A place to store all the short stories that are written on wattpad for any reason whether it be inspiration of the day, contests, etc. This is where those stories will be stashed.
Author's Note: This short story was originally written for lesson #7 of Neil Gaiman's "Art of Storytelling" Masterclass. The First part is the question/assignment that the class had to complete, and the second part is my submission. Enjoy!
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Lesson #7: Short Fiction
Answer any of the questions below as briefly as possible, writing down your first response. (If you like, refer back to the Writing Exercise you did in Chapter 2: Truth in Fiction). Then set a timer for 60 seconds. Use one of your answers to write the opening of a short story—one paragraph or more.
Now re-set the timer for 30 minutes and finish the story.
You don't have much time, so just keep writing. Don't worry about craft or structure. Write until the timer stops. Remember Neil's advice: you can start a short story at any point in the narrative.
• What was the most embarrassing thing you've experienced in the past few years?
• When was the last time you cried, and what caused it?
• What shocked you so much you were speechless?
• What was the very best or worst moment of your childhood?
• Have you fantasized about revenge recently? Against whom?
• Pretend you're on your deathbed, looking back at your life—who did you love the most? Be brutally honest.
Note: I chose to write about the best moment of my childhood.
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A fool for April:
Every year my elementary school would organize a trip for the senior class, and let the grade eight class spend a week somewhere different in the country before they all moved on to high school. The year I was in grade eight, our class went on a trip to Quebec City. There were forty of us going, including almost a dozen teachers that would chaperone the trip to minimize the amount of trouble we could get ourselves into. We took the train from Toronto to Quebec City, making only one stop in Montreal for a short turnover. I was quiet and shy during our trip up there, but my french teacher was trying to make the best of this to get us to speak more french and practice what we had learned for the least few years in her class.
