Activity 4 and 5

These are two seperate creative writing assignments in the form of short paragraphs.

Assignment 1 Instructions:

The Edge of the Shoal is a bold example of how setting can be an antagonizing force in fiction. The natural surroundings water and weather which seemed so benign in the storys opening, have conspired against the protagonist, who now finds himself injured and adrift. Jones leaves no doubt as to the seriousness of the mans predicament: he feels a confusion, a kind of throb in his head. There is a complete horizon. A horizon everywhere around and no point of it seems closer than another (Jones, 2017).

Although this is a contemporary story, the dramatic situation is about as old as storytelling itself: its an individual against the elements.

Now, you have the opportunity to write a scene in which a character feels trapped by their surroundings with no immediate prospect of escape. For example, the setting might be: a boarding school, a package holiday complex, or a hated job which is a financial necessity. Show the characters emotions through the descriptions of the place, not by naming the feelings. 250-word minimum. (It doesnt matter to me what you write about as long as it meets the requirements.) I have attached The Edge of the Shoal below.

Assignment 2 Background:

7.1 Relationships and plot

It is always important, in fiction, to know whose story youre telling. Particularly in a short story, youll want to be very sure of who your main character is. Thats what gives short fiction its focus. But, once you know that, perhaps theres another way to think about character and plot. One might argue that successful stories are actually driven by relationships, whether good or bad.

Think of your favourite stories, novels, films and TV shows, and youre sure to find sibling rivalries, fathers and daughters, love affairs, teachers and pupils, detectives and sidekicks (and criminals), office colleagues, teammates and rivals. Even the explorer, stranded alone on the mountainside, is desperate to get home to their loved ones.

When you consider a relationship of any kind, youll find that it has a natural structure a beginning, middle, and end. How many great stories, across all genres, begin with a first meeting between two people? How many end with their parting? In between these meetings and partings, the relationship will have its ups and downs, what Claudia H. Johnson calls a pattern of connection and disconnection (2020, p. 3). This is true even if the relationship is between two sworn enemies.

Many of us, when we reflect on our lives, will find them defined by important relationships: with our parents and carers, friends and partners, and even with strangers who have altered our life for better or worse. You might even find patterns in those relationships. Are you the sort of person who always takes the lead in relationships at home and work, dragging colleagues and family in your wake? Are you constantly drawn to adrenaline-fuelled adventurers, despite your own risk-averse personality? When dramatised in action and dialogue, these tendencies can be the basis for profound fiction.

One of the hardest and most necessary things to do in fiction is to get your characters into the same room. Its much more comfortable to have your protagonist sitting alone, staring out of the window, thinking about the past, without all the chaos and conflict and dialogue brought about by a second character. But this denies your character the opportunity to come alive, change or grow through interaction with others.

Activity 4 Writing: character and relationship

Assignment 2 Instructions:

Imagine two good friends. You may base them partly on people you know, if you like.

In no more than 200 words, summarise their friendship from when they first met to the end of the relationship, whatever that may be. Write this summary without planning it out, and from the point of view of only one of the friends.

Now write an argument between those two friends. As much as possible, try to write completely in dialogue and action. Tell readers what the characters are doing and saying. Write 150-200 words.