Chosing your setting.
The first
step to shaping your story is to create a setting. Your story will
need a time, a place and conditions to better create a world for your
reader to be sucked into. A setting makes for the opening of your
story and will jump starts the reader's imagination.
Once upon a time is a classic start to a fairy story and will jug the reader to expect exactly that.
It was a dark and stormy night... is a classic start to a horror or scary story, and as with the previous, will immediately set the mood.
How you introduce your story and your opening sentence is a worry for a later date, first we need to decide what we're introducing!
A few examples have been set up below and you're welcome to use them, but as you are graded on originality, you will be required to put your twist on them and make them your own. Write a setting of aprox. 500/600 words. Hand it in by email before the [--/--/--]
Once upon a time is a classic start to a fairy story and will jug the reader to expect exactly that.
It was a dark and stormy night... is a classic start to a horror or scary story, and as with the previous, will immediately set the mood.
How you introduce your story and your opening sentence is a worry for a later date, first we need to decide what we're introducing!
A few examples have been set up below and you're welcome to use them, but as you are graded on originality, you will be required to put your twist on them and make them your own. Write a setting of aprox. 500/600 words. Hand it in by email before the [--/--/--]
1. World's end.
In 2025, we find ourselves in the aftermath of a worldwide vaccination gone wrong. Five years previous an outbreak of an unknown disease swept over the continent, unchecked it ran ramped and crossed the boarders and even the seas until the entire world was infected. Scientists and doctors struggled to produce a cure and prematurely deployed one before it had even reached the stage of human testing. The vaccination did in fact cure the surviving population of the disease, but it had come too late. 70% of the population had already been wiped out. The vaccination however had an unexpected side effect that only manifested in the very young. Children became stronger, faster, but suffered from intense seizures and intracranial haemorrhages. Those that are left aim to cure the children and rebuild their lives to ensure a future for the human race. |
2.
City in the sky.
Before the time of men, and the ventures of land, there were the sky people. They were creatures not unlike birds we know today, covered in feathers, with sharp talons, and even sharper eyes. The sky people were a peaceful race, that made their home in the clouds. They watched and observed as life sprung down below but kept their distance, afraid of what they might find outside their realm. Though the mighty maker had created a creature that was fearful of the unknown he had also planted a little spark of curiosity within their hearts, a curiosity which seemed to grow with each generation. The spawn of the sky people ventured closer and closer to land than their elders would allow, and so they chose to lock down their city, hoping to keep their young from harm. |
3.
Small town slaughter.
In the small town of Envy, there lived only simple people. The buildings were dull and grey and so were it's people. Children went to school, parents went to work, families had 'family Saturdays', dressed nicely and went to church on Sunday. All was ordinary to the point where it became mundane until one Thursday the town shook its very foundations when the morning paper came in. The Collins family had been slaughtered. The children were found drowned in the bathtub, the mother found hung in the attic and the father burned to a crisp, sat in his favourite chair. The police were completely out of their element and as weeks went by, no arrests were made. No explanation was given. |
4. The mountain climbers
The mountain of Snowpeak plays host to the temple of enlightenment. A place of tranquillity and prayer. Those inside the temple were once humble monks that climbed the mountain and prayed and knelt before the sky till one day the maker gifted them. Rumours spread that the monks were bestowed with the power to change the very fabric of reality around them. Many pilgrims and knotted men have ventured to pay their respects or to appeal for relief, but to this day, none in the temple has come forth to answer the calls of those that came to them. No matter the plea, the monks remained inside and silence drowned out their voices. But one day in winter, a call came down from the mountain, a shout of sorts, a cry for help. When those that lived below, climbed their way to aid the monks and investigate what had happened they found the temple to be empty. |
5. City of Elves.
Somewhere deep within the forest, there is a city of white shimmering stone and gentle flowers. The city is home to the last elves. These creatures of nature have chosen to hide themselves away from the touch of man, only venturing forth at the start and end of every season to celebrate and offer all sorts of riches to the corresponding deities. Humans have learnt that going into the forest on those specific days is ill advised, as the elves will flee from the site and leave their offerings unsacrifised. At the end of this years winter, a travelling salesman took to woods, not heeding the warnings the townspeople had given him. He stumbled upon the elves, and as predicted, they fled into the trees, the ground and the water, leaving their gifts in the grass. The man, not knowing what he had done, disregarded the incident, not knowing that his actions had brought upon a never ending winter. |
6. A time of war.
It is the year 1915, and the world is broken up by the first world war. All the young men have been sent off to war, leaving the women behind to fill their shoes. The streets are different now, they are filled with women in clothes that are easy to move in. Even the high society seems changed, and more sober than it was before. Great houses make due with a simple maid and a cook and if they're very luck they'll have a valet in their employ. People are driven by their patriotism and make due with what they have and do what they can to help the war effort. |
7.
42 days
Nobody really knows how it started, or if it had always been that way. When people die in this town, they come back for a little while, 42 days to be exact. They aren't exactly human when they do, they're see though and cold, like a spectre or ghost. It had become so common that at any given time there'll be approximately twenty ghosts around the town, and nobody really minds. Nobody really knows why it happens, but they are grateful for it. It offers the family of the deceased to properly say goodbye and make their peace, and it offers the dead to settle differences and make amends with those that will be left behind. |
8. Rotten corn and muddy water.
It had been a most ordinary time. Decent spring with plenty of rain and warmth to ensure a decent harvest, but when summer came around the heavens turned grey and clouded and it rained. Thick and heavy rain fell for days on end, only to be broken for an hour every 8th day. The village and even the neighbouring towns were affected as the bountiful harvest that they all had been expecting, rotted away before their very eyes. The soil washed away in an near endless mud- stream and the people became trapped in their town as the brown river raged around their borders. Without food, or water and with limited energy the people must find out what happened and come up with a solution. |