“It was a dark and stormy night.” Thus begins the 1830's novel Paul Clifford and, of course, all of Snoopy’s novels! Encourage young writers to craft settings for their stories that go beyond Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s often-mocked phrase with a series of exercises. Additional examples of great introductory settings can be found in the paperback series It Was a Dark and Stormy Night. 

Concepts

literary devices, setting

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Additional Tags

literary devices, english language arts

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Instructional Ideas

• Consider having class members check out the Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest that awards prizes for the worst beginnings  

Classroom Considerations

• While the link to the video is broken, the remainder of the materials in the resource are well worth checking out

Pros

• The resource includes carefully scaffolded activities, models, and worksheets

Cons

• None

Common Core

RL.9-10.5 RL.9-10.10a W.9-10.5 W.9-10.10