When writing a short story, try to spice it up with some funny incidents. They say laughter is the best medicine, so give your reader a good dose of it. Include some extraordinary events. Your reader is probably already bored with the monotony of everyday life, and in reading your story, he or she is looking for something interesting, intriguing, and exciting. Remember, your story is fiction so give free reign to your imagination. Let it run loose. But at the same time, keep it relatively believable. If your story is completely unbelievable, it might cause the reader to lose interest.

Here is an example of a good short story entitled, “The Day I Got Lost.”

The Day I Got Lost

At 6 am, we set out for our adventure. The morning sun was just peeping over the mountain tops, casting its golden rays over the peaceful village of Moco Moco. The bags on our backs were packed heavy with food, clothes, and hammocks. We also had our recording equipment ready to do some amazing videos. This was our big day! A trip into the jungle!

Our parents had warned us not to go into the jungle, but we had carefully planned for this day when they were all gone to the airport to pick up Uncle Teddy. The plan was that we would be back before 6 pm because they would be back at 11 pm. We would unpack, wash our clothes, bathe, and they wouldn’t know a thing!

After about 45 minutes of walking, we entered into the jungle. At the entrance, two huge trees, about 100 feet high, towered into the sky. The floor of the jungle was strewn with fallen leaves that crackled under our feet. The air was cool. It was a magical feeling just to stand there.

Rosemary, Floyd, Dexter, and I all looked at each other and smiled in amazement. Our hearts were filled with wonder. Just then, we started to get angry at our parents for not allowing us to come here. Look at the happiness they were trying to deny us!

At that moment, a magnificent bird flew overhead. Its wings were 6 feet long and sported all the colors of the rainbow. Its beak was bigger than Dexter’s head. In a flash, I pulled out my camera and snapped a photo.

We walked a little further. A monkey jumped in the tree above us. It stared at us as though it had never seen a human being in its entire life. We kept walking. We passed a beautiful giraffe. Then a tiger ran by. At first, our hearts raced, but the tiger just kept going. Suddenly, we heard a loud roar behind us. We spun around. There, in front of us, stood an ape about 10 feet tall. We froze in terror, but we nearly dropped dead when the ape shouted, “run!”

We had no idea where the energy came from, but we turned and bolted faster than Olympic Athlete Usain Bolt.

It was dark when we stopped running, and we were sure we could never find our way out of this horrible jungle. We huddled in a corner. The night became pitch black. Floyd started to cry. Dexter had fainted, and we were afraid he had died. “Don’t cry Floyd,” said Rosemary, hugging him. “The children will laugh at you at school tomorrow.”

“Laugh at him!” I shouted. “If we get out of this jungle alive…they can laugh all they want!” I felt like screaming at the top of my voice.

We waited for hours. We didn’t think of sleeping. We thought we were going to die. I was about to faint when I heard the sound of a helicopter. We saw bright lights flashing through the trees. We got up and waved desperately. The helicopter came down. We ran to it. It was our parents. They were searching for us. They had found us. They hugged us. We boarded the helicopter and flew upwards into the night sky – leaving that scary ape and that mysterious jungle forever behind.

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Discussion

Q. Where in the story does the exposition end and the rising action begin?

A. The exposition ends and the rising action begins when a tiger runs closely past the characters of the story. Even though the tiger kept going and didn’t attack the characters, it caused their hearts to race indicating that the conflict of the story has begun. Right after that, the characters were confronted by the dreadful ape which sent them running wild deep into the jungle.

Q. Where does the rising action end as the climax is reached?

A. The rising action ends and the climax is reached when the main character was about to faint and heard the sound of a helicopter.

Q. Describe the falling action the story.

A. The falling action begins when the characters realized that their parents were in the helicopter searching for them. They ran to their parents in the hopes of being rescued and taken to safety.

Q. What is the resolution of the story?

A. The resolution of the story is that the children were rescued by their parents and taken safely home. The expression, “leaving that scary ape and that mysterious jungle forever behind,” suggests that the narrator has no intentions of returning to the forest.