Y07W37WR Speaking for Someone Else

Part 1

How to Write

Narrative – Short story

A short story draws a reader into a character’s world and carries them through an experience that changes something. It is written for an audience who wants to be engaged and moved — not just informed. The tone is vivid and personal, making the reader feel present in the moment and curious about what comes next.

  • Ideas & content: Give your character a clear situation and a problem or tension that matters. Include specific details rather than general descriptions, and make sure something genuinely changes by the end.
  • Structure & cohesion: Move from orientation to complication to resolution. Use paragraph breaks to shift scenes or time, and connect moments with time words and action to keep the story moving forward.
  • Voice & audience: Find a consistent narrative voice that brings the reader close to the character’s experience. Show feelings through actions and reactions — not just by stating them.
  • Language choices: Choose strong verbs and sensory detail. Use dialogue to reveal character. Vary sentence length — shorter sentences create tension, longer ones build atmosphere.
  • Conventions: New speaker, new line — every time. Use speech marks correctly. Keep your tense consistent throughout.

Common pitfalls: Starting too slowly with too much backstory — get into the situation quickly and let detail emerge naturally. Telling the reader how a character feels instead of showing it through what the character does.

Part 2

Your Task Plan for Today

The brief

Question: Write a story about a character who speaks on behalf of someone else and discovers, in the act of doing so, something complicated about their own position. You decide the situation, the relationship and what the character does when the moment arrives.

Stimulus: You are asked to speak on behalf of someone else — to argue their case, defend their decision or represent their point of view to people who have already made up their minds. You agreed before you fully understood the situation. Now you are standing there, and you are not sure the position you are defending is one you actually hold.

Task Analysis: This task asks you to write a story where the central tension is moral and internal: a character who has committed to defending a position they are no longer sure they believe. The drama is not in action but in the character’s decision about what to do when the moment arrives. A strong response will build that internal tension carefully.

Quick Plan

Before you write, plan:

  • The situation — who is the character speaking for, and to whom?
  • The complication — what do they discover about the position they agreed to defend?
  • The moment — when they must speak, what is going through their mind?
  • What the character does — and what it costs them

Characters & want

The character needs to feel real — someone who agrees to help before fully thinking it through. Show the reader their loyalty or their instinct to say yes before you show them realising what they have agreed to.

Problem / complication

The realisation — that the position is not one they actually hold — is the story’s central complication. Show this through what the character notices, thinks or feels in the moment before they speak. Let the reader feel the decision pressure.

Turning point

The moment of speaking is the story’s turning point. What exactly does the character do? This is the heart of the story — give it space and make the decision feel genuine, not predetermined.

Ending technique

The ending should reflect what the decision costs or reveals. A small, specific moment showing the aftermath is more powerful than explaining what the character learned.