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The One Sentence Story Summary.

Congratulations! You have a theme, or, you have considered the importance and the concept of theme. Either way, good job, you´re on the way.

Let´s move on to our next GUIDE, the one sentence story summary. We know what the theme of our story is. We wrote it down, we made billboards for it, we put the theme on t-shirts, our group leader has the theme tattooed on their head. Now we move on to the next thing that everyone involved should have stamped in their minds throughout the rest of the project, “The one sentence story summary.”

The one sentence story summary is just what it says. It summarizes the story in one sentence. Pretty basic ehhhhh (I learned ehhhhh from the Canadians down here in Vallarta, thanks).

The theme and the one sentence story summary sound a bit different when read aloud. The story in it´s entirety reveals the essence of the theme.

The one sentence story summary reveals the beginning, the middle and the end of the story ( of course this is all my opinion think, do and believe what you would like. Though there are volumes written from Ivory Tower sources, we all have our own views).

Examples of the one sentence story summary.

Here is my one sentence story summary for one of my all time favorite movies, “ET.” Who hasn´t seen ET.

An alien falls to the planet earth, meets a group of boys that learn to love and appreciate him, and the boys help him return to his home.

Ok. Is that one sentence. I strung it out with some commas and “ands” but you get the point. But you can see the story in the sentence, and you can see the beginning, middle and end there also.

Here is my one sentence story summary for my book, “The Last Book.”

A boy hates to read, finds out the joy of information when combined with imagination and becomes a reading enthusiast, helping all of his friends enjoy the magic of reading.

Again, I really stretch this sentence out in every way I can to get the whole story in there, but you get the point.

This is the beginning of the writing project. You and your students may not know the names of the characters, and that is not important. In the ET example, notice the term alien is used and not ET. In the reference to “The Last Book,” notice “a boy” is used as opposed to the characters name, “Sillybilly.”

At this point in the project, names, gender, age, location, political affiliation, or shoe size are not the issue. Those are just the salt, pepper, cheese, avocado and onions that bring out one sentence story to life.