Sept. 22

Class Plans:

Journal Prompt: A group of people sit at a table in a restaurant. A man sits next to a woman and says, “I’m going to sit next to Jenny and pressure her into eating with her hands.” Write a scene.

                        OR

A woman in business wear is sitting in a car at a red light eating a banana. Write her internal monologue. What is she thinking? How does this line up (or not) with her external appearance and/ or actions? (7 minutes)

i. Questions:CNF

  • How much can you make up for it to still be considered cnf?

ii. Questions: Fiction

  • Is fiction the genre that can be imaginary/ fake?
  • Can we write any genre of fiction? How many genres of fiction are we going to cover?
  • I am unsure how to write fiction. What are good ways to plan out a story/ brainstorm? How do we come up with interesting stories?
  • How much truth and fiction is typically in a piece? Is it still fiction if it is based off of personal experience?
  • Can fiction also be expressed in hypermedia?
  • How long are the pieces supposed to be?
  • What is the limit as far as content?
  • How do we not get stuck in a story, unable to finish it?

iii. Questions/ Concerns: Reading

  • Can we read any genre at the reading?
  • Can it be a piece from our Portfolio?
  • Can it have been written in the past?
  • Concerned that people won’t do their jobs.
  • Concerns about having an audience. Are people actually going to come? I don’t think 8:30 am is a great time.
  • Why do people have to come?
  • Concerns about money.
  • Concerns about leadership of the entire project – can people in other committees comment on the decisions made by others? For example, when we come back together as a group, should the whole class discuss what the food committee decided upon?
  • Does the Final Reading and how pretty the execution is impact our grade in the class?
  • If  our piece is longer than 3 minutes, can we we just read part of our piece?
  • How am I going to read anything in 3 minutes?
  • Can we take our paper(s) onstage or is this not allowed?
  • Excited – Hope for the stage – I plan on getting very creative.
  • I am bringing OJ – I love OJ.

I. Fiction Intro – Character (Ch. 4, Burroway)

  • Character as Desire
  • Character as Image
  • Character as Voice
  • Character as Action
  • Character as Thought
  • Character as Presented by the Author
  • Character as Conflict
  • Stock and Flat Characters

II. Aimee Bender Reading Discussion: In your groups, choose three quotes from the text of Bender’s story that show character as/ through desire, image, voice, action, thought, conflict, etc. Write which of these descriptions best fits the quote you have picked out and be ready to share with the class.

III. Aimee Bender Author Presentation

IV. Watch Shape of Stories (Vonnegut) – Remember Burroway “Story” Chapter

V. Chart the homework story

VI. Class Story Games (Chart the story charades)

***

Homework: Read Ch. 5 – Setting (Burroway), and “Fat Ladies Floated In the Sky Like Balloons,” by Amanda Davis; write a response about the similarities and differences in style between Bender’s story and Davis’s.

 

Advertisement