Introduction to Short Stories Essential Question

Dialogue

• Dialogue is a conversation between two or more characters.
• Dialogue is when a character speaks to another character.
• Dialogue is conversation.

Dialogue

• New speaker = new paragraph
• Always use quotation marks
• Example:

“No,” she told me. “It’s a Fitbit. You synch it with your computer, and it tracks your physical activity.”

“Oh!” I exclaimed. “It’s sort of like a pedometer.”

Flashback

• Taking us back to an event that happened before the action of story.

Think about:

• What events from before the action in the book have you learned about?
• Why do you think it was important to learn about this event?
• How does the author use this information to keep you interested in the story?

Hint: Flashback

• Try breaking the word FLASHBACK apart.
• FLASH: a quick glimpse.
• BACK: a look back in the story at something that previously happened.

Foreshadow

• The use of hints or clues in a narrative to suggest what action is to come as well as give insight into character’s motives.

Think about:

• Has the author given you any hints about upcoming events?
• Is there a change happening in the weather, the setting, or the mood?
• Are there objects or scenic elements that suggest something happy, sad, dangerous, exciting, etc.?
• Do characters or the narrator observe something in the background that might be a hint about something to come later?

Hint: Foreshadow

• Now try breaking the word FORESHADOWING apart.
• FORE means ahead.
• A SHADOW is a glimpse of something without the complete details.

Suspense

• The quality that is created when the reader is uncertain about what will happen next.
• Bits of information along the way that leads us to the climax.