Secret Narratives

Talk about stories your have read or films you have watched where a character has a secret.

For example, in Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman hides how he feels and the fact he lost his job. In Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, Melinda can’t remember the long buried secret that makes her an outcast at school. Matilda, in Roald Dahl’s story, keeps her superpowers secret from her parents.

Write a short story about a secret.

Be sure to plan what your secret is, who is affected by the secret, why the secret is important, when the secret occurred, when you will reveal the secret in your story and how the secret shapes events and affects your characters.

Explore and model how and when to reveal your character’s secret. Model how to create a problem caused by the secret, and how that problem might be resolved in the story, or how a plot twist could be created.

Will the secret have a consequence to leave the story on a cliffhanger? Discuss unreliable narrators, foreshadowing, and building tension before a problem resolution.

• Read the song lyrics here.
• There are several cover versions of this song that each have very different feel. Have a listen to: Feist, Katy Sagal, Diana Panton, Raul Malo, Barbara Lica, Rod Stewart.
• To generate some random character secrets, pick a random novel. Take the first name mentioned in the story, the second noun on the second page of chapter two, the first place mentioned in chapter three and let your imagination do the rest!