefer to meet if you had the opportunity to meet anyone on this planet?

2. Consider the last time you sat down with one of your grandparents and had a talk with them. How did you know? What were the subjects of your discussion?

3. Have you ever felt compelled to take action in response to a friend’s request? Express your feelings in writing

4. When it comes to spending time with a friend, what is the most enjoyable activity? Why?

5. Take five minutes to survey the classroom. Have you observed anything you hadn’t noticed before? Have you noticed something familiar in a different light?

6. Do you believe that people are getting more united or more divided due to technology?

7. What does “school spirit” mean? How can you demonstrate your school pride?

8. Concerning your life, what are the things that you are most enthusiastic about?

9. Write a profile of someone you admire. How can you aspire to be like him or her?

10. Tell me about the impact the most important person in your life has on you. What caused them?

11. Would you accept the option to be home-schooled through high school? What are your reasons for or against it?

12. Have you ever been bereft of a friend? What transpired? How did you feel as a result?

13. How frequently do you volunteer your time or money to help others? Who do you support and why?

14. Write about a time when you behaved differently at home than you did at school

15. Which of the following is your strongest conviction? Justify your position by writing about why you’re so adamant about it

16. Write about how technological advancements have altered the way pupils learn nowadays

17. Compose a poem about the process of maturation

18. Create a story about when you were caught doing something you shouldn’t have been doing at the time

19. Consider a period when you were aware that you had disappointed someone. What emotions were you experiencing?

20. Do you believe in the existence of God?

21. Why do you believe there is such a great deal of suffering if God exists?

22. Make a list of the activities you would do to help the environment. For example, when not in use, turn off the lights

23. Which three books would you choose if you had to take three with you to a desert island and why?

24. Do you believe that climate change is a real phenomenon?

25. Do you believe your school can make a difference in making the globe a more environmentally friendly place?

26. Why is participation in extracurricular activities critical for students?

27. Write about an instance when being “nice” prevented you from expressing an opinion. How did you feel about that?

28. Write a review of the most recent film or television show you enjoyed – and attempt to get others to see it

29. Write about an instance when you stepped in to assist a friend. What emotions did it elicit in you?

30. Write a review of the most recent film or television show you detested – and attempt to convince others not to see it

31. What is your most admired characteristic about yourself? Why?

32. If you were to become the leader of your country, what would you change about it?

33. Which of your characteristics is your least favorite? How can you make it better?

34. Which aspects of school administration will you change if you become your school’s principal?

35. What would you do with $500 if you discovered it on the ground? What if you were unable to locate the owner?

36. Make a list of three items you would like to see improved in your classroom

37. Write about a time when you pushed yourself to accomplish something difficult. How did you feel as a result?

38. Create a poem about the sensations you experience when sitting down to take a test

39. What are the three things you are most grateful for in your life?

40. Write about an instance when you made an incorrect judgment about someone based on their appearance. What did you discover?

41. Write a story about a little boy who never gave up on his ambitions and aspirations

42. When it comes to the modern world, why is space exploration so important?

43. Create a list of the current issues you encounter that you feel you can’t share with anybody else

44. Would you change anything about your history if you could travel back in time? If you were to alter anything, what would you change and why? If not, why would you want to?

45. Make a list of the things that make you anxious

46. What is your definition of success?

47. Are you a public speaker that enjoys your job? Why are you or are you not?

48. If you could have one birthday wish, what would it be?

49. Consider an area where you excel and write about how you could teach another person to achieve the same thing

50. What is one aspect of your life that your parents do not comprehend? Why do you believe they have difficulty connecting with you on this subject?

51. What characteristics define a good parent?

52. Write a short narrative about an imaginary city where everyone shares a surprising trait

53. Do you believe it is improper to speak negatively of someone behind their back?

54. Make a note of a time when you felt deceived

55. What are the advantages and disadvantages of homework? Should teachers provide homework to their students?

56. Create a story about when you stood up for a buddy

57. Which memory is your all-time favorite? Why is it so vital to you?

58. Consider a time when you accomplished something so tough that no one expected you to succeed

59. Select an object that identifies you – and explain why it is a good fit for your personality

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• TV (Gr. 1-4)
• Metal Detectors (Gr. 2-6)
• Tetris (Gr. 2-6)
• Seat Belts (Gr. 2-6)
• The Coliseum (Gr. 2-6)
• The Pony Express (Gr. 2-6)
• Wintertime (Gr. 2-6)
• Reading (Gr. 3-7)
• Black Friday (Gr. 3-7)
• Hummingbirds (Gr. 3-7)
• Worst Game Ever? (Gr. 4-8)
• Carnivorous Plants (Gr. 4-8)
• Google (Gr. 4-8)
• Honey Badgers (Gr. 4-8)
• Hyperinflation (Gr. 4-8)
• Koko (Gr. 4-8)
• Mongooses (Gr. 5-9)
• Trampolines (Gr. 5-9)
• Garbage (Gr. 5-9)
• Maginot Line (Gr. 5-9)
• Asian Carp (Gr. 5-9)
• Tale of Two Countries (Gr. 6-10)
• Kevlar (Gr. 7-10)
• Tigers (Gr. 7-11)
• Statue of Liberty (Gr. 8-10)
• Submarines (Gr. 8-12)
• Castles (Gr. 9-13)
• Gutenberg (Gr. 9-13)
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This page features 20 of my favorite short stories with questions. These reading activities are perfect for classroom use. Written by some of the greatest authors in history, these stories are short enough to cover in a single class period, and rich enough to warrant study. I tried to select stories that students would find […]

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Chess | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 1-4) TV | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 1-4) Metal Detectors | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 2-6) Tetris | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 2-6) Seat Belts | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 2-6) The Coliseum | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 2-6) The Pony Express | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 2-6) Wintertime | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 2-6) Reading | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 3-7) Black Friday | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 3-7) Hummingbirds | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 3-7) Worst Game Ever? | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 4-8) Carnivorous Plants | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 4-8) Google | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 4-8) Honey Badgers | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 4-8) Hyperinflation | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 4-8) Koko | Nonfiction Reading Test Ereading Worksheet (Gr. 4-8) Mongooses | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 5-9) Trampolines | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 5-9) Garbage | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 5-9) Maginot Line | Nonfiction Reading Test Ereading Worksheet (Gr. 5-9) Asian Carp | Nonfiction Reading Test Ereading Worksheet (Gr. 5-9) A Tale of Two Countries | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 6-10) Kevlar | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 7-10) Tigers | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 7-11) Statue of Liberty | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 8-10) Submarines | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 8-12) Castles | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 9-13) Gutenberg | Nonfiction Reading Test (Gr. 9-13) Author's Purpose Practice 1 Author's Purpose Practice 2 Author's Purpose Practice 3 Author's Purpose Practice 4 Author's Purpose Practice 5 Author's Purpose Practice 6 Fact and Opinion Practice 1 Fact and Opinion Practice 2 Fact and Opinion Practice 3 Idioms Practice Test 1 With Long Responses Idioms Practice Test 2 With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice 1 Figurative Language Practice 1 With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice 2 Figurative Language Practice 2 With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice 3 Figurative Language Practice 3 With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice 4 With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice 5 With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice 6 With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice 7 With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice 8 With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice 9 With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice | Edgar Allan Poe Figurative Language Practice | Edgar Allan Poe With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice | O. Henry Figurative Language Practice | O. Henry With Long Responses Figurative Language Practice | Shakespeare Genre and Subgenre Practice 1 Genre and Subgenre Practice 2 Genre and Subgenre Practice 3 Genre and Subgenre Practice 4 View More Genre and Subgenre Practice Tests Irony Practice 1 Irony Practice 2 Irony Practice 3 Making Inferences Practice 2 Main Idea Practice 1 Main Idea Practice 2 Point of View Practice 1 | Multiple Choice Only Point of View Practice 1 | With Long Responses Point of View Practice 2 | Multiple Choice Only Point of View Practice 2 | With Long Responses Text Structure Practice 1 Text Structure Practice 2 Text Structure Practice 3 Text Structure Practice 4 Text Structure Practice 5 Story Structure Practice 1

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Posted by Mr. Morton on 2016-04-19 15:56

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/free-reading-worksheets/short-stories-with-questions/

The setting of the story is the time and place that it occurs. Every story has a setting. The setting helps to create the mood of the story. It influences how readers feel about the text. Here is an example of what I mean. How Does Setting Affect Mood? Imagine a story about a girl […]

Posted by Mr. Morton on 2014-09-03 09:45

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/free-reading-worksheets/reading-comprehension-worksheets/setting-worksheets/

Making predictions is a basic reading skill that requires higher level thinking. To make a good prediction, readers must consider available information and make an inference. Good readers make predictions based on textual evidence. If you use evidence to support your predication, you can justify it whether you are right or wrong. I designed these […]

Posted by Mr. Morton on 2014-08-28 11:35

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/free-reading-worksheets/reading-comprehension-worksheets/making-predictions-worksheets-and-lessons/

What would a story be without a conflict? It would be boring. Perhaps that is why all stories worth telling have a problem. Most scholars agree that there are six basic types of conflicts in literature. I will define each of these. Then I will provide PowerPoint lessons and worksheets that reinforce these ideas. Use […]

Posted by Mr. Morton on 2014-08-15 11:18

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/free-reading-worksheets/types-of-conflict-worksheets/

Ereading Worksheets provides teachers, parents, and motivated students with high-quality reading worksheets, activites, and resources aligned with Common Core State Standards. This website uses a skill focused approach, where each activity targets a specific set of skills. The resources on this website cover a broad range of reading, writing, and language arts skills and everything […]

Posted by Mr. Morton on 2014-01-16 11:52

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/free-reading-worksheets/literature-units/lord-of-the-flies/lord-of-the-flies-activities/prereading-group-activity/new-home-page-test/

Summarizing is one of those skills that may seem very easy to a teacher but can be difficult for students who have not been properly taught how to summarize. For many years I did not even teach my seventh and eighth grade students how to summarize. I would just ask them to summarize texts and […]

Posted by Mr. Morton on 2013-09-07 14:42

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/free-reading-worksheets/reading-comprehension-worksheets/summarizing-worksheets-and-activities/

Students need to gain lots of practice working with nonfiction passages. This prepares them for more advanced course work. Here are some nonfiction reading passages, worksheets, and online practice activities to give students practice. I recommend using the online versions of the activities if you have access to technology in your classroom. It will save […]

Posted by Mr. Morton on 2013-09-02 13:43

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/free-reading-worksheets/reading-comprehension-worksheets/nonfiction-passages-and-functional-texts-worksheets-and-online-practice/

New and Improved Ereading Worksheets

If you’ve been coming to this site for a while, you may be familiar with my Ereading Worksheets. These are interactive online versions of my worksheets. Students complete these online and are instantly graded on their results. At the end, students can print out a score sheet indicating their success. These Ereading Worksheets were pretty […]

Posted by Mr. Morton on 2013-08-23 18:23

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/blog/2013/08/23/new-and-improved-ereading-worksheets/

Poetry is a rich source of figurative language. Though there are examples of figurative language to be found in all genres of literature, perhaps none more than in poetry. Good poets pack worlds of meaning into tiny little lines. These lines evoke emotions, thoughts, and at times social change. One of the ways that poets […]

Posted by Mr. Morton on 2013-04-05 22:27

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/figurative-language/figurative-language-poems-with-questions/

Reading Units and Lesson Plans Aligned with Common Core

I received an email from a teacher working in a situation similar to mine: students who are deficient in basic skills, a lack of useful resources in the classroom, misdirection or no direction from the top. This teacher found the resources on this website to be a tremendous help in reaching her instructional goals, but […]

Posted by Mr. Morton on 2013-03-21 21:21

https://www.ereadingworksheets.com/e-reading-worksheets/reading-unit-and-lesson-plans-aligned-with-common-core-state-standards/

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Free Printable Analyzing Story Structure Worksheets for 7th Grade

Analyzing Story Structure: Discover a collection of free printable worksheets for Grade 7 Reading & Writing teachers, focusing on analyzing story structure to enhance students' comprehension and critical thinking skills.

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• Analyzing Character
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Explore printable Analyzing Story Structure worksheets for 7th Grade

Analyzing Story Structure worksheets for Grade 7 are an essential tool for teachers looking to enhance their students' reading and writing skills. These worksheets provide a comprehensive and engaging approach to understanding the various elements of a story, such as plot, characters, setting, and theme. By incorporating these worksheets into their lesson plans, teachers can effectively teach reading comprehension strategies, ensuring that their students are able to fully grasp the meaning and intent behind the stories they read. Additionally, these worksheets can help students develop critical thinking skills, as they learn to analyze and interpret the story's structure and its impact on the overall narrative. In conclusion, Analyzing Story Structure worksheets for Grade 7 are a valuable resource for teachers who want to improve their students' reading and writing abilities.

Quizizz, an interactive learning platform, offers a wide range of resources for teachers, including Analyzing Story Structure worksheets for Grade 7. This platform allows teachers to create engaging quizzes and games that can be used in conjunction with these worksheets to reinforce reading comprehension strategies and other essential reading skills. Quizizz also provides teachers with valuable insights into their students' progress, allowing them to tailor their instruction to meet the individual needs of each student. Furthermore, the platform offers a variety of other resources, such as flashcards and interactive lessons, that can be used to supplement the worksheets and further enhance students' reading and writing abilities. Overall, Quizizz is an excellent tool for teachers who want to provide their Grade 7 students with a comprehensive and engaging approach to learning reading comprehension strategies and mastering story structure analysis.