Named after Soviet psychologist Bluma Zeigarnik, in psychology the Zeigarnik effect occurs when an activity that has been interrupted may be more readily recalled. It postulates that people remember unfinished or interrupted tasks better than completed tasks.
Thursday
Share the piece of writing from yesterday where you change a mundane event into one that is suspenseful and maximum a page.
Read a passage and discuss the methods used to create suspense.
Choose one of the following prompts to write a short story thriller filled with suspense using some of the techniques discussed in class and found in your notes.
A near-future piece of everyday technology has turned against your character – and only your character.
A character thinks everyone is guilty of something terrible, but isn’t.
Someone witnesses a murder…except there’s no evidence that a murder took place.
A vampire or werewolf or other fantastical character moves into a quiet suburban neighbourhood.
A character can suddenly only “remember” their future, not their past.
Someone who purposefully creates a power outage.
A special agent harbours a paranormal secret.
A character goes to great lengths to cover up a mistake.
You are an author trying to run from writer’s block, which is an actual object that’s chasing you.
You find a hand-written note on your windshield that says, Drive west for 100 miles.
Ever since childhood, a dark figure no one else can see has been following you around, whispering in your ear. Today you see it lying a few feet away, screaming and asking you to run.
You’re sitting by a window watching the flakes slowly and silently fall. Suddenly something outside snaps you out of your reverie.
Your fingers tense around the object in your pocket, ready to pull it out at a moment’s notice.
Friday
Lesson on Monologues
Work on your short story thriller from yesterday.
Create 2-3 thriller and suspense writing prompts and hand them in to me.
Finish your short story thriller that you began last week.
Tuesday
Read a short story thriller written by a former student in the class and then we will discuss the techniques used to create suspense.
Finish your short story thriller from last week if you have not already done so.
Choose one of the class-created prompts and turn it into a thriller story using some of the techniques for creating suspense. This story should be longer in length.
Class-created prompts:
An unnamed lich monologues to a hero about all the ways they could kill the hero.
The final human being on Earth is slowly killed by a robot, who realizes too late that the human was the only one who could perform maintenance on the robots.
A person in a zombie apocalypse is having their house broken into by the hordes of zombies.
A hospitalized person’s life support starts to fail while the nurses are away.
A very pregnant woman has just gotten an ultrasound, and discovers that whatever is inside her is not human.
A person watches from across a field as a UFO abducts their significant other, then begins moving towards their position.
A very unfortunate graveyard tender is tending to the graves when a bony hand emerges from an adjacent grave.
Someone looks in the mirror but their reflection isn't there.
Someone wakes up one day and realizes there's no other humans -- they all disappeared into thin air with no trace
A teenager lying in bed at night.
In a world where everyone’s decisions are made for them, your character decides to stay home instead of going to school and realizes they are the only one in society who has the power of choice.
In the darkness of the forest he was more alone than he'd ever been...or was he.
They/she/he awoke on the side of the road in an unfamiliar town.
She stood at the gate frozen by fear.
Wednesday
Share your short story thrillers.
Continue working on a longer short story thriller using one of the prompts above or create your own.
Thursday
I will share a couple passages from some thriller/suspense stories.
Work on your short story thriller begun earlier this week.
Friday
Work on the longer short story thriller begun earlier this week. Class-created prompts are above.
Week 3 Tuesday, May 23 - Friday, May 26
Tuesday
Continue working on your short story thriller from last week. Remember this piece will be longer than your previous stories and should contain all elements of a story as well as a lot of suspense! In order to be considered a short story, a reader should be able to read your piece in one sitting. For this assignment, write a minimum of 5 pages and a maximum of 12 pages. It is helpful to create a plot diagram and map out the events in the story if you are stuck.
Wednesday
Continue writing your short story thriller. Feel free to share what you have with me via email, and I will check in with you throughout the week to read what you have so far, or to assist you if you have writer's block.
Thursday
Work on your short story thriller or your children's book/story.
Friday
Try to finish the first draft of your short story thriller and be ready for a peer review next week.
Week 4 Monday, May 29 - Friday, June 2
Monday
Finish the first draft of your short story thriller. This piece should be 5-12 pages in length and contain all the elements of a story. Remember to use multiple methods to create suspense.
Tuesday
Peer review of short story thrillers.
Wednesday
Peer review of short story thrillers.
Thursday
Revision work and catch-up.
Work on your children's story if you have not already finished it.
Friday
Class end of unit celebration and sharing of short story thrillers!