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DAY 2 TOPICS:
What Makes a Story?Writer’s NotebookYour Writing Process
What is Fiction?
a made-up story
actor and storyteller
painter and filmmaker
short story writer
symbols form words, which multiply to create sentences and paragraphs
words act with your imagination in such a way as to invite you into the reality of a story—you step through the looking glass—and you have no choice but to empathize with those who live in the alternate reality
powerful and portable
Humans possess a primal need for fiction—why?
What is Story?
narrative of eventsexternal
psychological
moves through and/or implies passage of time
involves change
Generalizing about Forms
SHORT STORY
a song
15,000 words maximum, or no more
than 60 typed pages average short story is the length of a
book chapter recent flash fiction is 1-2 pages in
length scope is narrow stories dig deeply, but never wander
outside of their tight focus
EXAMPLES Cheever's "The Swimmer": a man's
attempt to swim home via neighbors' swimming pools
Wolff's "A Bullet in the Brain": focuses on a few minutes while a book critic stands in line at a bank
NOVEL
a symphony
80,000 words, or 300+ typed pages Bigger: more characters, more scenes,
more development, more heft central story is set within a swirling
world of activities (i.e., a plot accompanied by sub-plots)
EXAMPLES Tolstoy's War and Peace: countless
characters over years and thousands of mile and all aspects of humanity
Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye: several days in the life of a teenager
Joyce's Ulysses: 800 pages, weaving in and out of various minds and styles--one single day
What Makes Stories Succeed? “Anyone who has lived to the age of eighteen has enough stories to last a lifetime.” ~Flannery O’Connor
Idea Seeds: Writer’s Notebook
Didion’s Writer’s Notebook
Seeds are Everywhere—in the eccentric & exotic and the ordinary: character
name
situation
structure
overheard dialogue
setting
theme
vague feeling
WILLIAM LEAST HEAT MOON’S BLUE HIGHWAYS
Your observation skills will become refined—other senses will intensify also. The world around you will become more alive, vibrant, multidimensional, entertaining, and meaningful.
Your First Writer’s Notebook Entries
YOU HAVE 2 MINUTES TO CREATE A LIST:
What are things you most love?
YOU HAVE 2 MINUTES TO CREATE SECOND LIST:
What are things you most hate?
Near & Far: Fertile Ground
NEAR: write what you know
FAR: write what ignites your interest
MARRIAGE BETWEEN YOU AND THINGS OUTSIDE OF YOURSELF.
Henry James: develop “the power to guess the unseen from the seen.”
Look at other people and imagine who they really are and what it would be like to walk around in their shoes.
Walk in Her Shoes
Try His
Or Theirs
Invite Strangers into Your Head
WRITING EXERCISE
JR 5: Jump Starts Think back over the past week—recall one stranger who made you think
twice about their presence or your interaction. Write about it quickly. Think back—list 3 outdoors settings you’ve visited recently. What room do you spend the most time in at home? If I went through your inside trash right now, what would I find? Think of the person with whom you spend the most time: what is the one
thing they habitually say or do that drives you crazy? What is one thing about you that very few people “get.” The kind of thing
that makes people think you might not be so normal. Have you felt embarrassed recently? Why or why not? Choose a parent. What is the thing you love most about him/her? What do
you most dislike about him/her? What is your most vivid childhood memory dealing with touch (e.g., a
tactile experience that ignited your imagination)?
WRITING PROCESSES
brilliant and lazyor
clueless and motivated
Practice is required. Improvement is incremental. Designated writing times are
required. If you catch as you can, you'll catch
nothing.
clueless and motivated
create a writing schedule: choose days of the week and times you are most free and stimulated
force yourself (and others) to stick to your schedule—it’s more important to stick to your schedule than to write something fantastic
discipline is your greatest strength
figure out what works for you:
solitudeor
the stimulation of public places
"Hard" Time versus "Soft" Time
hard time: writing, writing, writing soft time: pondering work, research,
discussions/conversations, capturing bedtime dreams (place notepad by alarm clock)—like a crowbar when you're stuck
TWO WRITERS LIVE INSIDE YOU
FREE SPIRIT STERN EDITOR
Both do not see eye to eye, but they are a crucial combination for
success.
WRITING EXERCISE
JR 6: Portrait of a Writer
Invisible writing: turn off your computer screen, and craft a character description of yourself as a writer.
WRITING EXERCISE
JR 7: Make a Plan
a. With regard to who you are as a writer right now, what’s working for you? What’s not?
b. What writerly self-related changes need to be made to make the most of the next 6 weeks?
c. Create a soft and hard writing schedule you’ll stick to for the next month.
Writer’s Notebook
DIRECTIONS FOR WRITER’S NOTEBOOK:
YOU MUST CARRY THIS NOTEBOOK ON OR NEAR YOUR PERSON AT ALL TIMES OVER THE NEXT 6 WEEKS.
YOU SHOULD BE WRITING IN YOUR NOTEBOOK EVERY DAY, SEVERAL TIMES A DAY. DATE/HOUR EVERY ENTRY.
MINIMUM NUMBER OF ENTRIES: 50
Objectives:
1. refine your observation skills
2. heighten your senses on a meta-cognitive level (i.e., transform everyday life into something more alive, vibrant, multidimensional, entertaining, and meaningful)
3. start a habit
WRITING EXERCISE
JR 7: Cathedral
You have the remainder of the class to respond to the word Cathedral. Write as much as you can, as quickly as you can (i.e., let your stream overflow).