Short stories from life. Essay on an interesting incident from my life

One day an instructive incident happened to me, after which I had to draw important conclusions. During the summer holidays, my grandparents decided to go for a walk in the forest. They live in their own house, and not far away a large river flows and there is a green forest. I went with them. We walked along the forest paths for a long time, it was warm, grandmother told interesting stories, and grandfather whistled beautifully. He promised that someday he would teach me to whistle like that. Soon I said that I was tired and my grandmother took a blanket from her traveling bag and laid it on the green grass. We had a picnic.

Soon my grandparents decided to lie down to rest, and I could walk not far from them. I walked along the overgrown path and looked at the trees. I didn't notice how I had moved too far. At first I decided to call for help, but then I remembered what cartoon characters do, and decided to find my way on my own and go back. I began to retrace my steps. Then I realized that I was confused and started crying. Suddenly, I heard my grandfather’s voice and shouted back. It turned out that I had not gone far at all, and our camp was behind two bushes.

After this incident, my grandmother told me that as soon as I realized that I was lost, I should scream and call for help. If I had gone the other way, I could have gone very far and gotten really lost. Now I know that if I lose sight of the adults again, I will stop in place and call them so as not to get even more lost.

Essay 2 option - A memorable incident

I would like to tell you about an incident on the eve of May 9th. One day, a school organizer came into the classroom and told the students about the idea of ​​visiting all the WWII veterans in our village and helping around the house, doing what the old people asked. We naturally agreed, chose several addresses and shared among ourselves. We ended up with 5 people per 1 veteran.

On the second day, immediately after school, we scattered around the village. The team I was on found a grandmother who lived not far from me. I walked past her yard every day and didn’t know that she was lonely. It seemed like she had a family, because the yard was always clean and tidy. The curtains are always snow-white, a large number of flowers on the windows are constantly blooming, which means there is someone to look after them, the gates, although old, are painted every year before Easter.

I wasn’t the only one who was surprised when an old grandmother who walked with the help of two sticks opened the door for us. Tears appeared in her eyes when we explained why we came, but she let us into the yard and found work for everyone. Two of them cleaned the house, two of them went to plant several buckets of potatoes, and I got to clean the kitchen.

Seeing how she really lived, I was upset, because while we were playing and running around the village, we could occasionally come and help lonely people. The greasy dishes haven’t been washed properly for a long time, because the old lady’s hands are not at all the same, the floor is dirty from the dirt caused by the rain the day before yesterday, towels that can’t be washed, but only thrown away, and much more. It turned out that only a social worker helps her, who comes 2 times a week and also brings groceries from the store.

We completed all the work in just two hours, then we sat for a long time and listened to stories about the war and the life of Tamara Feodorovna. They separated when it began to get dark. After this hike, my friend and I began to visit this grandmother every Saturday and help her as much as we could. Unfortunately, she did not live long enough to see the next May 9th, but we did not stop doing a good deed and took under our care an old man living on a nearby street.
This is how one incident, one day completely changed our outlook on life and attitude towards older people.

Several interesting essays

Only a person who has achieved certain results can be successful. To do this, it is important to be able to set goals. They can be large, global or small, intermediate, characteristic of a certain stage

I am a fairly dry person. There were guys, but I didn’t have much love for them. So, I seem to like it, it’s nice to be together, but there was never a feeling of inspiration, as my friends told me. I’ve already come to terms with this - well, I don’t know how to love, but that’s okay... Who doesn’t it happen to? I’ll find a man with whom I’ll be more or less comfortable, and I’ll start living with him.

1995 One Good Boy and one Bad Boy went to first grade. It was so destined by fate that they both began to study in the same class. They studied together for 10 years. All these 10 years, the Good Boy studied diligently and tried not to get involved with bad companies. Every year in the summer he helped his parents at their dacha. Due to the fact that he studied very hard, read too many books and due to genetic predisposition, he began to have problems with his vision. The good boy was very good, but he didn’t have the money for laser surgery, however, his parents didn’t have the money for it either, so they bought the boy huge glasses with huge lenses. In the 8th grade, his parents divorced and the Good Boy began to live with his mother. A couple of years later, the good boy’s mother became disabled. And the good boy had to go to work instead of school, instead of going to university. The Good Boy did not work for long - he was drafted into the army. Since then, he has never received higher education and still lives with his mother because he cannot leave her. He doesn’t have a girlfriend, and he’s already over 30 years old. With a hysterical mother, terrible appearance and huge glasses, the boy faces a sad future.

Yesterday I was visiting a friend. And she, over a glass of wine, told how she recently broke up with a man she had been dating for about six months. While there was a candy-bouquet period, everything went very well for them, romance and all that. But when the relationship moved to a more serious stage, the man suggested moving in together (that is, he would move in with Natasha in her apartment, since he lives on rent). And he immediately laid down the conditions under which they would live, which made the hair on the friend’s head stand up.

My husband and I had three beautiful children in fifteen years of marriage and we didn’t plan any more. Even without that, we don’t always live well: loans, small salaries, and children constantly need new clothes, school supplies, and snacks. Especially my eldest son, he’s thirteen, doesn’t take care of things at all, his sneakers get torn all the time. The youngest one needs new ballet shoes and a leotard every season for dancing, because she is growing by leaps and bounds, and the middle one is already in full swing chasing after the latest gadgets and throwing tantrums. Home repairs have been needed for a long time, things are worn out, furniture is falling into disrepair. All is not well, thank God, as they say.

Many years have passed since that incident, but I still cannot forget the betrayal of my sister. It’s strange, but it seems that close people should respect each other, respect their personal lives and partners. But people who have never experienced the pain of betrayal in their lives do not understand this.

I have loved twice in my life. I don't mean that fleeting feeling that comes instantly, and after a few days disappears forever. I'm talking about true love, all-consuming and strong.

I am 61 years old. I have 39 years of experience behind me. She was married twice. There are two children who already have children of their own. I've lived an interesting life. She worked in the Far North and as a technician on the Black Sea coast. Fate threw it in such a way that it would be enough for several thick novels.

23 chosen

As a child, I was restless and caused my parents a lot of trouble. Recently, my mother and I recalled interesting incidents from my childhood. Here are some funny episodes:

One day, while walking in kindergarten, my friend and I came up with the idea of ​​whether we should quietly go home and watch cartoons, because it was so boring in kindergarten. And so she and I sneaked unnoticed to the exit; to our joy, the gate was not closed. And finally - freedom!!! We felt like adults and were truly happy. We knew the way home perfectly, since it was located three blocks from the kindergarten. We had almost reached the house, when suddenly our neighbor, Uncle Misha, who was going to the bakery, blocked our way. He asked us where we were going and why we were alone, turned us around and led us back to the kindergarten. This is how our first independent trip ended sadly for us, because we didn’t manage to watch cartoons that day, because... we were punished.

And this story happened to me when I was taken to my grandmother for the summer, I was a little over 3 years old. I played in the house with toys while my grandmother was busy in the garden, and then, tired, I crawled under my grandmother’s bed and fell asleep safely there. My grandmother came into the house and began looking for me, first in the house, then in the yard, then all the neighboring children were raised to help, who explored the surrounding areas. They searched behind the garden, near the river and even in the well... More than two hours passed, and adults already joined the search. What was going on in my grandmother’s head then, only God knows. But then, to everyone’s amazement, I appear on the threshold of the house, yawning and sleepily rubbing my eyes. Later, my grandmother and I often recalled this incident, but with a smile.

And another case when I was already going to school. I was 7-8 years old then. I must say that I really loved tinkering with my mother’s box of beads, trying on her high-heeled shoes and various beautiful blouses, but most of all I was partial to my mother’s cosmetic bag. And so, once again, I decided to conduct an audit in my mother’s cosmetic bag and discovered a bottle of new perfume (as I later found out, my dad got this French perfume “Klima” with great difficulty, like everything in short supply at that time, and gave it to my mother for birthday). Naturally, I decided to open them right away. But it was not so easy to open them, I tried my best and finally opened them, but at the same time the bottle slipped out of my hands, fell first on the sofa, then rolled onto the carpet. Naturally, there was almost nothing left in the bottle. Mom was very upset then, and a wonderful aroma of perfume hung in the house for a long time.

I conducted a small survey among my friends on the topic of children's pranks and almost everyone had 2-3 interesting stories. A friend told me that she decided to cut flowers out of her mother’s new dress and make an appliqué out of them for a labor lesson. The employee shared the story of how she and her brother threw tomatoes at each other, which my mother had bought the day before for a wedding, but the most interesting thing is that they threw them in the room , which has recently been renovated. And he talked about the reaction of his mother, who came home from work and saw this art.

Surely you also have funny stories from your childhood, I would be interested to hear them and laugh with you.

For many writers, short stories are simply the ideal way to work. While writing a novel can be a Herculean task, almost anyone can come up with and, more importantly, draw up on paper short story. As with a novel, the content of a short story should be entertaining and captivating to the reader. With the right approach to selecting ideas, preparing a draft of your manuscript, and then editing it, you can successfully write your own short story in no time.

Steps

Part 1

1. Come up with a basic plot or script. Think about what your story will be about and what will happen in the story. Think about what you want to address or illustrate. Decide what your approach or point of view will be to the events that take place in the story.

   • For example, you might start with a simple plot in which the main character receives bad news or receives an unwanted visit from a friend or relative.
   • You can also resort to a more complex plot, for example, when the main character wakes up in a parallel world or finds out someone's worst secret.

2. Concentrate on describing the main character's personality traits. Most stories have one or at most two main characters. Try to come up with a main character who has a clear goal or aspiration, but is also full of contradictions. There is no need to choose a clearly good or bad character. Give your hero interesting traits and feelings so that his image is quite complex and harmonious.

   • You can use real people you know in life as prototypes for the main character. Or you can observe strangers in public places and use them as the basis for your main character.
   • For example, the main character might be a young teenage girl who wants to protect her brother from school bullies, but also wants to fit in well at school. Or the main character could be a lonely older man who decides to become close friends with his neighbor and, as a result, learns about her criminal activities.

3. Create a central conflict for your character. Any good story must have a central conflict in which the main character faces some issue or problem. The conflict must be introduced to the reader at the very beginning of the story. Make the main character's life difficult and difficult.

   • For example, the main character may have a desire or aspiration that he cannot realize. Or the hero may find himself in a bad or even dangerous situation, and he will need to decide how to survive in such a situation.

4. Come up with an interesting setting. Another key element of a short story is the setting, or the place where the main events of the story take place. For a short story, you can choose one central location and add detailed descriptions of certain episodes involving the characters. Choose a setting that will be interesting to you and that you can present in an interesting light to your readers.

   • For example, the setting of the story could be a regular school in your hometown. Or the story could take place on a small Martian colony.
   • Try not to overload your short story with too many different settings to avoid confusing the reader. For one short story, one or two settings are usually sufficient.

5. Think about a specific topic. Many short stories build on a specific theme and explore it from the point of view of the author or the main character. For a story, you can take one of the broad themes like love, dreams, or loss and explore it from the point of view of your main character.

   • You can also focus on a more specific topic, such as love between siblings, the desire for friendship, or the loss of a parent.

6. Plan for an emotional climax to the story. All good short stories have a cliffhanger where the main character reaches an emotional climax. The climax usually occurs in the second half of the story or even towards the end. At the climax, the protagonist may feel overwhelmed, trapped, desperate, and even out of control.

   • For example, an emotional climax may occur when a single man confronts his neighbor about her criminal activities. Or the climax may come when a teenage girl finally stands up for her brother in the face of school bullies.

7. Think of an ending with a twist or surprise. Sketch ideas for different endings that might surprise, shock, or intrigue the reader. Avoid corny endings where the reader can guess the ending ahead of time. Give the reader a false sense of security that they know how the story will end, and then redirect the reader's attention to another character or another situation to shock them.

   • Try to avoid the usual tricks for ending your story. In an attempt to surprise the reader, do not rely on clichés and familiar plot twists. Gradually build tension and suspense as the story progresses so that the reader is shocked at the end.

8. Read examples of short stories. Understand what makes short stories successful and interesting to the reader by reading stories from experienced writers. Read stories in a variety of genres, from literary fiction to science fiction and fantasy. Notice how the authors use the main character, theme, setting, and plot of the story to make their story incredibly effective. For example, you can read the following works:

   Part 2

   Preparing the first draft

   1. Prepare a plot plan. Organize your short story according to a five-part plot outline: exposition, setup, development, climax, resolution, and resolution. Use this outline as a basis for writing your story so that it has a clear beginning, middle, and ending.

      • You can also try using the snowball method, when you first describe the story in one sentence, then describe individual parts of the story, prepare a description of all the characters in the story, and prepare a list of scenes with their participation.

   2. Come up with a catchy opening. At the beginning of the story there should be action, conflict or an unusual picture that will attract the reader's attention. Introduce the reader to the main character and setting right in the first paragraph. Attune the reader to the key theme and message of the story.

      • For example, a beginning such as “That day I was lonely...” not only does not say anything at all about the narrator, but also does not interest the reader in any way.
      • Instead of the above example, you could try starting a story like this: “The day my wife left me, I knocked on my neighbor’s door to ask her for sugar for the cake I had no intention of baking.” This line of description introduces the reader to the past conflict, the presence of a wife, and the current tension of the situation between the narrator and the neighbor.

   3. Stick to one narrative angle. Short stories are usually told in the first person, and this narrative perspective remains unchanged. This helps give the story a clear focus and perspective. You can also try to write a story from a third person, however, this can distance you from the reader.

      • Sometimes there are stories in the second person in which the author uses the pronoun “you”. This is usually done when the use of the second person is essential to the writer, as in Ted Chiang's story "The Story of Your Life" or Junot Diaz's story "That's Why You Lost Her."
      • Most short stories are written using the past tense, but a story can be written in the present tense to give the story a more lively atmosphere.

   4. Use dialogue to better reveal the character and further development of the plot. Dialogue in short stories should always serve more than one function. Make sure the dialogue tells the reader something about the character speaking and adds to the story of the plot. Include explanations in the dialogue that will reveal the character and also add more tension and conflict to the dialogue scene.

      • For example, instead of opening a conversation with the phrase “Hi! What's your news?”, try writing “Hey friend, what's up?” or “Where have you been? I haven’t seen you for a hundred years!”
      • Try to supplement the dialogue with the author’s words like “she faltered,” “I hissed,” or “he shouted,” to expand the description of your characters. For example, instead of writing “Where have you been? - she asked a question...”, you can write “- Where have you been? – she asked demandingly...” or “Where have you been? - she yelled at him.”

   5. Include a sensitive, detailed description of the setting. Think about what the main character feels, hears, tastes, smells, and sees. Describe the scene in terms of human feelings so that it comes to life in the eyes of the reader.

      • For example, the old high school building can be described as “a giant piece of industrial architecture that smells of sweaty gym uniforms, hairspray, broken dreams, and chalk.” Or you can describe the sky above the roof of your house as “a white sheet covered with thick gray haze from the fires that spread through the nearby forest in the morning.”

   6. Finish with a description of the outcome. The outcome does not have to be direct and obvious. It can be presented as a subtle hint that the characters are beginning to change and see things differently. The resolution can be made open to speculation or complete and clear.

      • It can also be supplemented with an interesting scene or dialogue that reflects the changes that have occurred in the character's character.
      • For example, a story might end with the protagonist turning his neighbor over to the police, even though this means he loses her friendship forever. Or the story might end with the main character helping her bloodied brother get home in time for dinner.

   7. Edit the story to make it clear and harmonious. In most cases, short stories are limited to one to seven thousand words or one to ten pages of text. Don't be afraid to cut parts or delete entire sentences to shorten the story and make it richer. Leave in only those details and moments that are essential to the story you are trying to tell.

      • When it comes to short stories, the rule “shorter is better” usually applies. Don't leave sentences that don't say anything, or scenes that don't have any purpose other than what you like the way they sound. Be ruthless about shortening your story to include just enough information to suffice.

   8. Come up with an interesting name. Most editors and readers look at the title first to decide whether they want to read a story. Choose an intriguing or interesting title for your story that will entice the reader to read the story itself. You can also use the story's theme, a specific visual scene, or the name of the main character as a title for a story.

      • For example, the title of Alice Munro’s story “I’ve long wanted to tell you” can be considered a good example, since it is an excerpt from the words of the main character of the story and addresses directly the reader through the pronoun “you,” indicating that the author has something to share with the reader.
      • The title of Neil Gaiman's story "Snow, Mirror, Apple" is also good, as it introduces the reader to three objects at once that are interesting in themselves, but it becomes even more interesting how they are connected to each other in the story.