Y07W16WR A Choice That Is Hard to Explain

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 has made a choice they believe in but cannot easily defend. You decide what the choice was, why explaining it is complicated and what the character ultimately decides to do.

Stimulus: You made a decision. You were sure it was the right one. You still are. But everyone around you — your friends, your teacher, someone whose opinion matters — has assumed it was a mistake. You could explain yourself. But explaining would cost something too.

Task Analysis: This task asks you to write a story where the central tension is internal: a character who is confident in a choice but unable or unwilling to explain it simply. The challenge is to show why the choice makes sense to the character while letting the reader feel the pressure of everyone else’s misreading. A strong response will resist easy resolution.

Quick Plan

Before you write, plan:

  • The choice — what did the character do and why are they sure it was right?
  • The complication — why can’t it be explained easily? What would explaining cost?
  • The pressure — who is misreading the situation and how does that feel?
  • The ending — what does the character ultimately decide to do?

Characters & want

The reader needs to understand why the character is certain about their choice, even if they can’t defend it. Show the character’s internal confidence alongside their external difficulty — these two things in tension are what makes the story interesting.

Problem / complication

Show the pressure building through specific moments — conversations, looks, silences. The character doesn’t have to do anything dramatic; the tension comes from holding a position that nobody else understands.

Show, don’t tell details

The reader should feel the weight of the situation through physical detail and action. Show what it feels like to be misread by people whose opinion matters. Avoid summarising the character’s emotions directly.

Resolution & change

The ending doesn’t need to be neat. What the character decides to do is less important than showing that it is a genuine decision. Avoid an easy resolution that makes the tension disappear too quickly.