Use this activity to engage all types of learners, while requiring that they refer to and incorporate details from the text over the course of the activity.

ACTIVITY: Writing Epistolary Fiction

In the Pre-Reading Prompt, you told a true story in a letter or email to someone you know. In this Activity, expand your epistolary skills by writing a short piece of fiction through letters, blog posts, texts, or other documents in the epistolary form.

• Create two characters who will dialogue via letters, posts, texts, comments, emails, or some combination of forms.
• The conflict should be apparent within the first or second document.
• Recall the traditional parts of a short story: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution. These can serve as an outline if needed or helpful.
• Draft and revise your story; use peer editing partners or circles as time allows.

If you have the opportunity to read your story aloud, choose a partner to represent the second character’s voice or documents.

Teaching Suggestion: Consider sharing excerpts of middle grade or YA epistolary stories such as Beverly Cleary’s Dear Mr. Henshaw or Same Sun Here by Silas House, Neela Vaswani, and Hilary Schenker, along with Archie’s War: A Scrapbook of the First World War by Marcia Williams, or even a choice in the Wimpy Kid Series.