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New contest…

here is today’s challenge.

We will work with the word list provided by Harper Collins for their contest:

warm-up:

Write a sentence using a given pre-selected word. (ex: butter tart)

Development…

1. Randomly choose one word from the list (basket type selection).  Then choose a story beginning with that word… one paragraph.
2. Choose a second word, add this to the story in a second paragraph.  At this point introduce your character.
3. With a third word, add conflict and tension.
4. With a fourth word, push this conflict to a climax.
5. with a fifth word, resolve your story.

Good luck!!! (if you need a second paragraph per section, go for it, but not more than 10 paragraphs total!!!)

Finally, we will be sharing all your selected readings from this course.

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I wish you all the best of luck in your future writing and other endeavours.

Lorrie

Check them out and cheer them on! Well done ladies.

Who’s My Dad?

My Son Hates Team Sports, by Rebecca Vaughan in The Globe and Mail.

writing start:

Shifting expectations

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discussion about writing goals, hopes an favourite exercises.

Students should give a moment to think about what exercises they liked best through the year and why.

We will pick two of the class favourites to repeat today.

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Work on finishing all class assignments.

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plan reading and celebration for our last class, next Thursday….;)  Well done folks! You should be proud at all that you have accomplished this year.

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Final visual writing assignment for today (in class assignment) Use the visual provided (clipped from various National Geographic and other well photographed magazines) and write a 1 00- 300 word story about what just happened. choose either first person P.O.V., or Limited Omniscient for this exercise.

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Share writings.

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Lean on Mom by Christine Desforges, Globe and Mail Facts and Arguments.

Writing start: stories we don’t tell.

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The super Super short story.

In pairs: choose a character, a setting, a problem/ conflict, as wild and wooly as you wish.  Then, in 100 – 110 words, write out the tale.

Here are some examples in a current contest:

Flash Fiction

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Read and share the flash fun.

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Study of P.O.V…Point of View.

We have talked about various narrative voices in this class, and today we will take a small piece of your fiction and manipulate it to four points of view.

example:

1st person (the story is told by the main character):  The cafe was bustling with people when I arrived, but I managed to snag one last seat at a table.  Unfortunately I was not able to sit alone like I’d hoped.  Sitting across from me was this man, this unusual man with black sharpie marker scrawled across his forehead, ‘I love Darla,’ but instead of the word love it was this black outlined heart, like the kind you see on the I love NY tee-shirts.  He sat and read his newspaper like everything was perfectly normal.

2nd person: The cafe was bustling with people when you arrived, but you managed to snag one last seat at a table.  Unfortunately, you were not able to sit alone like you’d hoped.  Sitting across from you was this man, this unusual man with black sharpie marker scrawled across his forehead, ‘I love Darla,’ but instead of the word love it was this black outlined heart, like the kind you see on the ‘I love New York’ tee-shirts that just use the initials N.Y, because everyone knows what it stands for.  He sat and read his newspaper like everything was perfectly normal.

Third person limited Omniscient:

The cafe was bustling with people when Grace arrived, but she managed to snag one last seat at a table.  Unfortunately  she was not able to sit alone like she’d hoped.  Sitting across from her was this man, this unusual man with black sharpie marker scrawled across his forehead, ‘I love Darla,’ but instead of the word love it was this black outlined heart, like the kind on the ‘I love NY’ tee-shirts.  He sat and read his newspaper like everything was perfectly normal.

Third person Omniscient: The cafe was bustling with people when Grace arrived, but she managed to snag one last seat at a table.  Unfortunately she was not able to sit alone like she’d hoped.  Sitting across from her was this man, this unusual man with black sharpie marker scrawled across his forehead, ‘I love Darla,’ but instead of the word love it was this black outlined heart, like the kind you see on the I love NY tee-shirts.

Mark looked up from his paper. Darla was late, and now her seat was taken.  His heart crashed against his ribs.  He slowed his breathing as he read the newspaper, pretending that everything was perfectly normal.

Third person Objective: The cafe was bustling with people when the woman arrived.  She sat in the last seat available at a table.  She furrowed he brow as she took the seat.  Sitting across from her was a man. Across his forehead was a sign saying, ‘I love Darla’ like the ‘I love NY.’ teeshirts, where the love is replaced with the shape of a heart.   The man looked up at the woman and then resumed reading his paper.  He showed no unusual expression on his face.   The woman screwed up her eyebrows further and looked around the cafe.

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With your writing, choose a passage you have already written and work it over in various points- of-view.

What observations do you have?

Which do you prefer? Which one was the one you originally wrote in?

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The remainder of the class is workshopping in pairs your final paper.

Lost on the West Coast Trail by Alejandro Palavecino

writing start:

Finding my way…

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Writing sharing:  go over your final paper ideas and favourite passage.

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Writing exercise:

What if…. I woke up with wings….

write for 5 minutes and pass the story on.  Write again based on what the previous person wrote and pass that along… after 25 minutes we will stop.

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Here is another link with writing tips and ideas… even grammar suggestions.

Writing Forward

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Edit your work and continue to go through the final project.

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See this site for more fun writing suggestions!

Cure writer’s Block:  Writing is a Virus

Two Bags each: One family’s overseas adventure.

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writing start: escape

10 minute warm up.

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Dangling Modifiers and more grammar fun.

Last class we talked about Participles (ing words) and how tempting it might be to let them dangle in a sentence.

The following is from The Canadian Writer’s Handbook, by William Messenger and Jan de Bruyn.

• A dangling modifier dm is on that has no actual work in the rest of the sentence to hook on to, but only an implied or obviously incorrect one.  It is therefore said to dangle, to be left hanging therer, gramatically unattached.  Most dangling modifers are verbal phrases; be careful with them when you write.

dm: Striding aggressively into the room, my eyes fell upon the figure cowering in the corner.

Striding aggressively into the room is adjectival and needs a subject (a noun) and seeing that the only possible one is the noun and subject eyes, as this is the subject in the next phrase.  As well as eyes can fall on something, they can hardly stride.  You see the problem.  In order to fix this sentence, you can try something like:

As I strode aggressively into the room, my eyes fell….

or

Striding aggressively into the room, I at once directed my gaze toward the cowering…

the above example keeps the participle phrase in the opening, but adds a logical subject I and it does not keep the eyes as an additional subject.

example dm 2: Living in a small town, there wasn’t much to do.

The participle living, along with the rest of the prhase is left dangling because it as no noun to modify; there is an expletive, not a real subject.  Something must be provided for the particple and the phrase to modify.

correction: Living in a small town, we had little do.

or

Since we lived in a small town, there wasn’t much to do.

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Writing start.

Use one of the following images to start your writing: they are from the national geographic.

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Describe the scene, then add the hook to turn a descriptive passage into the beginning of a story.

20 minutes:

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More work on your story with the following advice to check you have all the parts necessary for a compelling tale.

I have found a page of good tips that I would like to share with you.

A,B,C,D,E= Action, Background, Conflict, Development, Ending

http://www.webook.com/WritingTips/Story-Writing-by-the-Letters

other resources:

Be a better writer, with Pearl Luke.

and The Writer’s Center

see links:

http://deannahoak.com/2006/06/11/starting-a-sentence-with-an-i-ingi-phrase/

and:

http://punctilious.org/grammar/modifiers.htm

and here:

A link to The Grammar Wench: Why Present Participial Phrases are Evil

http://www.mcrw.com/lovenotes/participialphrases.htm

The following story is an excerpt is from Crows Toes Quarterly.

It wasn’t my fault, it was my possessed hand by Tara Lee Baxter

Writing Start: DON’T Touch!!!

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Any Second short stories to hand in/ to share?

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Discuss what  you are writing for your final paper (we finish June 3 so there is time for something fantastic!). You can even share an excerpt if you have something finished.

Writing:

Setting description: In a half page write a descriptive paragraph that sets your scene, give details, sounds, sights, textures, and help to develop anticipation of what will happen in this place.

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Writing a Story Hook:

Narrative hook

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A narrative hook (or hook) is a literary technique in the opening of a story that “hooks” the reader’s attention so that he or she will keep on reading. The “opening” may consist of several paragraphs for a short story, or several pages for a novel, but ideally it is the opening sentence.

One of the most common forms is dramatic action, which engages the reader into wondering what the consequences of the action will be. This particular form has been recommended from the earliest days, stemming from Aristotle, and the widely used term in medias res stems from the Roman Empire. But action is not, in itself, a hook, without the reader’s wondering what will happen next, or what caused the actions to occur. Overly dramatic openings may leave the reader indifferent because the characters acting or being acted on are non-entities; even murder of a faceless character may not engage interest.

The use of action as the hook, and the advice to so use it, is so wide-spread as to sometimes lead to the use of the term to mean an action opening, but other things can be used for narrative hooks, such mysterious settings, or engaging characters, or even a thematic statement, as with Jane Austen’s opening line, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”

When a story does not lend itself to a good hook when it is laid out linearly, the writer may tell the story out of order to engage the reader’s interest. The story may begin with a dramatic moment and, once the reader is curious, flashback to the history necessary to understand it. Or it may be told as a story-within-a-story, with the narrator in the frame story telling the story to answer the curiosity of his listeners, or by warning them that the story began in an ordinary seeming way, but they must follow it to understand latter actions. A famous early example of this technique was used in the One Thousand and One Nights, also known as the Arabian Nights, in which the frame story consists of Sheherazade telling stories to King Shahriyar; she must keep him ‘hooked’ to each of the stories, in order to prevent him from executing her the next morning.

Narrative hooks often play an important role in suspense thrillers and mystery fiction, particularly in murder mysteries. This also dates back to the One Thousand and One Nights, in which a tale, “The Three Apples“, begins with the discovery of a young woman’s dead body, thus keeping the reader interested in “whodunit“.^[1][2]

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Look at the story: It wasn’t my fault, it was my possessed hand. Find the hook.

Go through any of the previous stories and find the examples of literary hook.

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Writing:  look at your story topic, and write 3 – 5 possible hooks! (think of the first thing that comes to mind — even if it is garbage and then keep going!)

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Exercise: take your favorite writing hook, jot it down on a piece of paper and hand it to the person to your left.  That is your next writing start!. 10 minutes.

hand back and discuss.

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Writing: remainder of class is dedicated to your writing projects, final assignment or current short story…

Five minute writing Start–exercise” What does it mean to be Green? To live on this planet? To celebrate Earth Day?

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talk about the process

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Exercise idea for writing with children.  For many of us who have experience with children, we are likely familiar with their joy of make-believe.  They love listening to stories, reading books with stories, and making up stories of their own.

As parents, caregivers, teachers, relatives and friends to young people, we have an opportunity to share this creative passion with them.  We can tell them stories that we remember from our own youth, we read to them, and even make up stories for them.  We can also be the attentive audience for them as they tell us their stories.

By listening to children’s stories, we validate their creativity and encourage further creativity.  You may be surprised how elastic their ideas can be.  I know that I still am after hearing many many stories.  Below is my six-year-old’s latest tale.  It has all the makings of a story: characters, conflict, plot, theme, and a surprise ending.

The Shark and the Magic Fish By Finn Coleman

Once upon a time there was a great white shark that ate everything in its path.

Then a day later, the great white shark met a fish.

When he was about to snap it down, the fish said, “Stop! Don’t eat me.  I am magic.”

The shark did not eat him.  Instead, they became best friends.

They ate together.

They slept together.

They did everything together.

A hundred years passed and they became very old.

Then another hundred years passed.

Then the great white shark ate the magical fish.

The End.

So, once you hear the story, what other things can you do to support and encourage them?

• Provide them the materials to write the story down, if they are too young to write all the words, you may scribe for them.
• Type their story up so they can see it in print form and share it with their friends.
• Make a book for them, by spacing out the text and providing blank pages in between for their artwork.
• Encourage them to read their story once it is printed.  This will encourage emerging readers to read new words, even though they already use the words in their vocabulary.
• Provide blank lines below the text so new writers (K, grade 1) can copy the story out in their own  printing.
• Some school libraries provide shelf-space for student made publications; see if your child wants his or her book to go there.

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Home exercise: work with a child you know to create a story, even a co-authored tale.  Come back and report on the experience.

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Story starters, from page: writing starts & uncommon exercises

read through the list below:

11.  Children:  write from the point of view of a child, how does he/ she interact with the world? What is of importance to them?

12.  Food:  Write a story where a particular food has a crucial role in the story.

13.  Shelter:  write about an unusual dwelling, one with a special feature that sets it apart.

14.  Fireplace:  write a story where the climax has to do with the fireplace, the implements of the fireplace, the symbolism.

15.  Shoes.  Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, red shoes hold special powers.  Write a story where a pair of shoes are prominently featured.

16.  Mystery:  Write a fragment where a mystery is described in great detail.

17. Magic:  Your main character has suddenly acquired a rare talent/ gift that is perceived as magic by the general public.  What is the skill, and how do they handle this new talent?

18.  A magic carpet ride.  If you have watched Aladdin, or bed-knobs and broomsticks, then you are aware of the fantastic journeys that our typical household things can take us on.  Choose a totally new piece of furniture to journey with.  “The magic blender” , or the ‘journey of the toilet.’  you get the idea.

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Push your boundaries: Write a story that takes you very far away from your ‘normal’ life.  don’t be afraid of fantasy, magic, mystery; embrace it!

Write for 20 minutes.

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Share  and discuss.

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Major assignments:  describe what you are doing for this final hand-in assignment.

Read any finished work:  work on second short story, or final paper.  If stuck, brainstorm with class.

Warm-up writing: 5 minutes about a piece of clothing.

ie: a jacket just purchased from second-hand store turns out to have bullet holes in the back.

or/ ‘who would have known that a simple sweater would turn out to be so much trouble.’

or any other bit of clothing you are inspired by, go with what first comes to mind.

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10  minutes:  Story journal work:  Choose one character in your story, and from that perspective, write a letter to another character in your story.

share/ discuss process and results

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Several students are due to read from their completed stories/ and hand them in.

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Short story fragment: an in-class exercise.

“Invisible Woman” Write a short scene in which a woman becomes briefly invisible for no apparent reason, do not worry about how she actually disappears, or reappears.  But in the story, no one can see or hear her, but she is not a ghost and by the end she is visible again.

In this story, focus on her observations and thoughts.

Where does she choose to go and why, remember, she doesn’t know how long she’ll be invisible.

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Share and discuss.

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If you have not finished your second short work of fiction whether that is your work from 500 – 1000 or your work of 1000-1500 words in length, you can choose to use the invisible woman scene as a good starting point for your work.  If you have other work that is nearly complete, you can finish that and hand in Asap…

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during class today we will have a book draw: for Alice Munro’s “The View from Castle Rock.”

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short story reading: Baggio’s Story, by Charlie Fish. (see author of Death by Scrabble)

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next week choose your final project topic, either there or a rewrite.