Sunday, November 18, 2012

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? 

No comments:

Post a Comment