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Your Fiction Project assignment for Week 03 is to map out a plot based on an entry you made last week in your journal – and then add a one-sentence theme.

Fiction Fundamentals	Week	Step in the Project
Plot/ Conflict	Week 03	Outline a plot from your journal. Get the plot for your story from your journal entry that describes an experience of conflict, such as a disagreement between friends. State the thesis or main idea behind the plot.

Step 1. Read the material on plot in your textbook before you tackle this assignment.

Step 2. Return to Week 02 and find the journal entry where you described an experience of conflict with a friend. The assignment looked like this:

Describe a conflict you experienced sometime in your life between you and a friend or family member. It could be at work or at home - or when you were a child. (Before you write this, check out the examples of conflict between friends in your assigned reading for today.) Hint: Spend a little extra time on this conflict experience. You will refer to it again in your Fiction Project.

Step 2. Take your journal seeds and map out a plot for your short story. Remember, just because the plot comes from your own experience, that doesn't mean you have to stick to your experience. As you develop your plot, you can begin to invent actions and characters, even the source of conflict or how things are resolved. You can also place the story in a different setting. Instead of Minnesota , it could be in Paris or Nevada . Of course, you might want to stick to what you know!

In outlining your plot, remember that it is an outline! Stick to the plot details - don't try to write the whole story! Most plots have an opening incident that gets the conflict going. Then the conflict builds to a climax. The climax is the high point of the story. The part of the story after the climax is relatively short. It is called the "denouement" or ending, and brings out what the character learns or how he or she changes.

At the end of your plot outline, write a one-sentence theme of the story. It should capture what you think the story is saying about how people live. A theme might be: "True friends are loyal."

Here is a sample journal entry that provides the seed for plot outline and theme (Simplified)

JOURNAL ENTRY: When I was little, my mother asked me to take some yarn to Grandma's house. She told me not to talk to any strangers on the way, but I disobeyed and talked to a friendly lion. The lion found out where I was going and ran ahead and swallowed Grandma and got in her bed. When I got to Grandma's, the lion chased me up on the roof. Luckily Dad came running over and chased the lion away.

PLOT: (Opening scene) In the opening scene, a mother and daughter are baking cookies. (Initial incident to introduce conflict) Then Mom asks the daughter to take a basket of cookies through the woods to Grandmother's house. Mom warns the daughter to walk quickly and not talk to strangers because a wolf lives in the woods. The daughter puts on her red riding hood and starts into the woods. (Conflict increases) She forgets her mother's warning and talks to a friendly fellow (the wolf!) who asks her where she is going. The little girl tells him everything and then goes on her way. (Meanwhile, the wolf runs ahead, locks Grandma in the closet and jumps into her bed.) Soon the little girl comes to Grandmother's house, knocks on the door, and goes in. Grandmother looks funny. (Conflict nears the high point) Suspicious, the little girl asks questions until Grandmother - really the wolf - (climax) jumps out of bed and gobbles her up. (Ending or resolution) The little girl is terrified until a woodcutter comes along, cuts open the wolf, and rescues her. The little girl tells the woodcutter she will never disobey her mother again!

THEME: If children obey their parents, they won't get into trouble; in our story, the little girl learns this lesson the hard way and determines she will never disobey again.

What to turn in this week: Submit the plot summary and theme for your short story.