TELLING A STORY elling a story involves narrative skills, which we have already studied in the previou, hapter. Besides these, other ingredients of a short story are given below. Elements of a Good Story @ The plot, iz., an interesting storyline. © Some characters (characterisation). © The setting — which may be a school, a home, a hospital, a shop, a farm, etc © Dialogue and language. e Sometimes a particular mood, ¢.g., a story may be humorous, sad, frightenin or of educational value.Making up of a Plot The plot or storyline refers to the events that happen in a story: These events contribu story. How are these events thought of and planned? towards the forward movement of the the plot has to mo\c This depends on the theme of the story. If it is an adventure story, around a central character who goes through unusual and dangerous adventures in searci of hidden wealth or rare achievement. In the course of the journey, the hero meets ne: people, undergoes hardships and ultimately comes out as a winner. Similarly, if the theme relates to a crime, the story revolves around the scene of the crime, the escape of the culprits and solving the mystery of the crime. There are five steps in a plot as given below: + The part of the story that helps readers to understand the Exposition background in which the work is set. Rising Action + Itt refers to the series of conflicts that build a story or a play towards a climax Climax + It is the turning point and usually the most intense point ina story. Falling Action + Itis the action of a story that works out the decision arrived at during the climax. It ends with a resolution. Denouement + tis that part of the story in which the problem is solved. It (resolution) is intended to bring the story to a satisfactory end~~ sources of Conflict Most plots arise from some kind of a conflict. Three sources of conflict © Conflict with another person, This may happen when two people quarrel, when father and son argue, when friends disagree, etc. © Conflict between a person and extemal conditions such as a storm, an angry bee, a snowfall, ete. Such extemal troubles cause a problem. Conflict within a person’s mind. A person may be unusually sensitive, mean, bad tempered, jealous, greedy, etc. We can find problems arising from a person's character in stories about such famous characters as ‘Silas Marner, ‘Shylock’, Macbeth’, “Brutus, etc. ‘Whatever be the conflict in the storyline, one has to keep the main purpose of the story in mind, ie, keeping the reader's interest alive. For this, the plot has to be moving at all times. To attain this objective, try to limit yourself to two or three incidents and a few ‘characters, $0 that you can do justice to the characters and the plot of the story. Fusther, make sure that your story has a central scene or climax to grip the reader's attention. Think of yourself as the person holding the strings of the puppets in your hands and move the characters ofthe story accordingly, giving insights into the thoughts of different characters Setting of an Atmosphere A story always moves in a certain atmosphere, which may be gloomy, terrifying, happy, optimistic, pessimistic, etc. It is an important ingredient used to convey the general mood ‘oF feeling of the plot to the readers. I is also an important tool to build the suspense in the Story. The following extract from ‘To the Lighthouse’ by Virginia Woolf is a goo! example to show how an atmosphere of desolation and melancholy can be created The house was left; the house was deserted. It was let like a shell on a sandhill to fil with dry salt grains now that life had left it. The long night seemed to have set in The saucepan had rusted and the mat decayed. Toads had nosed their way in, lly, aimlessly, the swaying shawl swung to and fro, A thistle thrust itself between the tiles in the larder. The swallows nested in the drawing-room; the floor was strewn with straw; the plaster fell in shovelfuls; rafters were laid bare; rats carried ofthis and that to gnaw behind the wainscots Characterisation is an important element in the story that will be dealt with inthe following UnitOpening in the middle of the action, Introduction of the main character. Foreshadowing — (hinting of events to come). Dialogue to aid progress of plot Characterisation of the niece (Vera) Suspense, Trick played by Vera, Analysis of a Short Story The Open Window “My aunt will be down presently, Mr. Nutt possessed young lady of fifteen: "in the meanti put up with me.” Framton Nuttel endeavoured to say the correct something, which sho duly flatter the niece for the moment without unduly discounting aunt that was to come. Privately he doubted more than ever whethy his visit to this strange place would do much towards helping nerve cure which he was supposed to be undergoing. Framton wondered whether Mrs. Sappleton, the lady to whom "was presenting one of the letters of introduction, could be of sor. help to him. “Do you know many of the people round here?” asked the nic when she judged that they had sufficient silent communion, * said a very ¥ se Ye YOU MUS try 9 “Hardly a soul,” said Framton. “My sister was staying here, « the rectory, you know, some years ago, and she gave me letters introduction to some of the people here.” “Then you know practically nothing about my aun‘?” pursued th self-possessed young lady. “Only her name and address,” admitted the visitor. “"Her great tragedy happened just three years ago,” said the chils “that would be since your sisters time.” “Her tragedy?” asked Framte tragedies seemed out of place. somehow in this restful countrys “You may wonder why we keep that window wide open on October afternoon,” said the niece, indicating a large French windo” that opened on to a lawn “Out through that window, three years ago to a day, her hush! and her two young brothers went off for their day's shooting. never came back. In crossing the moor to their favourite snipe-shoet ground they were, all three, engulfed in a treacherous piece of 8 IW had been that dreadful wet summer, you know, and places th! were safe in other years gave way suddenly without warming. The bodies were never recover yeontoennsFigurative language 10, Mental confi 1. The climax 12 Description 13. Humourisuspense heightened Here the child's voice lst its self-possessed note and became faltering hhuman. “Poor aunt always thinks that they will come back some day, with the litte brown spaniel that was lost with them, and walk in through that window just as they used to do. That is why the window is kept open every evening til itis quite dark.” She broke off with a litle shudder. It was a relief to Framton when the aunt bustled into the room with a whit! of apologies for being, late in making her appearance “T hope Vera has been amusing you?” she said “She has been very interesting,” said Framton. “T hope you don't mind the open window,” said Mrs. Sappleton briskly; “my husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting, and they always come in this way. They've been out for snipe in the marshes today, so they'll make a fine mess over my poor carpets. So like you menfolk, ist it?” To Framton, it was all purely horrible. He made a desperate but only partially successful effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic; he was conscious that her eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window and the lawn beyond. Then she suddenly brightened into alert attention — but rot to what Framton was saying. “Here they are at last!” she cried. “Just in time for tea, and don’t they look as if they were muddy up to the eyes!” ‘The child was staring out through the open window with dazed horror in her eyes. Framton swung round in his seat and looked in the same direction. In the deepening twilight three figures were walking across the lawn, towards the window; they all carried guns under their arms, and one of them was additionally burdened with a white coat hung over his shoulders. A tired brown spaniel kept close at their heels, Framton grabbed wildly his stick and hat; the hall-door, the gravel- drive, and the front gate were dimly noted stages in his headlong etyeat, A cyclist coming along the road had to run into the hedge to avoid imminent collision. Here we are, my dear,” said the bearer of the white mackintosh, ‘who was that who bolted out as we came up?”‘aMr. Nuttel,” said Mrs. Sappleton; “dasheg amatic ony “A mostextraordinary man, me - shen you arrived. On. off without a word of good-bye or apology w! would think he had seen a ghost.” 15, Resolution “expect it was the spaniel,” said the niece calmly; “he told me he had a horror of dogs.” 16, Concluding Romance at short notice was her speciality statement (Adapted from the Open Window by Saki This story by Saki is a good example having all the elements of a plot. The story begins with the exposition where the main character, Framton Nuttel is introduced. Here it is revealed that he has come to the countryside with some letters of introduction induding the one to Mrs, Sappleton. The rising action is presented through the dialogue between Framton and Mrs. Sappleton’s niece. She tells Framton about the tragedy that struck her aunt three years ago. She convinces Framton that they have left a window open as her aunt believes that her husband and her two brothers who had gone out for hunting and died, would come back through the window. ‘The climax or the turning point of the story is Mrs. Sappleton’s repetition of the story that her husband and brothers would return home from shooting and enter through the window. The falling action is achieved when the three men return in the dim light of the afternoon in the same manner as previously described. Framton runs away from there believing the story told by the niece and thinking that he had seen the ghosts of the dead The resolution comes when the niece tells her aunt that Framton ran away because be was scared of dogs. The last line ‘Romance at short notice was her speciality’ sums up the entit’ drama in the plot.