Four is the magic number

A nice task for teachers introducing the four-part story, or anyone who likes to write!

When I was in school, I remember my English teacher saying that every good story has a beginning, a middle, and an end. This was preached at me until I got to doing my GCSEs when, all of a sudden, my English teacher decided that three isn't the magic number after all. She taught me that every good story actually needs four parts to it, if it is to be any good. 

The four-part story contains an:

Exposition > The set up to the story, where you meet all the characters and learn a little of what to expect.

Complication > The big problem which sets the action rolling. Why is it important that we meet these characters at this point in their lives?

Climax > In action movie terms, this is where the bombs blow up and the bad guys get caught. 

Resolution > The happily (or not-so, in some cases) ever after. We are given an idea that things are somehow different and the characters have learned something important or developed in some way. 

If four is, indeed, the magic number, then that is the number of the day! Here is my Numbers Thursday Challenge:

Can you write a full four-part story in just FOUR SENTENCES? 

It would be amazing to see what you all come up with!

My Own Example. 

Jennifer didn't believe in ghosts, haunted-houses or any of that hubble-bubble mumbo-jumbo, so she felt no trepidation as she put the key in the lock of her new home. She'd had no qualms about moving into the house where so much had happened, where all those children had died in such horrific circumstances. 

She turned the key, opened the door and walked into the waiting arms of the pale, wispy echoes of children, who clawed and scratched at her as if she could pull them out of their hell. 

For the 46 seconds that she lasted before her heart failed under the weight of her own terror, Jennifer knew that she had been wrong. 

Happy writing!

Lx