Write Your Story

Do you often write your daily activities in a diary? If the answer is ‘yes’, it means that you are getting closer to writing a short story. Once this habit has come into your mind, you have to preserve it. If it necessary, the pieces of your diary can be put together with appropriate editing, so it can be a comprehensive story.
However you can also use yourselves as the main character in that story. You can also add many friends to be the characters, either by using their real names or imaginative ones.
If you are really interested in writing it, this article will give you a brief description about a short story. Hopefully it can be your initial knowledge that inspires you to move further in actualizing your life in a good dramatic features.
A short story is relatively brief fictional narrative in prose. It may range in length from the ‘short-short story’ of 500 words up to the ‘long-short story’ of 12.000-15.000 words. A unique characteristic of a short story that makes it distinct from novel is it tends to reveal character through a series of actions or under stress. Generally , a short story consist of five elements, they are:
1. Character
A Character is a person or sometimes even an animal, who takes part in the action of a short story or other literary work
2. Setting
The setting of a short story is the time and place in which it happens. Authors often use descriptions of landscape, scenery, buildings, seasons or weather to provide a strong sense of setting
3. Plot
A plot is a series of events and character actions that relate to the central conflict.
4. Conflict
The conflict is a struggle between two people or things in a short story. The main character is usually on one side of the central conflict. On the other side, the main character may struggle against another important character, against the forces of nature, against society, or even against something inside himself or herself (feelings, emotions, illness, etc).
5. Theme
The theme is the central idea or belief in a short story.
After you have understood what actually a short story is, now it is your time to proceed. Do not be afraid about the quality of your writing. When you have finished your draft, ask your friends to read it and give you any inputs. After that, make appropriate revision.
Once you have written your own story, you will go beyond the real world of writing. It is time for you to always write whatever you do. Impose for yourselves that writing becomes the part of your life.
As one of literary works, short story also plays an important role in language teaching. Due its characteristics, a short story provides a clear context for all utterances used. This context is significant to help the readers in understanding the whole story as well as in understanding certain tense and aspect used in a given circumstances.
Therefore, using short story in understanding tense and aspect of English can give more benefits based on two main reasons. Firstly, short story provides the context in which a certain tense is used. Secondly, short story provides time indicators. The combination of context and time indicator represented by the chronological order in a short story will be influencing circumstances that boost students’ understanding about tense and aspect of English. In order to get the great advantages from using short story in understanding tense and aspect of English, the teacher should take some considerations as follow:
1. The selection of certain tense and aspect to be discussed / taught.
2. The level of students’ comprehension
3. The level of difficulty of the story
4. The size of the text.