School Stories Making Clear The School System Patterns
A school story that is written to allow transparency of the things that happen again and again at
school is not a simple collection or row of deeds or thoughts. It should concentrate on a specific
element of daily events which have their own structure.
You can take the relations between the teachers and the director as an example. In many schools
the director can decide almost everything. He makes the timetable,
he helps some teachers and students and does just the opposite to some others. He decides who is to
blame for something that happens and who is to be awarded for things that he appreciates.
He can torture a teacher, if he doesn't like him, until he changes to another school. He can set up his
often crazy rules and ask everyone to acclaim or keep quiet. He can change grades, if he finds the
complaint of a student or his parents OK. He can choose his co-directors and determine the atmosphere
of his school in many aspects.
In some countries the director can almost do what he likes, even things that are not legal. He has been
set in his position for all his lifetime, so nothing will happen, whatever the rubbish he does may mean to
others. And this is not only true for political systems of dictatorship. Throughout the world democracy
ends at the entrance of a school building (or a factory or an office building).
So, if you want to point at this problem, write a story about a director and his patterns, his behaviour
in the system that he can structure more or less. Take one of the possible topics, construct the action and
you will have it. I am sure, many of my readers will only have to remember their own true experience with a school director. Take one aspect down, describe the setting and the action, don't exaggerate too much - normally there will be no need to do so - and you will have a nice story about one of the biggest school problems of all times: the director of a school!
Samstag, 28. April 2012
Mittwoch, 21. März 2012
A storyteller is someone who tries to explain something he hasn't understood himself?
Maybe you know the feeling of having written a story, or perhaps you only told it to a friend - but they don't agree with you. You make a big effort to tell someone how things are, how they work, but you only earn
a doubtful smile.
That's not a catastrophe. Some storytellers have made the school killings of the last decades their topic.
There you can find several attempts to blame other people for the killings, not the killers themselves.
Some said, it was because of the mobbing. Some said, it was because of the unfair teachers. Some said, it was because of the dominance of special groups at school, e.g. sport teams. Some said, it was because of bad family and life conditions at home.
All these reasons are true, of course. They all play a role, and they can impress a young man of 16 or 18 or 20 quite hard. It is not easy to try being one of those young killers, to imagine their feelings, their experience, their complex situation.
But what kind of excuse is that? Is it reasonable to add up such elements and then come to the conclusion that it was something like logical or 'normal' that they made a school killing? How many young people in the US or in Germany have such experience, the same problems, and the same life conditions? Do they all make school killings? How do they manage their problems? Why do millions of others in the same situation not kill other students or teachers? Is there possibly some kind of concept to prevent them from criminal action, a concept that they can and do set up and practice themselves?
I've made a little attempt to look for a way out, when a deeply disappointed student is obviously planning a harsh attack at his school. It is in my story 'Mike's Plan', the first one in my 'School Stories'.
Henry Arnold, author of School Stories
Maybe you know the feeling of having written a story, or perhaps you only told it to a friend - but they don't agree with you. You make a big effort to tell someone how things are, how they work, but you only earn
a doubtful smile.
That's not a catastrophe. Some storytellers have made the school killings of the last decades their topic.
There you can find several attempts to blame other people for the killings, not the killers themselves.
Some said, it was because of the mobbing. Some said, it was because of the unfair teachers. Some said, it was because of the dominance of special groups at school, e.g. sport teams. Some said, it was because of bad family and life conditions at home.
All these reasons are true, of course. They all play a role, and they can impress a young man of 16 or 18 or 20 quite hard. It is not easy to try being one of those young killers, to imagine their feelings, their experience, their complex situation.
But what kind of excuse is that? Is it reasonable to add up such elements and then come to the conclusion that it was something like logical or 'normal' that they made a school killing? How many young people in the US or in Germany have such experience, the same problems, and the same life conditions? Do they all make school killings? How do they manage their problems? Why do millions of others in the same situation not kill other students or teachers? Is there possibly some kind of concept to prevent them from criminal action, a concept that they can and do set up and practice themselves?
I've made a little attempt to look for a way out, when a deeply disappointed student is obviously planning a harsh attack at his school. It is in my story 'Mike's Plan', the first one in my 'School Stories'.
Henry Arnold, author of School Stories
Dienstag, 6. März 2012
An incentive for writing a school story
You remember or experience a situation in which a school system representative (teacher or director)
lied on an important issue, let's say a grading in a central subject.
What could you do with such an event to make it the core of a school story?
- Let the student tell about his disappointment being lied to on grading by a teacher/director
- Describe the student who really needs a good grade in this very subject
- Imagine the lots of work she/he did to improve in the coming school report
- Mention the progress that was visible in the tests and papers
- Show how friends and parents where happy that things got better
- Move the story to a point where it seems absolutely clear that improvement was done
- Depict a little scene where the teacher giving the grade was angry about this student
- Give some background why he felt motivated to refuse the better grade finally
- Tell details about his close relation to the director who wants bade grades at his school
- Let him utter some of the spreaded teacher rubbish about "good teachers give bad grades"
- Make a hint on the school system based on a scale of 5 or 6 grades that must be applied
So far, this might be enough. Can you use such a list of incentives to write a school story?
Use your fantasy, and you will find a beginning, an end and of course your own central action part.
My idea is, lying as one of the typical patterns of school life, used every minute at every school, especially by the weak characters that work there and are asked to educate young people. The reason is: the system awards them for lying, and they get punished for telling things as they are.The problem is: the leaders of the school system, directors and supervisors on higher levels, stick too often to the rules of lying, simply to avoid questions and quarrels.
Henry Arnold, author of 'School Stories'
You remember or experience a situation in which a school system representative (teacher or director)
lied on an important issue, let's say a grading in a central subject.
What could you do with such an event to make it the core of a school story?
- Let the student tell about his disappointment being lied to on grading by a teacher/director
- Describe the student who really needs a good grade in this very subject
- Imagine the lots of work she/he did to improve in the coming school report
- Mention the progress that was visible in the tests and papers
- Show how friends and parents where happy that things got better
- Move the story to a point where it seems absolutely clear that improvement was done
- Depict a little scene where the teacher giving the grade was angry about this student
- Give some background why he felt motivated to refuse the better grade finally
- Tell details about his close relation to the director who wants bade grades at his school
- Let him utter some of the spreaded teacher rubbish about "good teachers give bad grades"
- Make a hint on the school system based on a scale of 5 or 6 grades that must be applied
So far, this might be enough. Can you use such a list of incentives to write a school story?
Use your fantasy, and you will find a beginning, an end and of course your own central action part.
My idea is, lying as one of the typical patterns of school life, used every minute at every school, especially by the weak characters that work there and are asked to educate young people. The reason is: the system awards them for lying, and they get punished for telling things as they are.The problem is: the leaders of the school system, directors and supervisors on higher levels, stick too often to the rules of lying, simply to avoid questions and quarrels.
Henry Arnold, author of 'School Stories'
Mittwoch, 29. Februar 2012
What is the Difference Between a Short Story and a Novel?
A short story is built around one, and only one, conflict or problem, normally. It has some lines about the setting, some text about background which implies time and space, but most words are about the action.
That means, it is also short considering the look and outside of the characters and their world. It is forced to focus on the flow and climax of the action.
I want to show an example of a very successful short story, and use my fantasy to imagine it as a novel.
It is Hemingway's great story 'The Killers'. Two killers are waiting for their victim in a little restaurant, but he doesn't arrive, and finally they leave without having murdered him. As long as they are staying in the bar, they terrorize the owner, the cook and a boy who is often there.
The story has about 10 pages and covers all the elements of a piece of high quality literature: a special setting, some central and very typical characters, a developing conflict, a climax of action, and a solution.
You might say, it is a short novel, and a novel is a long short story. But this is only true to some degree. There is a special difference between the two forms, and it is not only length.
The typical aspect of a short story is the focus on the action and the conflict. The novel has much more space for other elements like place and time, descriptions, unimportant details, the look of people or things, and perhaps the thoughts and feelings of the characters.
The short story makes everything short, in so far its name is correct. But it cannot really make the conflict and the central core of the action shorter than necessary; it shortens all the other elements, but this most important element of the text must be represented. Even though the short story is also shorter than the novel in this regard - the true reason is not the shortening of the conflict. The true reason is that the short story is limited to one conflict, the novel on the other hand can and must deal with several conflicts and climaxes; sometimes the novel has a special conflict in every chapter.
To understand what I mean, you could read some of Raymond Chandler's short stories, and then take the long forms of them which became his famous thrillers. As an alternative, imagine 'The Killers' as the central chapter of a novel. What has happened before they come to the restaurant, and what will happen after they have left? You will need several chapters and many pages to write this fantasy novel.
Henry Arnold, author of 'School Stories'
A short story is built around one, and only one, conflict or problem, normally. It has some lines about the setting, some text about background which implies time and space, but most words are about the action.
That means, it is also short considering the look and outside of the characters and their world. It is forced to focus on the flow and climax of the action.
I want to show an example of a very successful short story, and use my fantasy to imagine it as a novel.
It is Hemingway's great story 'The Killers'. Two killers are waiting for their victim in a little restaurant, but he doesn't arrive, and finally they leave without having murdered him. As long as they are staying in the bar, they terrorize the owner, the cook and a boy who is often there.
The story has about 10 pages and covers all the elements of a piece of high quality literature: a special setting, some central and very typical characters, a developing conflict, a climax of action, and a solution.
You might say, it is a short novel, and a novel is a long short story. But this is only true to some degree. There is a special difference between the two forms, and it is not only length.
The typical aspect of a short story is the focus on the action and the conflict. The novel has much more space for other elements like place and time, descriptions, unimportant details, the look of people or things, and perhaps the thoughts and feelings of the characters.
The short story makes everything short, in so far its name is correct. But it cannot really make the conflict and the central core of the action shorter than necessary; it shortens all the other elements, but this most important element of the text must be represented. Even though the short story is also shorter than the novel in this regard - the true reason is not the shortening of the conflict. The true reason is that the short story is limited to one conflict, the novel on the other hand can and must deal with several conflicts and climaxes; sometimes the novel has a special conflict in every chapter.
To understand what I mean, you could read some of Raymond Chandler's short stories, and then take the long forms of them which became his famous thrillers. As an alternative, imagine 'The Killers' as the central chapter of a novel. What has happened before they come to the restaurant, and what will happen after they have left? You will need several chapters and many pages to write this fantasy novel.
Henry Arnold, author of 'School Stories'
Mittwoch, 22. Februar 2012
A Focused Look at a Successful School Story
A Focused Look at a Successful School Story
One of the basic elements and motives of a smart school story is a plan. You need a plan to write a story that is understandable and exciting as well.
I can tell you an example. I've published a story about a school director, which is humorous and critical. His name is Mr. Paper, and that is the core of his interest: paper. He needs a form for everything, even the least important trifle, e.g. for the 10-minutes-break supervision a teacher has to fill a form. If someone wants to speak to him on the phone, he has to fill and send a form before that.
He holds conferences and invests most of his time in forms. His desk is full of hundreds of forms, and every day he develops new ones. When a new teacher comes to his school, the first information he gets from the director are some kilos of forms. The biggest mistake that can happen at his school is to forget the matching form, no matter what action to refer to.
When there is a problem with forms, he gets in a rage. He is so keen on forms, collecting forms, writing forms, forcing everyone to use them, that they build the sense of his life. One day the head of the local school department comes to his school, and everyone is sure that his school is the best one at documenting school life and procedures - but something strange happens.
This method can be one of the ways to make readers of short stories think about the real paper flood at school - and make them laugh about this problem. Managing to write a story about school life that points to a true problem by using humour is, I think, a very smart way to improve writing qualities.
Henry Arnold, Author of 'School Stories'
One of the basic elements and motives of a smart school story is a plan. You need a plan to write a story that is understandable and exciting as well.
I can tell you an example. I've published a story about a school director, which is humorous and critical. His name is Mr. Paper, and that is the core of his interest: paper. He needs a form for everything, even the least important trifle, e.g. for the 10-minutes-break supervision a teacher has to fill a form. If someone wants to speak to him on the phone, he has to fill and send a form before that.
He holds conferences and invests most of his time in forms. His desk is full of hundreds of forms, and every day he develops new ones. When a new teacher comes to his school, the first information he gets from the director are some kilos of forms. The biggest mistake that can happen at his school is to forget the matching form, no matter what action to refer to.
When there is a problem with forms, he gets in a rage. He is so keen on forms, collecting forms, writing forms, forcing everyone to use them, that they build the sense of his life. One day the head of the local school department comes to his school, and everyone is sure that his school is the best one at documenting school life and procedures - but something strange happens.
This method can be one of the ways to make readers of short stories think about the real paper flood at school - and make them laugh about this problem. Managing to write a story about school life that points to a true problem by using humour is, I think, a very smart way to improve writing qualities.
Henry Arnold, Author of 'School Stories'
Samstag, 18. Februar 2012
How to learn from the great school story authors?
School stories can find lots of excited readers. To be successful, they should fulfil some specific conditions:
- build a situation that is to some degree typical for school life
- have at least two contrasting characters relating to school
- develop and depict a conflict which reflects the patterns of power at school
- deal with a special action at a special school
- be as short as possible to make it an exciting school story
- have at least three main parts which any good short story needs: an introduction, a central action, and an ending or a solution.
As an example of an excellent school story, I recommend reading John O'Hara's 'Do you like it here?'. It is a very short story about a narrow-minded high school teacher who focuses all his prejudices and mental limits on a student who seems to be the ideal scapegoat from his point of view.
The politics of scapegoat is still one of the most important problems at school nowadays. It will not be easy to overcome it, as the search for scapegoats goes on to be a driving force in many parts of life and society. Maybe it is sufficient to mention the situation of minorities in many countries.
Henry Arnold, author of 'School Stories'
School stories can find lots of excited readers. To be successful, they should fulfil some specific conditions:
- build a situation that is to some degree typical for school life
- have at least two contrasting characters relating to school
- develop and depict a conflict which reflects the patterns of power at school
- deal with a special action at a special school
- be as short as possible to make it an exciting school story
- have at least three main parts which any good short story needs: an introduction, a central action, and an ending or a solution.
As an example of an excellent school story, I recommend reading John O'Hara's 'Do you like it here?'. It is a very short story about a narrow-minded high school teacher who focuses all his prejudices and mental limits on a student who seems to be the ideal scapegoat from his point of view.
The politics of scapegoat is still one of the most important problems at school nowadays. It will not be easy to overcome it, as the search for scapegoats goes on to be a driving force in many parts of life and society. Maybe it is sufficient to mention the situation of minorities in many countries.
Henry Arnold, author of 'School Stories'
Mittwoch, 15. Februar 2012
How can you make social problems the theme of a school story?
When you write a school story, there are many topics you can choose. One of them is the social background of the students. You will always and at every school - that's my view - find that social structure is reflected by patterns within school.
For example, take the wealthy lawyer who has his son in a class with a new teacher who is not conventional.
Such a teacher could try to consider all his students completely neutrally. He will give grades that have only one basis: the performance of the student. He will not consider frequent tendencies to grade the same student again and again with the same result. He or she will not look at the grades from the class or year before. He will not react when the lawyer calls him up after his son got a B or a C for the first time in his school career, because he is sure that it is correct.
Think about the mechanismus that might follow. The wealthy parents will call for a date with the director. He will discuss with them for two hours, and then ask the teacher to think about the grade. He will, possibly, accept, when the teacher says it is sure and he has corrected the test or the paper very carefully. But maybe he is one of the directors who play the role of rulers at school, the frequent type who likes power and tricking.
He is going to tell the teacher he has to change the grade, otherwise there might be a lawsuit, and he claims that would be very bad for the image of the school and such things. How can the teacher react? Who will help him, if this is the normal procedure the director uses when parents complain, especially those parents with some money or power?
And imagine what wiill happen if the one who complains is an employed office worker. How many seconds do you think will the director talk to him on the phone? Will he talk to him?
Henry Arnold, author of "School Stories"
When you write a school story, there are many topics you can choose. One of them is the social background of the students. You will always and at every school - that's my view - find that social structure is reflected by patterns within school.
For example, take the wealthy lawyer who has his son in a class with a new teacher who is not conventional.
Such a teacher could try to consider all his students completely neutrally. He will give grades that have only one basis: the performance of the student. He will not consider frequent tendencies to grade the same student again and again with the same result. He or she will not look at the grades from the class or year before. He will not react when the lawyer calls him up after his son got a B or a C for the first time in his school career, because he is sure that it is correct.
Think about the mechanismus that might follow. The wealthy parents will call for a date with the director. He will discuss with them for two hours, and then ask the teacher to think about the grade. He will, possibly, accept, when the teacher says it is sure and he has corrected the test or the paper very carefully. But maybe he is one of the directors who play the role of rulers at school, the frequent type who likes power and tricking.
He is going to tell the teacher he has to change the grade, otherwise there might be a lawsuit, and he claims that would be very bad for the image of the school and such things. How can the teacher react? Who will help him, if this is the normal procedure the director uses when parents complain, especially those parents with some money or power?
And imagine what wiill happen if the one who complains is an employed office worker. How many seconds do you think will the director talk to him on the phone? Will he talk to him?
Henry Arnold, author of "School Stories"
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