STORY LEAVES: Writing Conclusions

by Alison Ashley Formento

Leaves swoop around us this time of year and a swirling rainbow of autumn colors fill the air. Leaves leave the trees, fluttering to the ground to end their seasonal journey. Much thought is given to hooking the reader with story beginnings, but endings are a key component in story and essay structure. How best do you leave a story or end an article you’re writing?

Writing the ending of any story or essay is often the most difficult task for a writer. You may want to leave your readers with a solid, firm opinion, or an open-ending, that can be interpreted in many ways, and perhaps, lead to another book in a series or inspire a new article or essay.

Leave the page

1.Read the last line of a favorite picture book or chapter book aloud in class.

Ask students to write two new endings for this story.

First, they should write a firm ending such as:

“and it was still hot.” Where the Wild Things Are

And one ending that might lead to something new:

“Uh-oh,” I thought. “it’s not just the lunch box.” Third Grade Angels, Jerry Spinelli

2. Ask students to read Kids Discovery, National Geographic Magazine, or use the daily paper from your town. Choose an article or Op-Ed piece to rewrite the final paragraph still using the facts made clear in the article.

Try to “leave” the reader with a whole new question, which to inspire a new discussion.

Example: “Scientists understand key reasons why dinosaurs became extinct, but if there hadn’t been an ice age, do you think we’d still have these massive creatures on Earth? Perhaps as house pets?”

Now write a new article ending leaving the reader with clear knowledge of the represented facts. Example: “Scientific testing on discovered dinosaurs bones are solid proof they could not survive due to severe weather conditions.”

The best authors and journalists play with story and article endings to make sure readers feel like they’ve had a memorable reading experience. Writing a great ending is as satisfying as jumping into a giant pile of autumn leaves. Enjoy!

www.alisonashleyformento.com

TRYING A NEW FOOD WITH A BEGINNING, MIDDLE, AND END

by Jacqueline Jules

Before our oldest son moved to New York City and married a New York girl, my husband and I were pretty timid when it came to restaurants. We almost always chose the same chain restaurants with American style food.  But entertaining New Yorkers, accustomed to a wide variety of ethnic cuisine, forced us to broaden our palates. We didn't want to be called boring by our adult children.

So the first time I tried Indian food, I was with my son and daughter-in-law at an independent local restaurant I had found in a coupon book and hoped was good. I didn’t really care if I liked the food or not. I just wanted my kids to be impressed that I had suggested something other than Outback or Olive Garden.

The restaurant was decorated in red and black. There was an open beaded curtain draping the entrance to the dining area that jingled softly as we walked through. When we sat down at a polished black wood table, the waiter told us the meal was a buffet.  We went up to the serving line to see an assortment of colorful dishes in steaming metal hot trays. Each one contained vegetables and/or meat in a dark sauce. No plain meat patties or white potatoes in sight. Spices I later learned were cumin and tumeric tickled my nose. A creamed spinach with homemade cheese chunks caught my eye. Everything was labeled clearly, so I knew that the brown lumpy substance in front of me was eggplant and onions, not a mystery meat. I took little portions of several things before going back for seconds. Some of the foods were a little spicy for my previously unadventurous palate, but I found most of them very flavorful and a nice change from more bland American style fare. I especially enjoyed the sweet carrot pudding on the dessert table. I’ve always been a fan of carrot cake and tapioca pudding. The Indian carrot pudding was a soupy mixture of them both.

All in all, I was surprised by how much I enjoyed Indian food. From that time on, I’ve eaten at several different Indian restaurants and always enjoyed it. In fact, Indian food was my choice for a birthday and Mother’s Day treat in recent years.

So that’s my story of trying a new type of food for the first time. What’s your story? If you are looking for an easy structured lesson to demonstrate beginning, middle, and end, try asking your students to describe the first time they tried a new food. Ask them to answer the following questions in sequence:

BEGINNING:

1. Where were you and who was with you?

2. Why did you try the new food?

MIDDLE:

3. Describe the food and the place where you ate it, with sensory details. How did it taste, smell, look, etc? Can you compare it to other foods or experiences?

CONCLUSION:

4. What did you learn? Would you try the food again?

Conclusions, which are often hard for young writers, are particularly easy to develop when writing about a new food experience. It is natural to discuss one’s decision to eat the food again or not. With luck, this concept will transfer to narratives on other topics, such as vacations or accidents. Would you like to go there again? Did the experience teach you something about yourself?

So try asking your students to write about the first time they tasted a new food. And when you present the idea, describe a new food experience of your own. Students love to learn more about their teachers and when you write the prompt yourself first, you can give them a model to follow.

http://www.jacquelinejules.com/

ENDINGS AND BEGINNINGS

by Pamela Ehrenberg

Last week I led a teen writing workshop in which participants--and the grownups who paid their registration--were promised that each writer would finish the workshop with a completed short story.  The experience of looking over their shoulders all week (literally and virtually, using the document-sharing feature of Google docs) has me thinking a lot about endings--and about the helpful piece that Jacqueline Jules wrote about endings this spring.

One writer in my group stared at her screen for long periods of time between sentences, without apparent frustration but also without adding much to her story some days.  Another writer began typing the minute she walked in the room, never stuck for ideas--but with each new character, nuance, and plot twist, I worried whether she would finish in time for the celebratory reading at the end of the workshop.

Teachers of reluctant writers face one set of challenges in helping their students complete a piece.  But teachers of dedicated, lifelong, even gifted writers face a different set of challenges.  These writers have so many ideas for their characters, and such high ideals for what they want to accomplish, that their story grows richer and more elaborate, in their mind or on the screen, without finding its way to an end. 

To help the group along, I found myself gaining inspiration not from famous writers or notable teachers, but rather from my friend Holly who recently helped me plan and implement a kitchen renovation.  We began by brainstorming from the big wide universe of possibilities, but to narrow down our ideas we had to look at what we could realistically accomplish in this particular space, on this particular budget, with this particular two-year-old living in the house.  Limitations forced us to make choices, and choices helped us to break past indecision toward a soon-to-be realized goal.

So, did those two students finish their stories?  I vote "yes," though both say they want to edit and polish more before their work appears in the workshop's online publication.  As I think of the blinds and seat cushions yet to arrive in the kitchen--but more importantly, as I think of my novels, especially the ones already published--I can identify with the urge to tinker just a little more, and a little more, off into the sunset.  But as another Holly, science fiction writer Holly Lisle , describes in her One-Pass Manuscript Revision, "Your career lies in writing a book, and writing another book, and writing a book after that. " For our students and for us, it's time to get finished so we can really get started.

http://www.pamelaehrenberg.com/

DON'T LEAVE RED RIDING HOOD IN THE WOODS: Helping Young Writers Find Endings

by Jacqueline Jules

While looking over student writing in six different classrooms on the fourth and fifth grade level, I noticed that quite a few ended with TBC or To Be Continued. This troubled me. Were all the students writing sweeping sagas? In conferences, students complained, “The story is too big . . . I can’t finish it.” Looking over the stories together, we saw that they rambled in beginning mode, setting the scene and introducing characters without presenting a problem or conflict. More often than not, “To Be Continued” was another way of saying, “Too Tired to Continue.” Students may dream of creating a 400-page novel, but the classroom is not the right venue for it. I understand that teachers are reluctant to discourage creativity. However, as an author myself, I believe that a teacher can do more damage to an aspiring writer’s future by not demanding a beginning, middle, and end. Many successful writers begin with short stories. A budding novelist should learn how to create a satisfying story arc on a small scale before trying it across a multi-chapter format. 

A classic fairy tale, Little Red Riding Hood, is perfect for a quick mini-lesson on beginning, middle, and end. Classes will readily identify the beginning of the story as the part when Red Riding Hood takes the basket off to grandmother’s house. The middle of the story occurs when Red Riding Hood meets the wolf in the woods, and the dramatic end comes when Red Riding Hood is eaten by the wolf, then saved by the woodcutter.

Ask your class: “What if we left Red Riding Hood in the woods?” You will likely get a response on the order of:  “That wouldn’t be too impressive.”

Most students realize they are giving up when they write “To Be Continued.” Don’t accept it. Help your students guide Red Riding Hood out of the woods to a happy ending with grandmother. Show them that all stories must have a problem (ie: big bad wolf) and when you conquer the wolf, your ending appears.

http://www.jacquelinejules.com/