Plot Journal #1 04/15/13
Memoir or Trip
Choice A: Write a short-short story (no more than 250 words) about a journey. Give us the setting and at least two characters. They discover something that causes trouble. Let the main character make a decision and take action.
OR
Choice B: Write a short story (no more than 500 words) about a time that you started out on a trip but failed to arrive at your destination. What was the obstacle--weather, accident, mechanical failure, human failure, human conflict? Characterize both the people involved and the setting through significant detail; give us a sense of the trip itself. What changed from the beginning expectations? How did you change?
Choice A: Write a short-short story (no more than 250 words) about a journey. Give us the setting and at least two characters. They discover something that causes trouble. Let the main character make a decision and take action.
OR
Choice B: Write a short story (no more than 500 words) about a time that you started out on a trip but failed to arrive at your destination. What was the obstacle--weather, accident, mechanical failure, human failure, human conflict? Characterize both the people involved and the setting through significant detail; give us a sense of the trip itself. What changed from the beginning expectations? How did you change?
Journal #2 04/16/13
Three by Three
Intro:
We all know the classic story description: Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl. What is implied in those three three-word sentences is that a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
For example, here is Cinderella:
Cinderella can't go.
She goes anyway.
Cinderella gets the prince.
Here is the Pied Piper:
Man lures rats.
People won't pay.
Man takes children.
Although this story structure won't work for more complicated stories, it's surprising how often it does work, and how full these stories can be.
The Exercise
Break your story idea down into three sections of three words each. That will give you a beginning, a middle, and an end and help you understand the architecture of the work. BY having to choose three verbs, you'll be forcing yourself to consider the three parts of the action.
The Objective
To see if your story, like a good stool, has three legs to stand on.
Intro:
We all know the classic story description: Boy meets girl. Boy loses girl. Boy gets girl. What is implied in those three three-word sentences is that a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end.
For example, here is Cinderella:
Cinderella can't go.
She goes anyway.
Cinderella gets the prince.
Here is the Pied Piper:
Man lures rats.
People won't pay.
Man takes children.
Although this story structure won't work for more complicated stories, it's surprising how often it does work, and how full these stories can be.
The Exercise
Break your story idea down into three sections of three words each. That will give you a beginning, a middle, and an end and help you understand the architecture of the work. BY having to choose three verbs, you'll be forcing yourself to consider the three parts of the action.
The Objective
To see if your story, like a good stool, has three legs to stand on.
Journal #3
Power Struggle
In a story, a memoir, or a play: Place two characters in a dangerous setting. Each has half of something that is no good without the other half. Neither wants to give up his/her half. What happens?
In a story, a memoir, or a play: Place two characters in a dangerous setting. Each has half of something that is no good without the other half. Neither wants to give up his/her half. What happens?
Tasks for Monday April 22, 2013
In lieu of live class today, watch the following video of contemporary classic novelist, Ray Bradbury.
*There is some light cursing through out Bradbury's speaking. If needed, please contact me and I will give you an alternate assignment in lieu of watching the video.
*There is some light cursing through out Bradbury's speaking. If needed, please contact me and I will give you an alternate assignment in lieu of watching the video.
Journal #4 04/23/13
Plot Potential
The main thing to keep in mind as you're doing plot is that you're the boss and not the other way around. It's your story and you have an infinite number of choices. As a creator of fiction, you should feel supremely at ease in the role of story teller.
The Exercise
Write five mini stories (limit:200 words each) to account for a single even or set of circumstances, such as a man and woman standing on a city sidewalk, hailing a cab. Each story should be different--in characters, plot, and theme--from the others. (Meaning, all five of your stories have a single event like a man and a woman standing on a city sidewalk, hailing a cab. Whatever else happens in that story is up to you.)
The Objective
To loosen the bonds that shackle you to a single, immutable version; to underscore the fact that plot is not preordained but something you can control and manipulate at will, like the strings of a marionette; and to demonstrate once more that there are many ways to skin a cat.
The main thing to keep in mind as you're doing plot is that you're the boss and not the other way around. It's your story and you have an infinite number of choices. As a creator of fiction, you should feel supremely at ease in the role of story teller.
The Exercise
Write five mini stories (limit:200 words each) to account for a single even or set of circumstances, such as a man and woman standing on a city sidewalk, hailing a cab. Each story should be different--in characters, plot, and theme--from the others. (Meaning, all five of your stories have a single event like a man and a woman standing on a city sidewalk, hailing a cab. Whatever else happens in that story is up to you.)
The Objective
To loosen the bonds that shackle you to a single, immutable version; to underscore the fact that plot is not preordained but something you can control and manipulate at will, like the strings of a marionette; and to demonstrate once more that there are many ways to skin a cat.
Tasks for Wednesday, April 24, 2013
Watch the following video on Plot
Journal #5 04/24/13
In a short story, start off with your dilemma, then show your confrontation, then have your resolution as explained in this video.
Assignment May 1, 2013
Imagine you are stuck in a line of traffic driving away from the country at nine o’clock on a Sunday morning in August. This line of traffic is much heavier than you anticipated. Who are these people and why are they leaving the beach instead of going the opposite direction? Account for the occupants six cars in front of you. (For example, the man in the Chevy is going back to town because he just found out his doughnut shop there was broken into at 3a.m. He is furious. (See the archive for May 1, 2013 for an example.)
Journal #6 05/02/13
Practice Good Writing
Too often beginning writers think in terms of story, rather than in terms of words--of building a story with words. As a result, their early efforts are often overwritten and flowery. The following exercise will challenge your use of language--and it might change the way you write
The Exercise
Write a short story using words of only one syllable.
The Objective
To make you conscious of word choice.
Too often beginning writers think in terms of story, rather than in terms of words--of building a story with words. As a result, their early efforts are often overwritten and flowery. The following exercise will challenge your use of language--and it might change the way you write
The Exercise
Write a short story using words of only one syllable.
The Objective
To make you conscious of word choice.