12/3: Revising Out Cliches

Listening to a few famous contemporary writers give advice:  from Literature: Craft and Voice (http://www.mhconnectenglish.com/Delbanco/)

Take notes on what these authors have to say about the writing process...

1. John Updike

2. Richard Ford

3. Jamaica Kincaid  ("Girl")

4. Amy Tan

Defy Expectations to Defy Circumstantial Cliché (Writing Exercise)

·      In the past few weeks, to inspire the start of a story, I’ve asked you to think about putting characters close to their situations (ex.: make the MC a climatologist in a story that thematically discusses global warming); however, doing so can often set us up as writers to simply go through the motions of what would be expected if we so closely attach the characters to plot, or plot to characters. We may have a story that is structured well, but we may also bore our readers with a lack of surprise. We can call this plot cliché, or circumstantial cliché (one of other writing clichés discussed in Writer's Digest).

·      So, consider as you revise your well structured story so that it now has a stronger voice and a few more crafty, expectation defying moment.  First, look at these examples and think about:  1. What is generally expected from this character type and/or from this scenario?  2. How may I use the situation or setting to discuss a different conflict between characters than what might be expectedly going on in the larger setting amongst all characters?

o   Ex.: If your story takes place at a funeral, make the story less about the dead person or how people are sad for their loss, etc., Instead, what are some surprising things that one can imagine (or have experienced) that have gone on at funeral?

o   Ex.: You have a story revolving around the head cheerleader and the start quarterback of the high school (or college) football team. What is the easy, stereotype of their relationship? How might you take the story in some less expected directions? 

§  For example, on my example: maybe the QB is more interested in history classes than he is sex or beer or abuse!  

For 12/3

We will discuss "How do writers create suspense?" by discussing two short stories famous for their suspense and their ends:

1. Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour"

2. Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-tale Heart" 

For each story, I want you to record three (3) main points about how each author created suspense using foreshadowing techniques and the chosen point of view.

Preparing for Fiction Workshop

Six student stories, three hours, one day: can we accomplish it? Yes! That's about 25 minutes per student (to leave time for the next week's homework being assigned). 

Here are a few links I find helpful to my own fiction writing pursuits; hopefully, they will help you as both a fiction writer and a peer reviewer:

1. Kurt Vonnegut's Essential Tips for Short Story Writing

2. The Sunday Rumpus Interview: Bonnie Jo Campbell

The Workshop  (Do these things before 11/26)

•       For each story, I would like you to comment on one (1) major complication (from our textbook) that you feel must be addressed, as well as give some advice on how you’d like to see the story revise this issue. Make a positive suggestion about where you see the story having a possibility of covering _________.  Of course, make a note in the margins where that major complication exists.

•       For each story, make sure to praise what you see as the strongest quality of the piece – as well as point to a place in the story that fulfills that quality.

•       Make no more than three (3) editing marks – the writer needs to proofread their own work. However, do make a comment about specific errors you find them repeating.  Example:  “In proofing your story, concentrate on using simpler sentences because you have a lot of run-ons.”

•       At the end of the story, make this comment for each story: “If this was my story, I would have ___________ happen.” Discuss something you would do with the characters or the plot – the basic narrative arc of the piece.

•      This comment is not so much a critique, but a way of opening up the writer to different possibilities of what to do with their piece!

•       Was the climax predictable? What surprised you? Give your general reaction to the story’s arc IF you haven’t already done so.

•       Was the diction and dialogue believable?

•       Did you like the character’s names? Characterizations?

•       What, from writers like Vonnegut and Campbell, can you pass on specifically to each writer? 

HW for 11/19: Restraint | Balance

Your own short stories are due (six copies) next week. Below are two contemporary, award-winning authors whose stories can inspire your narrative's style, organization of plot, and conflict.

Among other things, these authors "write what [they] know"; Campbell is a born and bred Michigander and Diaz was born in the DR and raised in Jersey. Each uses these hometowns for the settings of their stories, which allows them to focus on the plots themselves.


Bonnie Jo Campbell's American Salvage was the 2009 National Book Award winner. The collection supports the lesson that a writer can imaginatively explore contemporary life with restraint.

Restraint in plot is important. You do not want to overstretch the action happening in your story, especially if you are not writing with a fantasy, sci-fi, magical realist slant. 

1. Read "The Trespasser" from Campbell's collection to discuss next class. Pay attention to how she transitions from the past to the present using flashbacks. We'll talk about how her organization and use of 3rd person POV allows for us to see two parallel stories of two of the characters. 

Junot Diaz won the Pulitzer Prize for his first novel, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, a story about a fantasy fiction-loving main character who has bad luck with woman and who does not live up to what it means to be a Dominican male. Diaz was chosen as a MacArthur "genius" grant this year.

2. I'd also like you to read Junot Diaz' "Alma," which gives you a larger view of today's literary landscape. Diaz writing style is, to say the least, less restrained than Campbell's in many ways.

Here in Diaz' story, we see contrast. Reading contrasting style is necessary for one's writerly growth. Despite the unrestrained dialogue and exposition for which Diaz is becoming more infamous, the plot of "Alma" is quite basic.

Character Sketch & HW for 11/12

Exercise: Working on our own Characterization Skills

·       First, pick a local setting: imagine that place, and what detail you need to clarify setting. Write down:  1. One sound that takes precedence.  2. One image that your character might turn their attention to at some point.  3. A smell a character might notice in this place

·       Second, chose the plot point. Write down: 1. Why are they at this place? 2. Are they here with someone, alone, etc.?

·       Third, provide the physical description:  1. Gender, height, age, skin tone, body type.  2. One to two body parts that represent this personal’s overall character well.

·       Fourth, how does your character react to having to come to this place? Write down the one main thought that comes into your characters brain.

·       Fifth, what is your character’s favorite word or phrase? Write this down.

·       Sixth, how does your character act in public, around people? Write down: 1. What is his or her physical reaction the first time they meet someone.  2. How do they react to someone they dislike? 3. What is their main defense mechanism for dealing with conflict?

·       Seventh, imagine a second, minor character that your character does not like! Write down only their name and the main reason they have a problem with this person.

·       Eight, now you can spend time focusing on crafting your character and how you want readers to see them by using the above information to draft a brief scene (around 2-3 paragraphs?) …

For next Monday, 11/12: 

• Bring in your Character Sketch revised (About 1 paragraph) to share with the class. What did you work on with the character; who was real template for the character? 

• Read Gabriel Garcia Marquez's "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" and mark the points in exposition and dialogue where "magical realism" exists. In essence, mark the places where the world and its physical rules are defined without being over-explanatory.

• Read Eudora Welty's "Why I Live at the PO" and note the differences in Welty's use of narrator/POV, dialogue and tone from both Marquez  and Hemingway.

56 analogies & Hemingway homework for 10/29

As we transition from writing poetry to writing fiction,  let's practice by starting a short short of about half a page to one page, single-spaced, based on one of the "56 Worst/Best analogies of high school students." 

Scour this list for an analogy that inspires the beginnings of a plot to you. Focus on using the analogy to extend -- and demonstrate -- the five elements of plot.

Also, consider the humor (for some, accidental) inspired by the writing style used by the high school author. Try to mimic the analogy's sentence structure (syntax) in drafting your story, as well as the overall voice created by the analogy. For some (only some) clarity, look at these examples

Examples:

9. Her vocabulary was as bad as, like, whatever.  --> This writer mocks, or satirizes, the "her" for a lack of eloquence with, like, "California Girl" dialect!

10. She grew on him like she was a colony of E. coli and he was room-temperature Canadian beef. --> The humor in this analogy is different from the above in that the writer does not mock, but does use a hyperbolic and grotesquely inappropriate image. In short, the image is a negative way of "growing" on someone -- which I don't think the HS writer intended!

Reading Homework for 10/29: Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants."    (Also, same story is linked here in a different format.) We will use EH's story to discuss more fiction elements. Answer the following questions:

·      What are our characterizations of The American and the girl?

·      How does Ernest Hemingway use exposition to help shape his characters?

·      Where does most of the action take place in story? What about the lack of physical action is significant to our understanding of these characters?

·      What are some of the ways the reader finds meaning in the dialogue – both what is said and how the characters speak to each other?

White Space | NoSpace example

Richard Siken is the author, and here is a link to the poem in its original form: http://undertowmagazine.com/scheherazade-richard-siken/

For quick background on who Scheherazade: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheherazade