9.26.13 - OOPS

If you checked this earlier and it didn't make sense... I uploaded an entry accidentally to all my blogs instead of the proper one.  Your notes are below.

Thanks for the tip-off Amanda.

9.26.13

For Tuesday-- for Read the sections of Voice, Description, Diction, and Style in the back of MSF.

----

Also read Donald Barthelme's The School .  Address: http://www.npr.org/programs/death/readings/stories/bart.html

Finally - in Art of the Tale "I'm your horse in the night" by Luisa Valenzuela

----

Write:

One *SCENE* about something calamitous happening with no characters from the third person omniscient *POV* 1-3 paragraphs. Refer to Description in MSF.

One *SCENE* told from the first person POV about this calamitous happening. Refer to Diction, Style, and POV in MSF.  At least 500 wds.

One *SCENE* with two *CHARACTERS* that is related directly to the calamitous happening (before during after but absolutely affected by the happening) -- that uses what you learned above to flesh out the characters relationship.  At least 750 words.  Refer to anything necessary to create a scene that is complete-- where something meaningful changes from beginning to end.

9.19.13

the gifs are here: http://mobile.theverge.com/2013/9/18/4743620/bill-domonokos-interview

and here is the Portfolio page (again):

____________________________________

PORTFOLIO                                                                                                  
Dr. Kaschock

Consider this a presentation of your writing process (not necessarily product).  I want you to choose pieces that are going to reflect the most spectacular (think spectacle) attempts you made at writing this semester.  It should be a record of both victories and failures—and most especially, writing still in the midst of becoming itself.  Risking.  Your revisions should be drastic in some cases… tweaking words and taking out single lines is just not enough.  Prove to me that you can take chances not just in the initial composition process, but in the messy white-heat-of-revision stage.

Your portfolio should consist of:

            1. At least two drafts of 6 pieces written this semester (no less than 15 pages—better 20-25).  It would be helpful to me if your drafts included at least 3 line-edited pages (per piece) by helpful peers.

            2.  A copy of all the glosses and critiques you provided for your writing partner.

            3.  For each of these 6 pieces I need a description of your revision process (either a paragraph or three, or sticky notes with arrows, or a hyper-text link, or a talking puppet who accompanies your portfolio and tap-dances Morse-encoded explanations).

            4.  A single-page response to an interview you read with a writer.  Look here if you don’t know where to look: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews

            5.  A single-page response to a professionally published short-story we read for class that relates that story to your own process.

            5.  A three-to-four page introduction to your portfolio that tells me who you are/were/are becoming as a writer and/or as a human being.  Please include somewhere in this text some details about your writing partner’s (or partners’) contribution to your work (do not judge them completely by what they “got” or didn’t “get,” but by sincerity and effort as well).  This is also where you get to display your knowledge of plot, dialogue, character, scene, development, etc.

Please make the portfolio pleasant to behold, handle, and smell.  Your writing exists as both process and object.  Personalize the object (with your other talents if you like) while attempting to objectify the process in such a way that frees you to substantially revise.

Cheers and best of luck.

9.17.2013

Read this-- a short story, mostly dialogue, set in one scene.  Maybe an AHA.  Steve Almond's The Soul Molecule.  Note how spare and how full.  How important the details.... ask why?  Also here:

http://stevealmondjoy.com/assets/stories/soulmolecule.html

Also read Nathalie Sarraute's XXII in Art of the Tale. A short short story with no particular scene and no direct dialogue--some mystery, but also enough info to decipher the heart.  This is also perhaps a type of AHA.

Be ready to compare the strategies of the two stories on Thursday-- with info from MSF.

And of course--you will be turning in your assignments.

9.12.13

This week we began workshopping.  Next week is our first longer assignment.  For Thursday 9.24.13 you should create a fully-fleshed out scene in 500-1000 words.  This scene could be a development of any of the small pieces you have been working on or it could be new.  It can be a story in and of itself or you could envision it as a section of a larger piece.

Limitiations:

• 500-1000 words
• At least two characters.
• All three types of dialogue.
• Something has to happen (not just memory, argument... actual physical action).

Re-read any and all of the MSF assigned to this point.  Particularly concentrate on POV, Character, Dialogue-- but all the sections should help you move forward from places where you get stuck.

Remember to OVERWRITE and only afterwards pull back. Remember that SPECIFICITY is rule #1 in this class.  

Also remember that RELATABLE means "able to be communicated" and NOT, NOT EVER "able to be related to"... the word you are searching for is SYMPATHETIC.  

Reading for Tuesday 9.22:  Re-read MSF up to this point (and some of you for the first time).  Also--read "Mirrorball" by Mary Gaitskill here: http://knopfdoubleday.com/2009/04/22/featured-short-story-mirrorball-by-mary-gaitskill/

Pay close attention to the tension between inner action and dialogue, between abstraction and the concrete, between boy and girl, real and imagined... and how she gives characters specificity without closing them off.

9.5.13

Thursday (9.5.13) we:

Discussed and glossed USE OF FORCE (William Carlos Williams).

A CHARACTER (see MSF glossary) can:

• Act ... actions in a row become PLOT... see MSF glossary
• Speak ... dialogue is a type of acting, in that it can affect other characters
• Think ... inner monologue heighten tension/friction which keep things going

Talked about bracketing as line-editing style.

Made prelim calendar based on groups.

GROUP A: Jacqui, John, Andrew, Caitlin, Sarah
GROUP B: Kim H., Alana, Raisul, Rhonny, Amanda
GROUP C: Chris, Kalin, Jessa, Pete, Megan, Kim P.

Current Peer Partners: Jacqui/Kalin, John/Chris, Andrew/Alana, Caitlin/Kim P., Sarah/Amanda, Kim H./Megan, Raisul/Pete, Rhonny/Jessa

*Bring 17 copies of your piece the class period BEFORE it is to be wkshopped
**You must bring 2 copies (one for your peer partner, one for me) of your gloss/prompts/conversation topics about your peer partners' piece on the day their piece is to be workshopped.  Prepare @3 minutes of intro for the discussion. These papers will constitute MUCH of your grade for this class. Plus--it's basic respect and courtesy. You are your silent partner's ADVOCATE.
***Everyone must READ and WRITE ON everyone else's work as well as join the class discussion about that work.

9/10 - Group A
9/12 - Group B
9/17 - Group C
9/19 - CRAFT CLASS
9/24 - B
9/26 - C
10/1 - A
10/3 - CRAFT CLASS
10/8 - C
10/10 - A
10/15 - B
10/17 - FALL BREAK
10/22 - CRAFT CLASS
10/24 - A
10/27 - B
10/29 - C

As you can see-- there are some times when you have a much longer stretch to prepare a work... if you have the desire to workshop a longer piece, those long periods might be the time to plan a more extended work (or a work that combines some of the shorter ideas we work on for CRAFT CLASSES and as prompts in between.)

In the portfolio (end of semester) I require 20-30 polished pages of THE WORK YOU DID FOR CLASS (this can be accomplished any of a number of ways... and can be 8 short pieces or one long story that transforms the techniques into a longer piece).  We will speak on this later.

FOR TUESDAY 9.10.13

Narrative and Point of View in MSF glossary.
Trauma, Specimen, and Bear at the Door in MSF
In ART of the TALE read: "Hunters in the Snow" by Tobias Wolff (774?)
Also "The Miracle" by Judith Budnitz: www.newyorker.com/archive/2004/07/12/040712fi_fiction

Hello Fictionistas 9.3.13

Today (9.3.13) you:

Stood up, found new people, read each other’s pieces.  Asked the author 3 questions about the piece in hand. Got each other's contact info (actually this was at the end of class)--these are your current peer partners.

Found and underlined a line or two that struck you as either representative of the piece, or as too good not to read.

Told us why. 

Turned in the pieces you had written for today.

Talked briefly about “The Thirteenth Woman” and “Fat.”  Glossed those stories.

GLOSS—to briefly summarize a piece of fiction while noting remarkable features and providing salient information about the techniques involved in creating the overall effect of the story.

Plotted the story based on the activities/nonactivities of the protagonist. 

For Thursday 9.5.13:

DIALOGUE exercise: Write in play form (all dialogue, no description-- i.e. Jack: blahblahblah. Jill: etcetera.) a back and forth between 2 characters where one is attempting to get information and the other does not want to give it. 

I didn't talk about it in class--but if you could please read (in the glossary section of Making Shapely Fiction) CHARACTER, DIALOGUE, SCENE.

Read “The Use of Force” by W. C. Williams: http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/force.html

On Thursday Jacqui, Andrew, Jon, Sarah, and Caitlin will be turning in 17 copies of their pieces to be workshopped on 9.10.13.

For Tuesday 9.10.13

1st set of Peer Partner presentations (please bring 2 copies of your gloss/thoughts/questions--one for me one for your partner).

Alana, Raisul, Rhonny, Kim Haab, and Amanda will be turning in 17 copies of their pieces to be workshopped on 9.12.13.

For Thursday 9.12.13

2nd set of Peer Partner presentations (please bring 2 copies of your gloss/thoughts/questions--one for me one for your partner).

Kalin, Jessa, Kim Pollock, Pete, Chris, and Megan will be turning in 17 copies of their pieces to be workshopped on 9.17.13

*If anyone is wkshopping the same day as their partner, let me know so I can fix this.