We like to read short stories because we like to know people. We like to watch them
6. We want to know what they do and say to each other, 7. life treats them, and how
they try to 8. their own purposes. Of course, the people in stories are not realy' in the
ordinary sense of the word; a story is not, like a biography, a factual record of an actual person's
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life. Yet, fiction can seem more realistic and believable than fact, oftentimes, and a good writer
can tell us many truths about life. 9. a piece of fiction can call upon the free play of the
author's imagination, and 10. our
interests with suspense or humor. The writer's hand is
always behind the story, arranging events, making things happen, beckoning the reader on to the
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end.
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