SHS

21st Century Literature from the Philippines

and the World
Quarter 2 Module 2
Classic and Contemporary Fiction

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 Lesson Proper

Warm Up
Before you start your learning adventure, please
try to answer the task below. This task will give
you an overview of what you will learn as you go
along this module. Make sure to finish this task.
Good luck!

Activity 2: Story or Not? Read the two works below and answer the
questions that follow. Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
A.

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.istockphoto.com%2Fphotos%2Fwhite-
babyshoesagainstwhitebackgroundpictureid136164127%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR06KnM6bwdTigmzB0Q
tRSObNamDUP924IjXNEkPBxXooUk4vKQN1cfUD7E&h=AT1Fi1pkPrGctaDnVWGdiU8lgbbNqEI1
pnuIZL5oqxhZgitTnRSid2KvlAkXEZMDQxzP0E05t8tE_0uszAcMouDNvPqFS89g9uKhlqOaJ2lVKx
ry8lj_gaJMJD8-ka2MZeJbNHkLD1-X7QcVMeam

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B
"Desert Storm"
Christine Stoddard

I did not lose the baby--she died. There was never any question
about where she was. First she was inside of me and then she was in
the toilet. She didn't hide. She didn't run away. I never had to phone a
search party. When she called my womb home, I felt her. When my
body expelled her like poison, I saw her. I always knew exactly where
she was.
We did not try again for a year because that meant putting his
cock where she had been last. Trying again would mean replacing her
and I was still sorting out what had happened. One day I was pregnant
and the next day I wasn't. I couldn't figure out the cause, only the effect.
He said I would be my normal self again if only I said yes. But I
kept saying no, and soon he was the one who would break down
sobbing because blue-veined cheeses go with gin and stout, didn't I
know that? Or the lint roller belongs in the top left drawer, so why was I
putting it in the top right?
The first time we embraced in all those months was right after I
downed too much Moscato because I had grown cheap and childish.
Even though his first thrust was hesitant and shy, I thought he had
punched my cervix. When I squirmed, he dotted my forehead with
kisses and I froze. The next thrust was faster, bolder. Each thrust went
harder, deeper. A voice told me to lunge for his neck, so I heeded the
call and bit him like in the old days before she died. He bit me back. At
one point we established a rhythm, an understanding. The last thing I
remember before falling asleep was suppressing a tiny burp that tasted
like semen and sweet wine.
The next morning, I did my hair. I did my make-up. I put on my
most beautiful Oscar de la Renta. I left the house and I walked the way
elegant people walk in old movies. I noticed birds and sunshine and little
white flowers pushing out from the sidewalks of Washington. I even
noticed little boys playing catch in their front yard without cringing. It was
Tuesday in Tenleytown and I headed to Chevy Chase on foot. I joked
that I wouldn't get there until Thursday and had a real chuckle. Not a
polite one. An actual chuckle.
He and I got into the beautiful habit of making love. We left hickeys
with no remorse. We wrote notes to each other and left them for each
other around the house. We said fuck it to cheese and wine pairings

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and had what we wanted. And then one day, the test came back
positive.
"When will I feel the baby?" I asked the doctor several weeks later,
wringing my hands.
"Soon," he said and smiled.
"No," I said, suddenly realizing how small my voice sounded.
"Why haven't I felt the baby yet?" I met my husband's eyes. He looked
away.
The doctor clasped my hand and said slowly and firmly, "Your
baby is healthy."
On his way out the door, he patted my husband's shoulder. I
sighed.
The next night, January 16, 1991, we were watching TV after
dinner. ABC News correspondent Gary Shepard was on the air,
reporting live from Baghdad, where the city sat in silence. Suddenly, at
6:35 p.m., Shepard said, "Peter, I'm looking directly west from our hotel
now, and throughout the entire sky there are flashes of light." Then
came the sound of tracer fire.
I almost turned to my husband and cried that the war had started
when the quickening occurred. It felt like the baby was brushing a
fluttering butterfly against my belly.
"She's kicking!" I cried.

https://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fsotospeakjournal.org%2Fdesert-storm%2F%3Ffbclid%3DIwAR1
oC-AoxT0pB0y-_pLpraS-czJVqOcV46ecpV7rC3X6znml0j807ciLUcE&h=AT2wxTBvadtCUoOXRsn9DOOX-fFOWL
ComsWbiggqm6N8hHO0O21mHbth7a4F7UTn2lZFibIwpUsks0a5jx_PUg7BKt7p7LzAYyAOgazy0c_nMyphsHkHiH
RksQLezTcpVenDzr9X03WeiR8nF9N3-w

Now answer these questions: Write your answers on a separate sheet

of paper.
1. Which of the two items do you consider a story? Justify your
answer.

Study These

Below are some discussions, which will help you familiarize fiction and
flash fiction including their elements, structures and other relevant
information.

What Is Fiction?
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Fiction is make-believe, invented stories. They may be short stories,
fables, vignettes, plays, novellas, or novels. Although writers may
base a character on people they have met in real life, the characters
and the experiences that the character faces in the story are not real.

ELEMENTS OF FICTION
The six major elements of fiction are character, plot, point of view,
setting, style, and theme.
1. Character -- A figure in a literary work (personality, gender, age,
etc). E. M. Forester makes a distinction between flat and round
characters. Flat characters are types or caricatures defined by a
single idea of quality, whereas round characters
2. Plot –- the major events that move the action in a narrative. It is
the sequence of major events in a story, usually in a cause-effect
relation.
3. Point of View -- the vantage point from which a narrative is told.
A narrative is typically told from a first-person or third-person point
of view. In a narrative told from a first-person perspective, the
author tells the story through a character who refers to himself or
herself as "I." Third –person narratives come in two types:
omniscient and limited. An author taking an omniscient point of
view assumes the vantage point of an all-knowing narrator able not
only to recount the action thoroughly and reliably but also to enter
the mind of any character in the work or any time in order to reveal
his or her thoughts, feelings, and beliefs directly to the reader. An
author using the limited point of view recounts the story through the
eyes of a single character (or occasionally more than one, but not
all or the narrator would be an omniscient narrator).
4. Setting –- That combination of place, historical time, and social
milieu that provides the general background for the characters and
plot of a literary work. The general setting of a work may differ
from the specific setting of an individual scene or event.
5.Style -- The author’s type of diction (choice of words), syntax
(arrangement of words), and other linguistic features of a work.
6. Theme(s) -- The central and dominating idea (or ideas) in a
literary work. The term also indicates a message or moral implicit in
any work of art.

Source: https://web.csulb.edu/~yamadaty/EleFic.html

However, as the making of these stories, evolve, other varied types

have evolved. Other than the classical way of writing fictional stories,
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we now have other forms which are still considered as stories. One of
which is flash fiction.

What Is Flash Fiction?

Flash fiction is a genre of fiction, defined as a very short story.
While there is no set word count that separates flash fiction from more
traditional short stories, flash fiction stories can be as short as a few
words (while short stories typically run for several pages). Flash fiction
is also known as sudden fiction, short-short stories, microfiction, or
microstories.
As a general rule, flash fiction is considered to be less than 1,000
words long. And believe it or not, you can study how to write it. I did a
web search for “how to write a flash fiction story” and got five million
hits, including some for courses that would take way longer to complete
than would simply writing a bunch of flash pieces until you get the hang
of it.

3 Characteristics of Flash Fiction

Flash fiction stories share a number of common characteristics.
Brevity. Flash fiction compresses an entire story into the space
of a few paragraphs. There is no defined word count for flash
fiction, but some commonly used word limits in flash fiction range
from just six words on the short end to around 1,000 words on the
longer end.
A complete plot. A flash fiction story is indeed a story, with a
beginning, middle, and end. This sets it apart from a prose poem
or vignette, which can explore an emotion, memory, or thought
without a plot.
Surprise. Great flash fiction often incorporates surprise, usually
in the form of a twist ending or an unexpected last line. This is not
a gimmick: the aim is to prompt the reader to think deeply about
the true meaning of the story.

ELEMENTS OF FLASH FICTION

1. A plot. To be clear, a flash fiction piece is a complete story. Just like
a longer piece of fiction, your flash piece needs a beginning, a middle,
and an ending. I saw one website that recommended writing an outline
for each flash story. I think that’s going a little overboard; your outline
could end up longer than the story. But if your story doesn’t have an

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ending – if, say, you find you’ve written a scene that could be part of a
longer story, or even part of a novel – then it’s not technically flash
fiction.
2. Characters. You don’t have a lot of space to describe your
characters, obviously, but readers should still be able to tell them apart.
Use telling details that you can describe in a few words. Keep your
character count low, and stick with one point-of-view.
3. A hook. A flash story should start with a compelling scene and keep
going. Just as in any other type of story, you need to include some kind
of conflict – an internal or external (or both) challenge that your
characters have to meet.
4. A slam-bang finish. Remember what I said about flash fiction
needing an ending? A lot of successful flash pieces employ a twist at
the end. Think of structuring your story as you would a joke; although
your ending doesn’t need to be funny, it ought to be something that the
reader didn’t see coming.

Enrichment Activities

Activity 3 : This and That Story

Based on what you have learned, can you try to compare and contrast
fiction and flash fiction based on their elements, structure and tradition?
Just pick words from the word box to fill out the Venn Diagram below.
Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
Elements Structure Tradition
Plot Complete plot Characters and
experiences that the
character faces in the
story
are not real
Characters Brief
Conflict Cause-effect relation
Setting

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 Fiction Flash Fiction

Activity 4 : Making Stories

Refer back to the first two stories in Activity 2 (Baby Shoes and
Desert Storm). Both are actually stories where one is fiction and the
other a flash fiction. Now, let’s try to examine both and see how they
are similar or different from each other. Just fill up the table below.
Write your answers on a separate sheet of paper.

Points of Baby Shoes Desert Storm

Comparison
Are there
characters?
Can you infer who
they are?
Is there conflict in
the story?
Can you tell what it
is?
What do you notice
about the plot?
Is it complete?
Can you write
down the
sequence of major

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 events in the
story?
Does it have a
theme?
What is it?
How is the story
presented?
What do you notice
about the number
of words used
to tell the story?

Generalization

You are almost done with your learning journey, and I

think you enjoyed your tasks. Based on what you have
learned, answer the following:

1. What are your observations about Fiction and the many other
emerging types of stories under it?
2. What do you think about fiction and flash fiction? Do you prefer
one over the other? Why or why not?

Application

Congratulations! You have come this far in your learning adventure.

And I think you are now ready for the real world! To prove this, read the two
stories below and do the tasks that follow.

a. The Lineup
The row of men in their mid to late thirties stared straight ahead.
Sarah felt uncomfortably like they could see her looking at them,
despite the two-way mirror. The lighting angled into their faces
would also make it hard for anyone to see out. It showed up every
detail of their faces and clothing, every flaw. Sarah tried not to think
about it.
Three of them were out straight away. Too short. They were so
far off, she was surprised they’d been included. She crossed off two
more with the wrong physique.
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Their shoulders weren’t broad enough. Number 7 had a terrible,
affected moustache. It made him look like a pimp or some kind of
cheap criminal. Wrong, wrong, wrong. She paused in front of
Number 12 and chewed the end of her pen. Right height, right build
but there was something she couldn’t put her finger on. She could
always come back and look again. Thirty men, ten minutes. Plenty
of time to make the right
decision.

She moved along the line as her mind wandered to dinner. She’d
come straight from work and had had to skip lunch again to run
between meetings. She realised she’d passed over 19 to 24 while
she was thinking about food. This was important. She needed to
focus.

Number 25, balding, no way. So far she had crossed off over
half of them. She ticked 28 and 29 just to allow some chance of
finding the right guy even though they were blond and she’d said
tall and dark. She went back to the beginning again and ticked five
more. A second look at Number 12 and she immediately spotted
what it was that had bothered her earlier. The shoes! Scruffy
trainers with an otherwise not bad pair of jeans – not Diesel…

“Can they all turn round?” Sarah asked the attendant. A buzzer
sounded and the men turned to face the wall. Number 12’s jeans
were not only Armani, they were a great fit on a very nice bum.
Maybe this guy had some style after all and the trainers were just
an aberration.

One minute left. The buzzer sounded and Number 12 flashed a

cheeky smile as if he knew where she’d been looking. Tick.

The Exit sign blinked and she deposited her clipboard in the box on
the way out. She let some of the women pass her. She figured being
at the beginning or the end of the women’s lineup was the best way
of being picked. Ten minutes of holding your stomach in and smiling.
MicroSpeed Dating, harsh but efficient. They should make that their
slogan instead of “Takes minutes, lasts a lifetime”. Source: Prentis,
Nicola. (2017) The Line Up
https://simpleenglishuk.wordpress.com/2017/02/24/the-lineup-a-
flashfiction-lesson/
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 b. Six-Word Story

“Who hurt you?’ “My own

expectations.”

What What
makes both makes both
stories stories
similar? different?

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Assessment

Answer the task below. Give the word defined in each item. Write
your answers on a separate sheet of paper.
1. A story which is unreal or make believe.
2. Kind or type of story.

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3. People who portray roles or are part of a story.
4. The sequence of events in a story.
5. A briefly written fictional story.
6. The problem that arises in a story.
7. The place or time in which a story takes place.
8. The narrator’s perspective.
9. The main character in the story.
10. The main topic discussed in a story.

REFERENCES:
Gaiman, Neil (2019) Flash Fiction

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/writing-101-what-is-flash-ficti
on-learn-how-to-write-flash-fiction-in-7-steps#what-are-the-
originsof-flash-fiction

Janos, Arany (2015) Jacob the Great

https://en.islcollective.com/english-esl-worksheets/material-type/re
ading-comprehension-activities/reading-comprehension-jacob-great/561
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Prentis, Nicola. (2017) The Line Up

https://simpleenglishuk.wordpress.com/2017/02/24/the-lineup-a-
flashfiction-lesson/

Fiction

https://web.csulb.edu/~yamadaty/EleFic.ht

https://images.app.goo.gl/J2MdgxLi7yJEmR

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