Further Revisions for Autobiographical Stories

Directions: Try at least two elaborations.  More is better.

1. Character.  Flesh out a person is your story (your or someone else).  Describe the character in more detail.  Select one or two things about the character and develop them like a cartoonist would.  How do his hands look?  How does her mouth work when she smiles or talk?  What about hair, eyes, clothes?  Favorite sayings?

2.      Let you shine through! Since this is an autobiographical piece, make sure YOUR thoughts, feelings, motives, and voice come through to your audience.

3.      Dialogue.  Let them talk.  Don’t tell us what they say.  Let’s hear it from them.  As Mark Twain once said, “Don’t say the old lady screamed, bring her on and let her scream!”  Don’t worry about how you punctuate it now.  Just use real voices.

4.      Scene Setting.  Develop scenes in your story in more detail.  Look for parts where you mention a place but don’t give us a picture of it.  Make sure your readers could draw the setting (s) of your story.

5.      Looping.  Find the best parts in your piece and on a new page write more about one of  these to see what else you know about this memory.  Run the movie in your head, write down what you remember, and then see what you want to add to your revision.

6.      Write More.  Finish it.  Tell it all.  You are being graded on the completeness of your story.  Pick up the story right where you left off and ride it to the end.