Question

Using the given prompts create an interesting and intriguing story in 200- 250words:
Your character is on vacation in _______ (choose a place where you'd like to take a vacation in your imagination). One evening, when she returns to her hotel room, she finds a dead body on the floor. She flees the room and runs down to the lobby, where the hotel receptionist calls the police. But when the police go up to her room, there is no body there, and no sign that any crime was committed. No one believes your character, so she decides to investigate on her own. Her first step will be to follow that man who keeps turning up at the hotel bar and the swimming pool and whose odd behavior has aroused her suspicions. If only she could find a way to get into his room and take a look around.

Answer 1

The revelation, the heart of the matter, the core meaning — all the same thing when it comes to short story writing. To pay homage to Fitzgerald, we’ll call this component the “key emotion.” The key emotion in your story is the feeling or impression you want to give your readers that will stick with them, possibly for the rest of their lives. Despite the name, devising a key emotion is more complicated than simply picking an adjective out of thin air (“happy,” “sad,” “angry,” etc.). You need to focus on more than just the feeling — think about the context you will use to articulate it. What kind of story do you want to tell, and how will you tell it?