Historical Short Story - Fiction or Non-fiction: Recently, I attended a program on how to write historical fiction short stories presented by Pat Carr. Believe it or not, she said to start from 1970 and back to the stone age. Most of the audience had written a short story by the time the program ended. When asked for a show of hands to read what was written down members of the audience provided the beginning, middle and the end. Pat made sure we moved in the right direction to produce a good short story. The last part was for the writer to fill in the gaps and polish it into a sellable short story. An adult short story is ten pages.

In the beginning write down the year the story will take place and the location. Start with a theme/symbol such as your story takes place during the Dust Bowl, when President Kennedy was shot, or a day or year when some other outstanding event took place. What should the reader know before the incident-first set up the story.

Write down an incident that happened or is about to happen. The beginning is the hook to entice the reader to continue.
Who is the characters - use five or less, less is better. Start with the main character showing his/her mood, age, goal or problem. One character causes friction.Characters should have qualities of a caring nature, fear. bitter and etc. Does the main character or one of the other characters have hang-ups, life hanging in a balance(danger), life or death sitiuatin or dying; one or more charactors may believe it is, but to others it is not.
Write the story in the first person or the third. Stay out of peoples heads. Girls write from a girl's point of view and a boy from his insight.

A story should be a life changing experience where a person's life will be changed afterwards from bad to good or sad to happy. The end of the story should end with action, dialogue, or an image of the time of the year, weather or a symbolic note. Don't end with the dawn or morning,or have the weather outside reflect what is happening inside.

Writing the Short-Short Story by Marg McAlister can be found at www.writing-world.com/fiction/shorts, George Edward Stanley has written a wonderful book, Writing Short Stories for Young People, and Why & How I teach with Historical Fiction by Tarry Lindquist at http://teacher.scholastic.com/lessonrepro/lessonplans/instructor/social 1.htm