How to write a short story- choosing a point-of-view

Yesterday I gave the steps for writing a short story. Today I am going to do step one, choosing a point-of-view.

I gave a lot of thought during the day whether I wanted first person, third-person limited or third-person omniscient. I am going to do first person, because that is the hardest point-of-view for me to do. I want to write a story in which the character truly comes to life for the reader.

Tomorrow I will be working on creating the characters. I hope that all of you enjoy working on the short story with me. Please tell me any ideas or concerns that you have. I welcome all comments.

How to write a short story.

For the next couple of weeks I am going to show you how to write a short story. Today I will give you some basic instructions.

1. Choose a point-of-view:
first person
third-person limited (narrator who focuses on one person)
third-person omniscient (narrator who gives thoughts and observations from more than one
person)

2. Create your characters: have a protagonist, antagonist and possibly other characters;
develop the character's characteristics and physical traits

3. Create the problem or conflict in one of these forms:
main character vs. himself/herself
person vs. nature
person vs. society
person vs. God/fate
person vs. person

4. Create believable characters and setting with vivid descriptions and dialogue

5. Build tension by letting the main character have several failed attempts at solving the
problem. This section may need to be skipped in a short story

6. Develop a crisis which will make it the last chance for the main character to solve the problem

7. Have the main character solve the problem through some positive attribute such as courage,
creativity, or intelligence

8. Extending the ending is a possibility by reflecting upon the story and its significance to the
characters.

Dogs

As I grew up we always had dogs. I think the most we had, when I lived on the ranch was four. These dogs were not here for the purpose of herding cows. Most of them were strays, which were found wandering on the county road. Most of the dogs were mixed, but one of them was a blue merle collie. She looked just like a wolf when she showed up one dark night. She was rightfully given the name Wolf, when she had puppies later on, one of them was named Lobo (wolf in Spanish).

All of the dogs on the ranch were/are lots of fun to be with. Now I live in another state and have my own dogs.

When I got married, my husband and I decided we would get a couple of dogs. We saw an ad in the paper and went to the farm to choose our puppies. We got two girls, Sue and Lady. They are part beagle and part spaniel. Lady looks like a typical beagle and Sue is black and white. That was almost ten years ago.

When we were going to have our first child, I saw an ad for two beagle/border collie puppies. My husband took a look at them and then we had our third dog, Kody. He is all white with black spots.

None of the dogs at that time had been fixed. When my son was almost one we had 15 puppies. Lady had seven puppies and Sue had eight puppies. Let me just say, once puppies get old enough it is not fun to clean up after 15 puppies. They were lots of fun with their own personalities. They were all different colors of black, white and brown. There were several puppies which were shaggy, which was the only proof that Kody is part border collie. He has short hair. Sue, Lady and Kody were good parents.

When the puppies got old enough we sold all of them but seven of them. Two we had decided to keep and three of them were going to be for my sisters and dad. The other two we had not been able to sell and we brought them out to give to people. The two family friends that chose them have enjoyed their dogs for the last four years.

I am not sure how many of the puppies that we sold are still living. I know of one that was lost, when she did not come back after she went with the snow machine. As for the five dogs that we have, they have all gotten out of the yard at least once. They have all either come back or we found them. We are lucky, because we have beaten the odds.

I am glad that I grew up and I am glad that my children will have that chance with some of the nicest dogs I have ever known.

Write a poem about snow.

Tonight I have a special guest writer. Her name is Jessica and she wrote this poem on December 9th. If any of you would like to be a guest writer leave a comment and we can give you a voice.

Nebulae of Silence

Dots in a
galaxy
of neverending
stars
Pinpricks
of light
dropping
from the
heavens
Plummeting
toward Earth
Nebulas of
snow

Illuminated
milky ways
shaping a path
alone
Mounded
onto flowing
slopes of
silence

What are your favorite 15 things?

Write down 15 of your favorite things and then save them for your writing prompts.

1. No wind
2. my children
3. my husband
4. God
5. rasberries
6. 4-wheelers
7. spring time
8. elk
9. my family
10. west of the Mississippi
11. Montana
12. England
13. food
14. a good book
15. dogs

The Day after Christmas

My day after Christmas was a lot of fun. We went to feed some horses that belong to a friend of my sister. They had gotten out their pasture, so we had to get them back in. I have never had that much experience with horses, even though I have lived on a ranch. I am used to cows, so it was tricky to figure out how to get the horses where I wanted. I finally just opened the fence where they were and let them back in to the pasture. It was cold and windy, but it was a fun challenge working with the horses.

The rest of the day was cold, snowy and windy so we stayed inside and played the games we received. I had never played Apples to Apples before. It is a game where everybody has five cards in their hands and they have to pick which one matches the card that is drawn. One person is the judge and decides which one matches best. It was a lot of fun. I did pretty well until I got cocky and then I didn't get anymore cards.

I hope everybody is having a wonderful time for your holidays.

Here is a recipe you can use for your New Year's Celebrations.

Guacamole
1 Cup mashed ripe avocado (2 avocados)
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 Tablespoon grated onion
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon chili powder
Combine the above in a small bowl
1/3 Cup mayonnaise
Spread the mayonnaise over the mixture sealing to the edges of the bowl. Chill. At serving time, stir in mayonnaise.

How was my Christmas Day?

Merry Christmas to all. I hope you are having a wonderful day. Where I am it is soooo windy. It has been that way since we got here. It is so windy it is hard to stand up. We did have fun opening our presents and eating our turkey dinner. If any of you read yesterday's entry, we opened presents at 2:00, like when I was younger. People didn't get into the house from feeding the cows and calves until almost lunch time, so we just waited. It was fun opening the stockings. My sister got a book written by a 13-year-old local girl. I got some fun jewelry. Not all the bracelets fit on my wrist, but I like the green colored gems and cats. The temperatures were warmer today, so even the dogs were able to enjoy being outside.

Enjoy your holidays and look forward to a writing prompt tomorrow about an aspect of the weather.