The Telltale Heart, by Edgar Allen Poe
The Three Hermits, by Leo Tolstoy
The Necklace, by Guy de Maupassant
The Open Window, by Saki
The Story of An Hour, by Kate Chopin
The Birthmark, by Nathaniel Hawthorne
In preparation for our discussion, please read all six stories. Once you have done that, choose ONE story on which your will become a master. For that ONE story, take the time to plot out a story arc including the situation & generating circumstances (where things stand for characters at the beginning of the story and how they came to be that way), rising action (events leading up to the climax), the climax (high point of the story - what everything seems to build up to), falling action (events following the climax, leading to the end), and denouement (literally "untying the knot" - this is the final resolution or conclusion of the story - how it all works out.)
Feel free to be creative with your arc. As we noticed with our To Kill a Mockingbird arcs, a story arc needn't be an "arc" at all. In fact, here's a sample story arc of Cinderella drawn by Kurt Vonnegut.
And here's a simple story arc for The Three Little Pigs:
Exposition refers to the information the author gives you at the beginning of the story, i.e., the situation and generating circumstances. I might add a bit more here, such as, "Three pigs, brothers, are on their own for the first time and must set out to build their own houses." Then in the rising action, I'd be a bit more specific as well. "First pig builds straw house," followed by, "Second pig constructs house of sticks," etc.
So . . . a bit more specificity is good (isn't specificity a fun word to say?), and that can take the form of words or pictures to explain/illustrate the events. Be creative with it, have fun, and be ready to show your arc and explain why you chose to do it the way you did.
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