for next week

see syllabus for assignments

also, read Lamott "Polaroids" etc...

remember to type and bring copies of your stories to workshop and turn in

and see fiction writing exercises/assignments below; you should be working on these, finish, type, and bring for the workshop and to turn in on Monday and for the Portfolio on Wednesday...

Fiction Writing Outside Details

Follow the instructions below, focusing on one step at a time, to generate material for a single, or multiple, piece(s) of writing.

1.       Take a walk around campus (20 min; check your watch or set a timer). Make a list of at least 25-30 concrete details; try to stay away from entirely nature-related details but include a variety of kinds of details from things you encounter/notice/observe/think about while walking around campus.

2.      Come back to the classroom. Sit and work on the following, separately from the previous list of details:

Write a 10-sentence (or more) paragraph that describes an emotion you are feeling today without using the word for the emotion or stating it explicitly. Describe the feeling through all of the senses. Use images and sentences that evoke the senses, use metaphor or analogy to describe and evoke even further, use detail and description to make the writing dynamic and lively. Create language and images that are unexpected and get at the emotion from a perspective you maybe have not thought about before.

3.      Turn your original list of details from above into a list of images (whole phrases, lines you might use in a poem, or sentences).

4.       Finally, once you have done all of the above, see what you have. Work on deciding what to do next. Combine the materials from the detail list, the image list, and the paragraph to construct a single or multiple poem/poems or story/stories. You decide the genre and how to use the material you’ve generated to do the next step of the writing process. Write a draft(s), keep working on it to revise, continue, etc.

For Next Week

Follow the syllabus for reading assignments.

Keep working on the fiction writing exercises (Description and Qualities are below; the imitation exercise we did in class). We will have a fiction workshop in class on June 3.

No Class Mon 5/27. On Wed read Lamott (skip the Goldberg that is listed on the syllabus) and all of Juice (you should have the book already).

Write your blog post on Juice (any or all of the stories) for Wed since we don't have class on Mon.

Fiction Writing Exercise: Qualities

*Make a list of four qualities/characteristics that describe a character real or imagined. Place that character in a scene and write the scene so that the qualities are conveyed through significant detail. Use no generalizations and no judgments. No word on your list should appear in the scene. Use detail and description to SHOW the qualities through the scene and the actions of the character.

fiction exercise description

Description

Format:           

Under 500 words. Double-space if writing prose, using 12-point Times Roman font.

The Assignment:

1.      Write a description of a place, thing, or emotion, aiming to provide unique detail, without giving away the name of what it is that you are describing:

Place, Thing, or Emotion

Describe a place, but without naming the place. E.g., a place you know very well in Ypsilanti or in your home town.

Describe an emotion, but without naming the emotion.

Describe a thing, without naming the thing.

The aim in all three cases is to avoid abstraction and cliché and to pay attention to vocabulary.

Note #1: Try to avoid writing a riddle or making a puzzle where the reader is put in the position of guessing at what the identity is of the described place, thing or emotion.

Note #2: Do not describe a person or character.

2.      Put a character into that place or emotion (emotional state) to whom, or in which place, something happens.

3.      Turn this into a work of “Microfiction”:

Very short stories are variously referred to as microfiction, sudden fiction, flash fiction, postcard fiction, palm of hand fictions, among other terms.  Word counts vary as well, though most examples of these genres run under 500 words.  Also in productive dispute are the requisite features of a successful short short fiction.  Some writers call for a clear sense of beginning/middle/end and a conflict/resolution.  Others allow for stories that are akin to portraits, slice-of-life vignettes, or works of prose poetry.  Feel free to explore any of these options when writing your own microfiction. 

May 20 & 22

Please follow the syllabus for reading and other assignments (Lamott and Burroway readings on writing fiction; short fiction packet 1; 20 poetry projects from class writing; fiction packet 2).

Readings can be found on myemich.

You have the poetry portfolio assignment.

The 20 poetry projects is on myemich; finish it and decide what to do with it (rearrange, edit, revise, change, add, subtract) to turn it into 1 or 2 poems) and which you can also include in your portfolio if you like...

Write your blog response on the fiction readings; they are due Monday by class time.

for Wed

For the in-class poetry workshop on Wed bring 2 copies of 2 poems to share and discuss (from the poetry assignments including 20 word list, sonnets, Fluorescence exercise). Turn in 2 poems and use the other copies to share in a group and discuss.

Follow the syllabus for reading assignments.

for next week

Follow the syllabus for assignments for next week

Read the selections by Goldberg and Cameron if you have not already.

Finish reading the poems in the poetry packet and come prepared to discuss some of the poems specifically

Read the 1st half of Fluorescence and come prepared to discuss

Write your blog post response on any of the poems from the packet or Fluorescence. See response assignment on the syllabus.

Link to Sonnet Info: https://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5791


writing exercises:

continue working on the 20-word poems

write 3 sonnets: one in a traditional form (after Shakespeare for example) and 2 in a more contemporary forms (there are no rules, let the form take the sonnet idea to whatever edge and then go further)

Welcome to Creative Writing

Check this blog for updates, announcements, assignments. And look for your classmates' blogs listed to the right...