Chapter 2 - Drafting a Short Story - Practice: Want to experiment? Draft your own short story based on a news article.: Find a local news article and imagine what kinds of events might have led up to or followed the incident reported. Draft a very short story, similar in length to Proulx’s story, about what you have imagined. Your draft needs to convey a sense of place and time (setting) and people involved (characters). Keep in mind notions of purpose, audience, and rhetorical appeals as you draft.