Unit 05 Story Telling

Unit 5 Page 48 READING exercise 3 SO YOU WANT TO WRITE A NOVEL, DO YOU? What's stopping you? Time? Ideas? Self-belief? Well, let me help you. Time: find half an hour to write every day. You'll be surprised to see how quickly the pages start filling up. Ideas: write down loads and then choose the best. You only need one main idea. Start writing and the rest will soon come. Self-belief: what can I say? You can do it. I know you can. Remember, your novel, which will be fun to write, doesn't need to be 600 pages long. You could start with a short one. What else do you need to know? Here are a few rules I always follow that might help you: I always like to start with the plot. That's because I like a novel with a good story. And a good story comes from conflict. Many of the best novels start in a good place where the main character is happy with their life. Then something goes wrong and as the situation gets worse, our hero is thrown into conflict. The plot is then driven by how they can make things better. But in their struggle to right these wrongs the character should learn something about themselves. The theme, which is basically the message that the story is trying to get across, is also important. This is something you should never tell your reader directly. No one likes to be told what's right or what's wrong. The best thing to do is to let your reader work out the message on their own. That way your novel will make them feel clever and they'll want to read your next one! Characters. They're important! Before you start writing, get to know the people whose stories you will be telling. Ask yourself questions about them. Get inside their heads and answer your questions. Don't spend too much time describing what they look like. What's important is what they're like inside. Who are they? What motivates them? Why are they doing those things? And they shouldn't be perfect. They're humans (presumably). They need to make mistakes from time to time, and as they try to deal with the conflict in their life, they should develop and change. Finally, you might want to think about your own writing style – the words you are going to use to write your story. You don't need to use long complex sentences or words that will leave your readers confused (but some variety in words is good!). You can keep your style simple. Think about the people who might want to read your story. Think about how to keep them interested. But be yourself. Write the words that come most naturally. These will always be your best words. So there you have it: plot, theme, characters and style. Follow these golden rules and you'll never go wrong. Of course, though, don't forget – rules are often there to be broken.

Page 51 LISTENING exercise 10 and 11 Hey, Lucy. What are you reading? Some short stories by Roald Dahl. The children's author? Aren't you a bit old? Yeah, but he didn't just write kids' books. He also wrote short stories for older people. Have you seen Tales of the Unexpected? What's that? It was a TV series from the 1970s. Each episode was a short story and they always had a surprise ending. Well, Roald Dahl introduced these shows and a lot of them were based on his stories. So tell me one. Are you sure? Yeah, go on. OK, the one I've just read is 'The Hitchhiker'. It's about this man who's got a new sports car and he's driving down the road when he sees a hitchhiker asking for a lift. So he picks him up. Exactly and the two men start talking. The driver boasts about how fast his car goes. The hitchhiker doesn't believe him, so the man starts driving really fast. Anyway, they get stopped by a policeman. Oh dear. The policeman is nasty and tells the driver he could put him in jail. He takes down the driver's name and address and gives him a speeding ticket. He also takes down the name and the address of the hitchhiker because he doesn't like the look of him and wants to check him out. OK ... So the police officer leaves and they carry on. The hitchhiker doesn't seem worried at all. The driver asks him why he's so calm and the hitchhiker explains he's a 'fingersmith'. A fingersmith? Yes, it's a word invented by Dahl and it means he's a pickpocket. But when the driver suggests he's a pickpocket, the man gets annoyed and says he's an expert with his fingers. To prove this he takes off the driver's belt without him even noticing. The driver says that when the policeman looks him up, he'll be in trouble. But the hitchhiker is not worried. Why not? Well, he says that policemen are known for having bad memories. The driver doesn't understand. Why would the policeman need a good memory? He wrote down everything in his book. That's when the hitchhiker proudly shows him the policeman's book that he took from his pocket. Cool. Yes, it is. You should read some of these stories. They've all got endings like this.

Page 52 READING exercise 3 THERE ARE ALWAYS TWO SIDES TO AN ARGUMENT BOOKS ARE ALWAYS BETTER THAN THEIR FILMS. When you read a book, you can imagine it all in your head: what the characters look like, where the action takes place – that sort of thing. Then when you see the film, you can compare your ideas with those of the director, which is always interesting. If you see the film first, you don't get to use your own imagination because you just see things the way they were in the film. It's a shame and I don't really see the point in doing it. For example, I read The Lord of the Rings and had all these wonderful images in my head. When I saw the films, which were directed by the great Peter Jackson, some of it was quite different from how I had imagined it, but it didn't matter. His visions were so brilliant and I wasn't disappointed. It doesn't always work like that, though. Sometimes the film version can be a real disappointment. I saw The Maze Runner a few weeks ago. I loved that book, but the film just wasn't right for me. In my opinion, the characters were all wrong and they'd changed some of my favourite bits. I didn't bother to see the other films in the series. I didn't want to spoil my own personal memories of the books. I hardly ever read books, so I nearly always see the film first. I think it's probably because I'm a bit lazy. It takes me weeks to finish a book whereas I can watch the film in 90 minutes, which leaves me time to do other things. But sometimes I enjoy a film so much that it makes me want to go and read the book. I love fantasy and science fiction stories and so I did that with The Hunger Games series. The films were amazing, so I went out and bought the books. It took me a bit of time to get through them, but they were worth the time and effort. I really enjoyed them, even though I knew what was going to happen. It was also quite interesting seeing where the film and book were a bit different. When our teacher asks us to read books for school, I always see if I can get a film of the book first. That helps me get into the books, which are often quite difficult. If I already know what the story is about, it helps me understand better when I'm reading. I did this with Lord of the Flies and The Jungle Book. Seeing the films first really helped me enjoy the books more. Page 53 VOCABULARY exercise 10 A historical novel B romantic novel C biography (auto)biography D horror story E fantasy novel F crime novel G science fiction novel

Page 54 Culture exercise 2 Storytelling in the Caribbean Stroytelling plays a big part in the childhood of most people growing up on the Caribbean Islands. It is a tradition that was brought over from Africa by their ancestors many years ago and is a way of keeping their shared culture alive. The stories are a way of remembering the past and making sure it's not forgotten in the future. And despite the modern distractions of television and video games, many Caribbean families still gather on the steps outside their homes, with the full moon in the sky and the wind blowing gently through the palm trees, to hear stories that they have already heard many times before. The storyteller has an important position in Caribbean society. But it is not an art that is learned quickly. Good storytellers take years to perfect their performances. First, they must collect a catalogue of good stories, which are often short and simple and should work well for people of all ages. They must then practise these on family members to test out their material before moving on to larger crowds in local community centres. From there they may choose to become travelling storytellers and move from town to town looking for new audiences to share their tales with. And the very best storytellers make it onto the international stage and travel the world. More recently many storytellers have started using film to reach even more people. With many Caribbean islands and people originating from many African countries, there are lots of types of stories to be told. One common feature though is the performance tradition known as 'crick crack'. Although this may differ a little in each country, the basic idea is that the audience participates in the storytelling. For example, in St Lucia, where stories are usually told in French, the storyteller (known as the 'conteur') announces that he or she wants to tell a story by shouting out 'Crick! and the audience show they want to listen by responding 'Crack!' Throughout the performance, the storyteller continues to involve the audience by inviting them to answer questions and riddles and to make comments. In this way, the storyteller and the audience become an almost equally important part of the whole experience. But as well as the many traditional tales and myths there are to be told, storytellers also create their own characters, and the most successful of these have become part of cultural life. One of the most famous storytellers in the West Indies is Paul Keens-Douglas, who was born in Trinidad but grew up in Grenada. Probably his most popular character, Tanti Merle, is known throughout the region and appears in many of his stories. Tanti Merle is a woman who is not afraid to say what she thinks and Keens-Douglas uses her as a lovable comic figure to make comments on everyday life in the Caribbean. Page 55 PRONUNCIATION exercise 1 and 2 Ireland's a nation with famous traditions. My neighbour's a brilliant classical musician. The monster's a villain who frightens the children. Page 55 PRONUNCIATION exercise 3 Ireland's a nation with famous traditions. My neighbour's a brilliant classical musician. The monster's a villain who frightens the children. Page 55 SPEAKING exercise 7 and FUNCTIONS exercise 8 The strangest thing happened to me the other day. What? I woke up with this song in my head and I couldn't stop singing it all day long. It was really annoying. What was it? That was the annoying thing. It was a song I knew, but I couldn't remember what it was. I even sang it to a few of my friends, but they didn't know what it was either. So what was so strange about that? Well, let me finish ... I got home from school (with the song still in my head) and I went upstairs to do my homework. I decided to put on the radio to try and forget the song, and you'll never believe what they were playing! Go on. They were playing the song that I'd been singing all day! So you'd just been singing a pop song that you'd forgotten the name of. Yes, but the strange thing is that it wasn't a pop song from now. It was some obscure song from the 1980s that you never hear any more. It was a song that my dad used to play when I was really small. I hadn't heard it for years. And they were playing it on the radio! What are the chances? Yes, that is pretty weird.