You can't tell the story of your life in two pages and make it interesting.
Life doesn't happen all at once; it happens in scenes. So must stories or
memoirs. A common fault for beginners is trying to tell the reader too
much at one time. That being the case, we start this session by having
you write not an entire story or memoir, but one short scene--something
that takes place in five minutes or less, not the whole story.
Make sure you not only show what happens, but what the people
involved feel about it and where it takes place. Imagine it's a movie.
That means something of the place needs to be mentioned, too. Don't
just tell what happened, but dramatize it. Do this in 250-500 words.
Your story can be either fiction--something you make up--or a
memoir--something that happened in your life.
So you'll have an idea of what's required, here are some possible scenes
someone might write about. You can use one of them to write your
scene, or use one of your own:
A Peace Corps volunteer arrives in a village where she's to spend the
next year.
While driving down a highway, a man sees a car cross the divider and
head straight toward him.
A woman walking in a park sees a person she hasn't seen for twenty
years.
A couple comes home and finds a note on the kitchen table telling them
their son has been taken to the hospital with an injured leg.
A woman volunteer at a homeless shelter sees an old friend come in for
a meal.
A woman tells her husband she is leaving him.
A man tells his wife he is leaving her.
An adolescent sees her mother kissing a man not her father.
You yourself do something, or something happens to you.
Something happens with somebody; you chose who and what.
Remember: a five-minute scene!
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