Creative Writing Online

13 Assignment 4, Part 2: The Open-Form poems [The Full Collection]

Due Date: Wednesday, November 28

Goals

• Understand that poems are made things ("poet" means "maker" in ancient Greek). They are deliberate, steely-eyed artistic constructs and not the overflow of powerful emotion that made you want to write a poem in the first place. 
• Experiment with poetic forms (sonnet, haiku, open poems).
• Create four poems for submission; at least two will be closed-form poems (one sonnet, one haiku) and two will be open-form.  

Means of Assessment

• Your score on this Score Sheet for Unit 4: Poetry. This score sheet is also available at our course webspace in Canvas. You will submit these poems in two sets of two, and they will be scored after all four have been submitted.

Link

• "How to Write a Poem"

The Lecture (what you would get if you were in class with me!)

First, enjoy the little epigram below and marvel at its wisdom:

            “In poetry everything is permitted.

             With only this condition, of course:

             You have to improve on the blank page.”

                                            -- Nicanor Parra

Now, let's talk.

When called upon to create a poem, many people will sit down at a desk and try to write the poem in a single session. When that approach proves frustrating and ineffective, they abandon their ideas, sniffing that they were not "cut out" for silly work like poetry. What a shame! This attitude disrespects the process and makes people feel bad just when they should be enjoying themselves and admiring their own wit and verbal dexterity.

Please don't be these people. You will enjoy the Poetry unit so much more if you allow your poems to develop over a couple of days. Word choice, rhyme, and rhythm should emerge organically as you work. If you superimpose those elements on half-formed ideas, you'll frustrate yourself.

I would hate that for you. Instead, allow this unit to pull together the narrative drive we worked with in the Fiction unit and also the insight moment we developed in the Memoir—and elicit the most-beautiful language you are capable of. 

Step One - Wednesday

Understand what a poem is not. Please view the Youtube videos below, in which poet Chris O. Cook explains how to write a poem (mostly by explaining how not to write one!) Enjoy!

"How To Write A Good Poem," Part One

                And "How To Write a Good Poem," Part Two:

Step Two - Thursday

            Believe Mr. Cook.

For your poetry assignment, select from the topics listed below. If you have a wonderful inspiration of your own--even better. If not, consider writing a poem about

• A poem where the speaker is visited by himself or herself from the future. What would the speaker's future self say that would shock the speaker's present self into action of some kind?
• A poem about a historical event that comments on the present moment ("Transmission" by Rachel Richardson)
• A poem about the pain of leaving or being left by someone you loved—a poem of final parting (see Kenneth Rexroth’s “Your Birthday in the California Mountains”)
• A poem about an object that reminds you that you, too, will one day die (see Billy Collins’s “Memento Mori”)
• A poem that offers a snapshot of family secrets (see Dorianne Laux’s “Tooth Fairy” and Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”)
• A poem about a character you love or find provocative (see Ronald Koertge’s “Gretel” or Anna Akmatova’s “Lot’s Wife” or Olga Broumas’s “Cinderella”)
• A poem that is also a goofy love poem (see John Frederick Nims's "Love Poem")
• A poem in praise of something in nature that is not commonly praised: mold growing on bread, vomit on the floor after a wild night of partying
• political limerick
• A Haiku poetry collection (five haiku) celebrating or cursing autumn in Orlando

Step Three - Friday

Read the amazing poems above. Afterward, answer these questions for each one:      

Who is speaking?

Is there an audience?

What is the relationship between the speaker and audience?

What action occurs in the poem (a polemic? A seduction? A breakup?)

Where is the big change of direction?

What insight into human experience do you find in the poem?

Do any words take on a symbolic layer?

Answering these questions will help develop a sense of what you will be required to offer your reader.

Step Four - Saturday

Once you have made a choice of subject matter, get started. Take a quick look at wikihow’s “How To Write A Poem” with its three sample forms. It’s a start. 

 Step Five - Sunday, Monday, Tuesday

Create drafts of your open-form poems.

Since poems offer insight into the human condition (that's what's in it for the reader), you might consider reviewing your Memoir piece and your Fiction arc. Identify in each the moment of insight.

In the Memoir piece, I highlighted the insights in yellow just for this purpose. If you don't have any yellow highlight on your returned piece, that's okay: you can still use your Memoir. Simply read the notes and consider the specific ways the experience changed you. Your poem might become an expression of that change--and its place in your life. 

When you are clear in your mind what those insights are or might have been, you will have in your hands the raw material for a poem. If you need some guidance, enjoy this wonderful, short video from Maggie Hamand, titled "A Guide to Writing a Poem:"

Step Six - Tuesday

When you are ready to edit your work, here are some suggestions from Kathryn Mincey’s “Guiding Student Poetry.”

This sheet spells out the criteria for how readers assess poems. Print it out and read it very carefully. See how the criteria connect with the Score Sheet for the Poetry Unit.

Step Seven - Wednesday (second)

Enjoy this wonderful open-form poem by a student writer, Amira E, from the CRW 2001 Spring 2013 session:

        “I Swear, I’m Fine”

                                         By

             Amira E

Please

    be still, for I am fine,

Help

    is no longer needed.

Me?

    I’ve forgotten, so please resign,

I

    swear I have succeeded.

Can’t

    you see? I’ve moved on,

Take

    your pity away.

It

    is done, he is gone,

Anymore

    things to say?

I

    hardly remember what he did to me, his

Want-

    ing, his strong arms, what he took of mine

To-

    day I finish therapy, so let this

Die,

    I swear, I’m fine.

Note the hints--and note how the subtext is present in the layout. If you read the single word-lines vertically instead of horizontally, you see into the character in a chilling and heartbreaking way. Be cautious about imitating this poem, however. Find your own style instead.

Step Eight - A variation that will show me who reads these posts

Upload the sonnet in Canvas by midnight on Wednesday, November 21. Please see the previous post for instructions about composing a sonnet. The goal is to give you some help before I grade the entire collection. The sonnet review is optional, but please submit your sonnet if you would like some feedback before you submit the entire collection by Wednesday, November 28.

Step Nine 

Whether or not you elected to get some feedback before the assignment is due, please submit your complete collection of four poems in a single Word document via the assignment link posted in Canvas by deadline by Wednesday, November 28. Please make sure that you have followed format submission guidelines. 

Next week, after reviews and revisions, when you complete the assignment, please upload all four poems in the same Word document to Canvas. 

The burden will be on you to prove that your work was submitted on time.

Email me through Atlas if you have any questions.

12 Assignment 4, Part 1: The Sonnet and the Haiku [Optional Feedback]

Due Date: Wednesday, November 21 (if you want feedback on the Sonnet) and Wednesday, November 28, for the entire collection.

Goals

• Create two closed-form poems: the sonnet and haiku.
• Submit the sonnet for constructive feedback on originality of theme, satisfaction of iambic pentameter, and clarity.
• Complete the assigned poems in light of the feedback

Means of Assessment

• Your score on this Score Sheet for Unit 3: Poetry. This score sheet is also available at our course webspace in Blackboard.
• Bonus Points for participating in Online Discussion 3

Link

• "Sonnets for Dummies"
• "How to Write an Italian Sonnet"

The Lecture 

You cannot consider yourself an artist until you have experimented with the traditional forms as well as the more modern, open forms of poetry. You had a litte taste of poetry-writing in the previous assignment and are ready to tangle with the far-more-demanding forms consecrated to great poets like Shakespeare and Basho. No pressure, right?  

Directions

Sonnets are traditionally, although not exclusively, about the complications of a love relationship; haiku poems are traditionally about nature. Keep these things in mind when you make a choice of subject.

Beware: these poetic forms follow specific rules. If your attempts deviate from the rules, you will not have created something new; you will have just done a terrible job at something very important. For example, the student who wrote the, er, 'piece' below insisted that it is a sonnet. It is not. It is simply a boring and ineffective attempt:

Sonnet

One word from you, and I am in          

Above my head, you’ve pulled me deep;

Though there’s promises you never keep,

It don’t take much for you to win.

Although my life is filled with sin,

It doesn’t make me lose my sleep

Though many say I’m in too deep

Another story must begin.

I’m deep with you, hard in love

Yet you don’t turn and see it

Your love, it fits me like a glove

Though many see it ill-fit;

When push comes to shove

What they say don’t mean shit.

None of the lines reflect iambic pentameter; none of the lines is specific or memorable; there is no volta, and the rhyme scheme depends upon a weak vulgarity to create any sort of kick. Please review this as an example of what NOT to do!

Step 1 - Wednesday

Make a choice of subject. Feel free to offer your own inspiration or choose from the list in the previous assignment, here for your convenience:

• A poem where the speaker is visited by himself or herself from the future. What would the speaker's future self say that would shock the speaker's present self into action of some kind?
• A poem about a historical event that comments on the present moment ("Transmission" by Rachel Richardson)
• A poem about the pain of leaving or being left by someone you loved—a poem of final parting (see Kenneth Rexroth’s “Your Birthday in the California Mountains”)
• A poem about an object that reminds you that you, too, will one day die (see Billy Collins’s “Memento Mori”)
• A poem that offers a snapshot of family secrets (see Dorianne Laux’s “Tooth Fairy” and Theodore Roethke’s “My Papa’s Waltz”)
• A poem about a character you love or find provocative (see Ronald Koertge’s “Gretel” or Anna Akmatova’s “Lot’s Wife” or Olga Broumas’s “Cinderella”)
• A poem that is also a goofy love poem (see John Frederick Nims's "Love Poem")
• A poem in praise of something in nature that is not commonly praised: mold growing on bread, vomit on the floor after a wild night of partying
• political limerick
• A Haiku poetry collection (five haiku) celebrating or cursing autumn in Orlando

Step 2 - Thursday

Start with your sonnet. 

Read "How to Write an Italian Sonnet" and "Sonnets for Dummies"  for terrific lessons on how sonnets are structured. Choose whether you prefer the Italian or the Elizabethan sonnet form.

Then, sketch out how you want the sonnet to be shaped. If the sonnet is in the Italian form, what question, concern, or perception will dominate the first eight lines (octet)? What answer, resolution, or insight will dominate the last six lines (sestet)?

Are you still uninspired? Try this: make up a magic spell, including ingredients, chants, and gestures. Then turn this 'spell' into a sonnet. Mislead us a little so that we're shocked by either the goal of the spell or its recipient. Have fun with it!

Still suffering anxiety about this? Gosh, you are a tough sell! Write a sonnet which showcases a speaker very like yourself having to choose between going back to yesterday or moving forward into tomorrow. Shock us in the couplet with the speaker's reasons for the choice. 

If the sonnet is in the English form, what question, concern, or perception will dominate the three quatrains? What answer, resolution, or insight will dominate the couplet? If these terms frighten you, re-read "Sonnets for Dummies," as the presence or absence of these features will affect your score on this assignment. 

Step 3 - Friday

Shape your draft into an actual sonnet.

Since line length, meter, and rhyme are the hallmarks of this form, view this little video that explains "iambic pentameter:"  

When you have viewed the video, please download and read this handout, "Sound and Rhythm in Poetry."

Practice creating lines in iambic pentameter. If you feel you've nailed the form, shoot some of those lines to me, and I will gladly tell you if you are on the right track--or not. Caveat: if your lines are not presented in iambic pentameter, you will not get credit for the required sonnet. Telling me that the poem is a sonnet will not make it a sonnet: the sonnet must follow all the rules.

After you have mastered the rhythm of iambic pentameter, it is time to construct an actual sonnet based on the notes you created in Step 2.

Please view the little video by mistersato411 below to help you:

 

Step 4 - Saturday

Now create your Haiku. Please enjoy this brief, charming video from Team Flash about the rules of the form--and tips for getting started:

 

Make certain that your descriptions are full of accurate sensory detail. 

Step 5 - Sunday through Thursday (second)

When you are ready to edit your work, here are some suggestions from Kathryn Mincey’s “Guiding Student Poetry.” The same rules apply to sonnets and haikus.

This sheet spells out the criteria for how readers assess poems. Print it out and read it very carefully. See how the criteria connect with the Score Sheet for the Poetry Unit.

Step 6

Submit your work by deadline. Now, please upload the entire four-poem collection to Blackboard for the scan. Make certain that all four poems are in the same Word document. Please do not send them individually. 

The sonnet is due on November 21 if you want feedback; the entire collection of poems is due on Wednesday, November 28, by midnight. Please make sure that you have followed format submission guidelines.  The burden will be on you to prove that your work was submitted on time. 

• Email me through Atlas if you have any questions.

 

11 Quiz 5: Poetry [100 points]

Due Date: Wednesday, November 14

Goals:     

• Understand and savor the pleasures of poems
• Read masterpieces of closed and open forms, observing the knife-like precision of action, description, and insight

Your Grade for This Assignment:

• You will take an objective reading quiz available from Wednesday, November 7, through Wednesday, November 14 in Canvas. 
• In the coming weeks, you will also create a collection of four specific-form poems

Directions for Unit 4 

    Step 1

Read the following poems in the Portable Literature textbook. As you read, identify all the levels and types of conflict. 

• “l(a” by e. e. cummings, p. 496
• “Evolution” by Sherman Alexie, p. 523
• “Sadie and Maud” by Gwendolyn Brooks, p. 610
• "My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like The Sun” by William Shakespeare, p. 572
• "Constantly Risking Absurdity” by Lawrence Ferlinghetti, p. 578
• “Daddy” by Sylvia Plath, p. 589
• “incident” by Countee Cullen, p. 597
• “We Real Cool” by Gwendolyn Brooks, p. 551
• "The Raven” by Edgar Allan Poe, p. 675
• "Shakespearean Sonnet” by R. S. Gwynn, p. 688
• “Yet Do I Marvel” by Countee Cullen, p. 690
• “Leda and the Swan” by William Butler Yeats, p. 695
• “Musée des Beaux Arts” by W. H. Auden, p. 696
• “Meeting at Night” and “Parting at Morning” by Robert Browning, p. 719
• “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” by T. S. Eliot, p. 759
• “Dulce et Decorum Est” by Wilfred Owen, p. 723
• “Mid-Term Break” by Seamus Heaney, p. 767

        Then read the following materials, also in Portable Literature: 

• “Defining Poetry” p. 494
• “Recognizing Kinds of Poetry” p. 497
• “The Speaker” p. 500
• "Irony" p. 519
• “Checklist: Writing about Voice” p. 532
• "Word Choice" p. 535
• “Word Order” p. 553

    Step 2

Take your quiz, which will be available from Wednesday, November 7, through Wednesday, November 14, in Canvas. Keep these important things in  mind:

• The asterisk means that this test will close on Thursday, rather than Wednesday, out of respect for the holiday.
• The quiz will be available in "Quizzes" in the left-hand sidebar of the Canvas Home Page for our  course.
• The quiz will evaluate your understanding of the readings above.
• You will have only 30 minutes to take this 25-item quiz.
  
• If you miss the quiz, you earn a zero. No exceptions. If you are worried that an unforseen emergency might interfere, then complete the quiz on the first day it is available, not the last.
• If you encounter a problem with Canvas, call the helpline immediately at 407-582-5600. Then send me an email with the exact time Canvas went down. I will try to resolve a problem only if you have followed these instructions. 

If you have any questions, contact me through Atlas.

10 Assignment 3: The Screenplay [100 points]

Due Date: Wednesday, November 7

Goals

• Create a sustained scene from a play or screenplay that shows confrontation, resolution, and change in a protagonist. 
• Obey presentation standards more stringent than the ones we experimented with in the Fiction unit.

Links

• "The Interview" by Amira E---------
• Template for the Play or Screenplay

Means of Evaluation

• Your score on the rubric for Unit 5: The Play/Screenplay; this rubric is also available at our course webspace in Blackboard.

The Lecture 

Here you are at last: creating the play or screenplay, feeling that mixture of hope, exhilaration, and icy fear--compounded by the fatigue of a long session and the irresistable attraction of the impending winter break.

Take a breath. This is the fun part!

Keep this in mind: like poems, plays and scripts are made things. Like poems, they offer profound insights into the human condition; like stories and novels, they accomplish their mission through action and dialogue, and, like memoirs, they hold mirrors up to ourselves and to all the rest of the world.

But they do not drop fully formed from your brow. You must work to make them worth reading. 

Think of it this way: a finished script is the gateway to a collaborative process wherein the work is staged or filmed. But you must first create a script so good other artists will want to collaborate with you.

Remember how much you love movies and plays. Give that pleasure to the rest of the world.  

Directions

Your submission should be an extended scene approximately 1000-1500 words that sets up and then resolves a question or situation. 

Step One 

First, let's take a little walk around and through an especially-resonant scene from the film Moonrise Kingdom. Our purpose here is to enjoy a scene from a critically-praised and financially-successful recent film. The script, by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola, was nominated for the Academy award for Best Original Screenplay. 

This scene is the inciting moment that propels the whole film. In it, the protagonists meet, and after that meeting, nothing is the same--and action must be taken. Sam sees Suzy for the first time in a dressing room during a church play and is instantly and visibly smitten. The question, of course, is whether she is smitten with him. Anderson and Coppola generate suspense by making us wonder if she feels the connection with him that he clearly feels with her (note how hard he stares. It is intense enough to draw a comment from another character.)

First, read the scene. Here are the three pages that make up the action in this film clip: start with EXT. WIDE MEADOW. DAY

After reading the scene, view it. See for yourself what actors bring to an already-excellent piece of writing.  Make a note of the split second Sam gets his answer--and when we by extension get ours. No one "tells" us; we see all of the emotion through action.

What action, specifically? See for yourself. View the scene a second time and pay particular attention to how Suzy and Sam behave after their chance encounter: Sam sits in a daze on the bus, and Suzy stands on a pedestal spreading her costume wings, chanting "Hear it, hear it, hear it--the call!" On that second viewing, do the setting and the actions of the characters take on an emotional--even symbolic--resonance? 

So-- please enjoy this scene:

• Clip from Moonrise Kingdom

After you view the clip, observe the same scene as the director, Wes Anderson, comments on what he intended to achieve artistically. Click on the link below: 

• "Anatomy of a Scene: Moonrise Kingdom," by Mekado Murphy for The New York Times

Now, to cement the reality that scripts are intentional and collaborative, click on the link below and observe moments from the actual film set: 

"Moonrise Kingdom [Behind the Scenes I]" by Amras Taralom

And finally, if you  like, click on the link below to see the entire  screenplay:

Moonrise Kingdom screenplay by Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola

 Fired up now? 

Step Two

For your screenplay, choose an option:

• Write a screenplay adaptation of your Short Story arc as the main action. This will be your opportunity to clarify the essential conflict in that piece and practice a presentation style that is utterly dependent on action and dialogue. Your scene might be a fleshed-out version of the inciting moment or the crisis/climax/denouement finish.
• Write a story in which a character changes from: 

1. angry to ashamed
2. attracted to disgusted
3. exhausted to enthusiastic
4. determined to uncertain

• Write a one-act play placing two characters in conflict: one wants something the other also wants--or does not want to give. Be sure to focus on one character’s desire and how that desire is either thwarted or fulfilled by the other character. What does each character learn from the encounter? In "The Interview" by Amira E---------both women want the same job. As you read it, observe how they each make terrible discoveries about themselves and each other and are changed forever. 

• Adapt your memoir as a screenplay. Think I'm kidding? Think of the success and importance of films like  Selma, American Sniper, The Imitation Game, Moonlight, and The Theory of Everything, all of which are based on memoirs.
• Compose a short, screen-worthy arc from a longer narrative you are already contemplating. Choose a moment where someone learns something that changes him or her forever—or must take an action after learning that something. 

For whichever option you choose, remember that the confrontation doesn't have to be violent; something, however, should surprise the protagonist, resulting in a changed situation or an answered question.

Don't forget the components of all plots:  

• Exposition/Back Story 
• Problem/Inciting moment
• Rising Action/Complication
• Crisis
• Climax

Consider doing a mock-up or outline of your plot using the list above. This really helps. 

Step Three

If you haven't already, read "The Interview" by Amira E--------, a wonderful little script by a Creative Writing student in the Spring session.  Each woman wants the job, and only one woman can have it; look at how the experience changes them both--and you, too, as you read. 

Step Four

Once you have worked out your story, your conflict, and your arc, draft out specific moments from your outline list.  

Don't stop and edit. Just move forward until you have done the whole thing. Trust me on this.

Expect to render an incoherent first draft.

Step Five

Click on the link for the screenplay template. Type your work straight into that amazing template. Allow the template to help you shape your screenplay. Remember that one page of script is one whole minute of film time. 

Give your play or movie an interesting name. Start with a moment that will grab our eyes and make us want to read more and more and more. 

Step Six

Wait a couple of days, and then read over what you have written. Chances are, you'll see immediately what needs to stay, what needs more development, and what needs to go. Expect to do this at least three times. If you do, you'll really and truly be functioning like a professional writer.

Or you can throw something together at ten p.m. on November 6 and always bitterly wonder what you might have done if you had allowed yourself to do it. 

The choice is always yours to make. 

Step Seven

As you go through your draft at least two more times, concentrate on the clarity of your stage directions. Think about how you want the scene to look: interior, exterior--dim, bright, textured like Moonrise Kingdom, or more austere, like the French New-Wave film Jules et Jim by Francois Truffaut.

Look to the Anderson/Coppola screenplay for tips about getting across how you want your scene filmed or staged. 

Step Eight

Don't forget that your scene should be between 1000 and 1500 words. If your piece runs long because the story needs the room--that's fine. But if length is related to single-draft itis, the piece will be penalize.

Be sure to use  the template for your submission. 

Step Nine

Step Eight - Upload your piece to Unicheck in Canvas.

To avoid late penalties, I must receive an electronic copy uploaded to the assignment in Canvas by Wednesday, November 7.

A cautionary word about submissions: Canvas will accept only pieces with .doc or .docx endings. As a Valencia student, you have access to the full Microsoft Suite (available for free download in Atlas,) so get it and use it. 

Email me through Atlas if you have any questions.

 FYI: Moonrise Kingdom, dir. Wes Anderson, Perf. Jared Gilman and Kara Hayward. Indian Paintbrush, 2012. Film.

09 Quiz 4: Drama [100 points]

Due Date: Wednesday, October 31

Goals:     

• Read and enjoy selected scenes
• View the performances (when possible) of those scenes to see the relationship between page and screen
• Obey presentation standards more stringent than the ones in the Fiction unit
• Create a sustained arc that shows confrontation, resolution, and change in a protagonist

Your Grade for This Assignment:

• You will take an objective reading quiz available from Wednesday, October 24 through Wednesday, October 31 in Blackboard. 
• In the coming weeks, you will also create a script  (due Wednesday, November 7).

The Mini-Lecture

To prepare you for developing your screenplay, I have selected readings from the textbook and accompanied those readings with filmed performances. Enjoy--but make sure you have access to the ninth edition of Portable Literature, or you will answer the questions incorrectly.

To make this more convenient for you, I put my own copy on reserve in the library (West Campus). If you need to borrow that copy but your main campus is not West, send me an email ASAP--I'll send a reserve copy to your preferred campus library. 

To make the Drama experience even richer, I included multiple performances of the same scenes. Notice the subtle differences each actor brings to his or her role. Think about that when you visualize your screenplay and how you would cast it. Those insights will help you make better artistic choices. Read the scenes (the pages are below) when the plays are in the textbook; otherwise, enjoy the performances.

As you read, see if you can figure out all the levels of conflict in each piece. That's what you'll be tested on because there's no art without conflict, and you must be able to identify it when you see it. Otherwise, your creation will fall flat.

WARNING: Do not attempt to read or view all the assigned pieces in one sitting. You'll burn your eyes and your patience to cinders.

Directions [read VERY CAREFULLY]

    Step 1

Read the scenes from selected from the plays in the Portable Literature textbook.

As you read, identify all the levels and types of conflict. Then click on the links and view the performances. When possible, I have included performances of the assignments, and, in the case of Death of a Salesman and Fences, different actors embodying the characters in different stagings. The page numbers for the scenes are listed after the act or scene numeral. Before you get started, click on all the links so you can see for yourself where they lead. 

FYI, the link coding is as follows: 

1. The link embedded in the author's name takes you to background information about that work and its historical and artistic context. 
2. The title of the actual work is in boldface print.
3. The assigned act or scene is linked to a Youtube presentation that shows actors creating the roles in films and onstage (that's my favorite part!)
4. All these plays are printed in our Portable Literature textbook. The page numbers follow the act or scene identification. For example, for "A Doll House," 'Act 1' is the tag; pages 786-790 are the specific pages across which the scene falls in the book, and the link for Act 1 takes you to a YouTube page where you can see the performance of that scene by Juliet Stevenson and Trevor Eve.
5. You can read these scenes in advance (my recommendation for maximum enjoyment and artistic understanding) or follow along during the performance. 

• Ibsen, Henrik. “A Doll's House.” Perf. Juliet Stevenson and Trevor Eve. Here is Act 1: pages 881-885 (you'll see a brief bio of the author on 881; the scene starts on 882.)

• Miller, Arthur. “Death of a Salesman.” Act 2: 1034-1037 starting at line 818, starring Lee J. Cobb and George Segal                                          
  
  • Perf. Dustin Hoffman and John Malkovitch:                                                        
• Shakespeare, William. “Hamlet.” Act 1, Scene 2: pages 1050-1054 starting at the beginning of Scene 2 

• Salomon, Michael. “The Date.” pages 1060-1165  (no video available)                                              
• Wilson, August. "Fences" 
  • ---"Fences." Act 1, Scene 3, Part 1: pages 1294-1295 Perf. James Earl Jones and Courtney B. Vance (1987)  
  • ---"Fences." Act 1, Scene 3, Part 1:1294-1295 Perf. Denzel Washington and Chris Chalk (2010)                        
• Williams, Tennessee. "The Glass Menagerie." Part 1, Scene 3 Perf. Katharine Hepburn, Sam Waterston, and Joanna Miles (video ONLY)

• Then click on the links and read the materials at the following online sources:

  • “Hidden Passions, Visible in Clothes” by Eric Wilson
  • “How to Write a Play, Part 1” by Strauss, et al.
  • “How to Write a Screenplay: Script and Screenwriting Tips” by The Writers Store and 
  • How to Format a Screenplay by Russell:

      Step 2

  Take your quiz, which will be available from Wednesday, October 24 through Wednesday, October 31, in Canvas. Keep these important things in  mind:

  • This quiz is the most challenging of the entire session; prepare in advance.
  • The quiz will be available in "Quizzes" in the left-hand sidebar of the Canvas Home Page for our  course.
  • The quiz will evaluate your understanding of the readings above.
  • You will have 60 minutes to take this 20-item quiz. Please do all the readings before you begin the quiz,or you'll run out of time.
  • If you miss the quiz, you earn a zero. No exceptions. If you are worried that an unforseen emergency might interfere, then complete the quiz on the first day it is available, not the last.
  • If you encounter a problem with Canvas, call the helpline immediately at 407-582-5600. Then send me an email with the exact time Canvas went down. I will try to resolve a problem only if you have followed these instructions. 

  If you have any questions, contact me through Atlas.

   

08 Assignment 2: The Short Story [100 points]

Due Date: Wednesday, October 24

Objectives

• Understand the relationship between scene (a plot device: a specific moment of conflict in a character's life that reveals an important quality about him or her, which you experimented with in our last assignment) and story arc (the journey of discovery around which the whole plot revolves--and which is built on a series of connected scenes.)
• Experiment with these structural elements in your own Short Story or Graphic Novel arc

PowerPoint

• The Character Lecture

Links

• "Green Eggs" by Ned H (a poignant evocation of a bitter personal moment the author structured like a work of fiction adapted from a memoir)
• "Simpson and Jolie" by Janelle A (this wonderful little story was published in the Valencia West Campus student arts and literature magazine, Phoenix)
• "Boots" by Jackie Z (this story was also published in the Phoenix and won Story of the Year)

Means of Evaluation

• Your score on the rubric for Unit 3: The Short Story or Graphic Novel Arc; this rubric is also available at our course webspace in Blackboard.

The Lecture (what you would get if you were in class with me!)

When you create fiction, you first figure out the one thing in the world your protagonist most longs for, and then create a series of experiences that drag out his or her getting it for as long as possible. In the course of achieving this goal, you create so many complications that he or she becomes a changed, better, more interesting person as a result. This is plot. In the eponymous novel, Jay Gatsby works desperately to rekindle his romance with Daisy Buchanan and claim her as his own; in The Walking Dead, Rick Grimes works desperately to survive both the zombie apocalypse and other people in competition for increasingly limited resources. We read and watch to see who wins. And along the way, everybody changes. Gatsby's romantic readiness becomes delusion; Rick does things in the name of survival that he never dreamed he could be capable of. And don't get me started on Walter White!

Plot is an artistic arrangement of events in a story that create pleasure for the reader. This assignment is your opportunity to experiment with artistic arrangement. To help you along, please observe the basic and universal plot shape in a little Youtube lecture video by Professor Courtney Smith:

Did you notice that this is the basic plot shape for films as unrelated as Wonder Woman, Moonlight, Star Trek: Into Darkness, Finding Nemo, The Great Gatsby, and Monsters, Inc? 

Because it's good to have a model, let's apply this structure (with some additions!) to John Updike's story, "A &P:"

• Exposition/Back Story: Sammy is 19, still lives at home, his family is financially dependent on him, he has never had a girlfriend, he hates his job, and his outlook on the future is bleak. His friend Stokesie is similarly trapped by the lack of opportunity in their home town and is caught between being a 22-year-old male and presenting himself as "management material." The girls are rich, don't do any shopping except the occasional errand, and are unimpressed by the social convenions of the hick beach town where they summer with their families.
• FYI: exposition is best delivered on a need-to-know basis instead of a big, boring multiple-paragraph lump at the beginning of your piece. Notice how the details I collected stretch out across the entire story. 
• Problem/Inciting moment: this occurs when three girls in bathing suits step into the A & P and, for good or ill, attract every eye in the store, disrupting the locals as they shop. The swimming apparel is perceived as disrespectful in this proper, conservative, and conventional community.
• FYI: as you write, consider the moment when the action occurs that makes today different from every other day in these characters' lives. 
• Rising Action/Complication: first, Sammy has to get over his own initial disapproval. Then he notes Stoksie's hypocrisy; he then sees the judgmental glances thrown at the girls by the "sheep," and ultimately, he is disgusted by the meat man McMahon's leering at them behind their backs.
• FYI: when you create your linear sequence, remember that you must organize the actions so that they flow logically and plausibly, one after the other. You have to organize your piece just like you had to organize your essays: plot is how you organize a story!
• Crisis: the girls are nearly out of the store when they are at last openly confronted by the manager/superintendent of the Sunday school, who berates them in front of the whole store about their trashy appearance.
• FYI: "crisis" is the moment of highest tension. Every TV show creates a mini-crisis just before a commercial break to get you stay with the network. 
• Even a non-scripted show like Chopped uses this convention, setting up the big reveal about the loser of each round--and then cutting to commercial BEFORE the actual reveal. If you want to know who's out, you have to stick around during the commercials. FYI: that feeling is called "suspense," and you want to create as much of that as you can before you move to the next phase. 

• Climax: the girls defend themselves against the suggestion that they are indecent; the moment is about to explode when Sammy declares, also in front of the whole store, that he quits the job he needs; he even explains that his action is the result of his disapproval of the way the girls have been treated. He reiterates that he really has quit, drops his bow tie on his apron, and leaves. 
• FYI: you need to make the action in your story clear enough to suggest a genuine change in your protagonist. In "A & P," Sammy moves from describing the floor as "our green-and-cream rubber tile floor" to informing us that the bow tie "is theirs." Note the world of difference in those pronouns. That's how a professional shows that all-important change. 

• Resolution/Denouement: in the parking lot, Sammy looks for the girls, but they are gone. He realizes that he has no girls, no job--and a very bleak future as an unemployed person.
• FYI: happy endings are not required. In some ways, they aren't very interesting. It costs when we stick by our guns; art reflects this reality.

As I said, background information filters through the action and dialogue on an as-needed basis; lumps of exposition are boring.

The remaining four elements, Inciting Moment, Rising Action, Crisis, and Climax, are delivered as scenes. A story as sophisticated and complex as "A & P" is made up of many scenes seamless woven together--but the outline above is intended to help you see at least four distinct scenes.

To be clear, a scene is a unit of action in a story or play wherein a question is asked or a piece of information is disseminated--or the question is answered and action is taken. The question or the piece of information must be so important that nothing is the same afterward, so action must be taken.

You practiced scene construction in the bonus assignment. Through action and dialogue, you revealed a piece of information about someone, and you know that you scored when the other students told you what adjective you had in mind. Now we must put a scene into an arc. An arc sets up the question or dilemma in the first scene, is complicated in the second, and resolved in the third. 

For this exercise, you will practice plot as you employ re-organized elements of a personal experience --or create a completely-made-up experience--presenting frustration and denial (essential components of plot) through action and dialogue.

By the way, if you aren't sure about some of my claims in the outline above, call me at 407.582.1172 during office hours, and I will gladly explain them to you. 

Directions

The arc should include a minimum of three scenes (setting up a problem, complicating the problem, resolving the problem OR asking a question, deferring the answer, and then getting the answer) and should be between 1000 and 1500 words. Don't forget to double-space, and out of courtesy, stick to the word limit.

CAVEAT: be mindful if you want to attempt genre fiction (romance, sci-fi, fantasy). At this stage, the conventions of the forms might tempt you into bad habits. Remember to freshen the form. 

CAVEAT II: Graphic novelists, if you would like to see how The Sandman's Neil Gaiman interacts with his artists as he designs his work, click here. It's the script to A Season of Mists, one of his best. 

Step One - Wednesday (Planning)

Choose an option:

• Write a story using the main action of your Memoir as the base. Remember that fiction requires a certain re-shaping for its effect, and our allegiance is to a great story, not to history. Just change everybody's name and watch how the event takes on a different tone--and maybe even different resolution. 
• Write a story in which a character changes from: 

1. angry to ashamed
2. attracted to disgusted
3. exhausted to enthusiastic
4. determined to uncertain

•  Write a story placing two characters in conflict: one wants something the other does not want to give.The ‘something’ may be anything—money, respect, jewelry, sex, information, even a match—but be sure to focus on one character’s desire and how that desire is either thwarted or fulfilled by the other character
• Write a story in which each of two characters has half of something that is no good without the other half. Neither wants to give up his or her half. Who wins?
• Write a short, complete arc from a longer narrative you are already thinking about—the narrative which may have been the reason you took this class. Choose a moment where someone learns something that changes him or her forever—or must make a decision after learning that something.
• Create a sustained sequence (story and pictures) of the graphic novel you've been planning; this will require dropping off the script on campus, but this is your opportunity to get some feedback on a long-cherished ambition.

Step Two - Thursday

Download and view The Character Lecture PowerPoint. Viewing this lecture will shave years off your development as a fiction writer. It ain't bragging when it's true.

Step Three - Friday

Read "Green Eggs" by Ned H. 

Read "Simpson & Jolie" by Janelle A.

Read "Boots" by Jackie Z. 

Look at how these student writers created three-dimensional, round characters who each want something specific and personal--and then took them on a harrowing journey. Allow the excellence of these new writers to challenge you.  

Step Four - Saturday

Throw all the thoughts about story ideas down on a page. Don't worry if they make no sense. They won't at first.

Get ready to make some decisions. Warm up. Pick up an object in front of you, write down what it is ("pencil," for example), and then write down as many words as you can think of that rhyme with that word. (Stencil, tensile, prehensile--you get the idea.) Or spend five minutes writing down everything you notice about this object. 

Of course, it sounds crazy. But it really works. Try it and get back to me on it. i prefer crossword puzzles--even the jigsaw-puzzle covers at the New Yorker.

Step Five - Sunday

Create a working outline like the"A & P" model above. Writer to writer, I can't tell you how helpful that outline can be. It will keep you going when you don't know what to do next. Then, in no particular order, draft out specific moments from your outline list.  

Draft all the scenes on your outline list; don't stop and edit. Just move forward until you have done the whole thing. Trust me on this.

Expect to render a completely vile first draft.

Step Six - Monday through Sunday

Wait a couple of days, and then read over what you have written. Do this at least two more times over the next few days. Chances are, you'll see immediately what needs to stay, what needs more development, and what needs to go. Expect to do this-- and learn to enjoy this par. If you do, you'll really and truly be functioning like a professional writer.

Or you can throw something together at ten p.m. on October 24 and always bitterly wonder what you might have done if you had allowed yourself to do it. 

It's your choice. I've already made mine.

Step Seven - Monday (second)

As you go through your draft one final time, try to evoke strong sense details. Your focus should be on conjuring the experience as if it were happening in the moment and for the first time.

Step Eight - Upload your piece to Unicheck in Canvas.

To avoid late penalties, I must receive an electronic copy uploaded to the assignment in Canvas by Wednesday, October 24.

You must submit your work via Unicheck in Canvas.

A cautionary word about submissions: Canvas will accept only pieces with .doc or .docx endings. As a Valencia student, you have access to the full Microsoft Suite (available for free download in Atlas,) so get it and use it. 

Email me through Atlas if you have any questions.

 

07.3* Online Discussion 2: Practice Showing vs. Telling Instructions [Bonus Points]

Due Date: Wednesday, October 17 *The asterisk indicates that two other posts opened today as well. Scroll down to see.

Goals

• To confirm the distinction between "Showing" and "Telling."
• To develop the "getting started" techniques 
• To develop story presentation skills 
• To practice shaping a dramatic event
• To earn some serious Bonus Points! 

Links

• "Showing and Telling"

Readings 

• "Show, Not Tell" by Shirley Jump
• "A Small, Good Thing" by Raymond Carver

Means of Evaluation

• Peer reviews and comments
• Bonus points breakdown: five points for posting the Showing & Telling Step 5,  one point for each comment you make on another student's post that identifies the adjective evoked by the protagonist, one point for your vote, and one point for each vote you earn from your fellow students. The student-selected winner will get five points in addition to any other points he or she has earned by participating.  Caveat: commentary must be specific--no empty "good job!" comment ever got a bonus point. 

The Brief Lecture and Overview:

You will now get to practice the same skill you saw in the stories from the previous assignment. Think about "A & P" for a moment. Updike never "tells" us that Sammy is ordinary-looking, but it comes through in the way Queenie doesn't respond to him (if he looked like Chris Hemsworth or Michael B. Jordan, those girls would have knocked down the 'sheep' and Lengel to get into that lane.)

Raymond Carver doesn't have to "tell" us that the baker is angry--he shows the baker's anger in the way he harasses Ann over the telephone. Carver brings the character onto the stage and shows us something important by what he does.

This assignment straddles the boundaries between Memoir and Fiction. I created it to give you practice with a technique you'll use when creating fiction--and to allow it to be genuine practice unrelated to the ten formal grades that make up your course average.

The goal will be for you to choose someone--a living, breathing person--in your life, bring your laser-like focus to selecting some adjective you'd use to describe this someone, and then create through action and dialogue a moment where we, your faithful readers, can see exactly what you had in mind without your telling us the adjective.

If you've done it right, we will tell you what you intended. If you "accidently" give the adjective away because you're nervous or you don't trust us, we will let you see our profound displeasure by withholding points and praise.

It goes both ways, though: we expect that you will tell us if we were successful as well. 

Why put ourselves through this creative-writing version of the Klingon Age of Ascension ritual? Putting some skin in the game makes a difference. This will be your first taste of writer's-group protocol. 

Remember always that the ability to show and not tell is the single-most-valuable resource in a developing fiction writer's repertoire. You will be expected to demonstrate this ability in your upcoming assignment. 

So: work hard, write with intention, and give good, clear feedback to your fellow writers.  Today, you travel the River of Blood.

An Experiment:

Read the following two passages which express a similar description of a charismatic and glamorous personality. "Charismatic" and "glamorous" are the adjectives. 

Which segment is "showing" and which one is "telling?" What else do you see in the "showing" sections?  

I've opened the Discussion function of this post in case you'd like to weigh in--and argue with the other writers.

From The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald:

    When I came back from the East last autumn I felt that I wanted the world to be in uniform and at a sort of moral attention forever; I wanted no more riotous excursions with privileged glimpses into the human heart. Only Gatsby, the man who gives his name to this book, was exempt from my reaction — Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn. If personality is an unbroken series of successful gestures, then there was something gorgeous about him, some heightened sensitivity to the promises of life, as if he were related to one of those intricate machines that register earthquakes ten thousand miles away. This responsiveness had nothing to do with that flabby impressionability which is dignified under the name of the “creative temperament.”— it was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again. 

Gorgeous, isn't it? But it's a record of a reaction, and it's hard to see the actual Gatsby. Later in the chapter, we get our first glimpse of Gatsby himself:

I decided to call to him. Miss Baker had mentioned him at dinner, and that would do for an introduction. But I didn’t call to him, for he gave a sudden intimation that he was content to be alone — he stretched out his arms toward the dark water in a curious way, and, far as I was from him, I could have sworn he was trembling. Involuntarily I glanced seaward — and distinguished nothing except a single green light, minute and far away, that might have been the end of a dock. When I looked once more for Gatsby he had vanished, and I was alone again in the unquiet darkness.

This is SO MUCH BETTER! I can see 'romantic readiness' in Gatsby's gesture and response without Nick's interpretation. This little paragraph paints a far more interesting portrait of Gatsby himself and puts me forever on his side because Fitzgerald shows a whole lot more than just 'romantic readiness:' there's all that charisma and glamour . . . 

Here is a very-different sense of 'romantic readiness' (and charisma and glamour) in Hemingway's portrait of the artist Pascin in his memoir A Moveable Feast:

    Pascin had waved to me while I had stood on the
sidewalk on the rue Delambre side wondering
whether to stop and have a drink or not. Pascin was a
very good painter and he was drunk; steady,
purposefully drunk and making good sense. The two
models were young and pretty. One was very dark,
small, beautifully built with a falsely fragile depravity.
The other was childlike and dull but very pretty in a
perishable childish way. She was not as well built as her sister,
but neither was anyone else that spring.

    'The good and the bad sisters,' Pascin said. 'I have
money. What will you drink?'
    'Une demi-blonde,' I said to the waiter.
    'Have a whisky. I have money.'
    'I like beer.'
    'If you really liked beer, you'd be at Lipp's. I suppose
you've been working.'
    'Yes.'
    'It goes?'
    'I hope so.'
    'Good. I'm glad. And everything still tastes good?'
    'Yes.'
    'How old are you?'
    'Twenty-five.'
    'Do you want to bang her?' He looked towards the
dark sister and smiled. 'She needs it.'
    'You probably banged her enough today.'
    She smiled at me with her lips open. 'He's wicked,'
she said. 'But he's nice.'
    'You can take her over to the studio.'
    'Don't make piggishness,' the blonde sister said.
    'Who spoke to you?' Pascin asked her.
    'Nobody. But I said it.'
    'Let's be comfortable,' Pascin said. 'The serious
young writer and the friendly wise old painter and the
two beautiful young girls with all of life before them.'    

Directions

Now you're on deck. And like Hemingway, we'll practice using a memory to create a character before we move into the fiction piece.

Step 1 - Wednesday

Click on the link above and read "Show, Not Tell" by Shirley Jump, which is chock full of excellent advice. Then read the heartbreaking story, "A Small, Good Thing" by Raymond Carver. This story is a masterpiece of character presentation. Look closely at the fullness of the portrait of a grieving mother and the few moments of respite she experiences in the most-unlikely place in her life. Look at how Carver humanizes the baker, who is initially one of the most unsympathetic characters in our readings. But he doesn't stay unsympathetic. Look closely at how Carver pulls everything together in that amazing moment of communion (comprehension and sacrament) in the final paragraphs. 

Step 2 - Thursday

Download the "Showing and Telling" handout and complete the exercise. The content must show in action the adjective you identified in Worksheet Step 2 and defined in Worksheet Step 3; you must not state that adjective anywhere in Worksheet Step 5. That would be telling.

Make certain to edit Step 5 for spelling and grammar, as this is the section you will display to the other students in the class. You have NO IDEA how critical your peers will be of sloppy sentences. They turn into a horrifying mash-up of Joan Rivers and Simon Cowell.

Step 3 - Friday

Enter Online Discussion #2 by pasting your final draft of the Worksheet Step 5 anecdote in the forum you'll find below this post. Post Step 5, and ONLY Step 5, the anecdote that "shows" the adjective, below.  Take a breath and wait.

The posting closes on October 17. If you want folks to read your piece and comment, get the piece online a day or two before the deadline. Aim for at least October 12. This will give the other writers time to evaluate and respond to your work.

Step 4 - Saturday, Sunday, Monday

        Read your narrative again and again over the next couple of days. Tighten it, clarify it--edit it. Think about making an appointment at the Writing         Center for a second look. You will notice how much it wants to grow each time you read it.

Step 5 - Wednesday (second)

Read at least two other students' Step 5 anecdotes. Identify for each in a simple, declarative sentence the adjectives these students presented through action in their pieces.  

Be generous with your compliments if you notice something that pleases you; be equally generous with suggestions if you can think of a way to show rather than tell a detail of characterization. Always present yourself as a courteous, respectful professional in your comments. Post these comments at the website as you did in Online Discussion #1. 

FYI: create a separate post for each of the three students whose ideas you're engaging. If you lump the comments into one post only the first student will read, you won't get any points.

CAVEAT: Tread softly because you tread on someone's dreams. Be clear but remember that any comments that cross the line of courtesy and respect will be removed from the discussion and disqualified from any bonus points. 

Step 6 

Follow the discussion and read what at least two other students have identified as the key adjective in your piece.  Do not respond to these other students, even to thank them. In a writers' group, you would not be permitted to speak until discussion of your work had ended.

Evaluate your own success. What worked for you? What must you pay more attention to in future pieces?

Step 7 - Tuesday (second)

Judgment Day: choose the student piece that you considered the most successful at presenting a characteristic through action. Send me a brief email naming your choice. The winning student will receive the famous Tootsie Pop of Validation. It's a real Tootsie Pop. The winning student just has to come to campus and choose the flavor.

To make the competition even juicier, each student will receive a bonus point for every vote he or she earns. Each student gets one vote only and may not vote for himself or herself!

As I mentioned earlier, you have access to student models to help you navigate. Camille Q is a past Tootsie Pop winner and has graciously permitted me to post her piece below. Please read this wonderful model before you post; it will clarify the concept and help you create your best work. You will also find a pair of student comments to serve as models for your own comments. As an added bonus, you'll find a second model: Erin M's winning piece from our first competition. Enjoy!

Email me through Atlas if you have any questions.

07.2* Online Discussion 2 -- Post Here!

To participate in this class discussion (and qualify for a Tootsie Pop),

1. click the "Comments" link at the bottom of this post.
2. In the "Name" field, type your first name and last initial (don't let yourself get Googled!)
3. Put in your Atlas email address but leave the "URL" field blank.
4. Paste or type the final draft of Step 5 on the Worksheet (your anecdote) in the "Comments" box and click "Post."
5. Validate your post by typing the random list of letters and numbers offered by the website.

07.1* Past Winners of the Tootsie Pop of Validation: Camille Q and Erin M

Examples of Point-Earning Submissions for this Bonus Exercise  *Three posts opened today. Scroll up or down as you need to see them all.

From the Showing and Telling Worksheet:

5.  Now-- render the event you just narrated as a brief scene. Incorporate physical descriptions and  appropriate quotations  as needed.

Past Winner: Camille Q

                                           The Fountainhead                                    

    “You, what is your name?” The officer demands. 
    I swallow hard. “First and last?” I ask. My voice trembles.
    The policeman nods his head; he’s in no mood for questions.
    “Camille…Q-U-A-C-H.” I don’t even bother saying my last name anymore. I just go right to spelling it.
    The policeman writes on a small notepad and then turns his attention to my two friends standing next to me. I look around and examine the scene. Soap bubbles flow out of the large fountain I stand next to. They drift into the street. The wind blows, sending large puffs of soap flying like snow. Giant clumps of snow. I look back at the cop who has a sour look on his face.

“Robin P-a…” I hear.

  A car drives by and slows down. The driver sticks his head out of the window asking, “Is it snowing this early?” The cop grimaces. The man drives off, laughing.

 I shiver. I’m soaked. My jeans, my hair, and my borrowed T-shirt drip with soapy water. I look to my friends and notice both of them are shaking from the cold and nerves as well.
    The policeman says something on his radio then turns his attention to us. “So what were you guys thinking?” he asks, his tone annoyed.
    We exchange quick, guilty glances and shrug. I speak first. “We honestly didn’t know that anything like this would happen,” I say, my voice pleading. This isn’t exactly true, but I am guilty and caught and my first thought is to save my ass.
    Another car drives by the bubbling fountain and the people inside yell a loud, “YEAH!”
    The cop ignores this. He moves to stand in front of us. “Here’s what is going to happen,” he begins. “The neighborhood can choose to press charges against you, because this fountain is on their property.”
    I tense up. Press charges? I don’t think I’ve had a detention before. Immediately I know I have to call my mother. “Um,” I start, afraid to ask this cop any question, “can I call my Mom?”
    The cop doesn’t look at me, “She isn’t going to be able to do anything yet.” He rasps.
    “I know,” I say, trying to sound as respectful as possible. “I just want to call her and tell her what’s happening.”
    “I don’t care,” the cop says with disinterest.
    I turn my back from the group, and pull out my cell phone. My feelings are mixed on how my mother is about to take this news.
    She answers, “Hello?”
    “Mom…” I begin. “I’m in some trouble.” Before she can say anything I spill out the story. “Robin, Camile and I put soap in the Steven’s Plantation fountain…bubbles are everywhere and the police came. We honestly didn’t mean to cause any trouble and I don’t know what is going to happen.”
    My mother is silent for only a moment and then she says, “I’m coming.” There isn’t any anger in her voice, only worry.
    I sigh, relieved. “I don’t know if you can do anything right now Mom.” I say.
    “That’s fine,” she says “you just need a parent with you and I’ll be there as soon as possible.”
    After the conversation ends, I tell the policeman my mother is on her way. He only nods at this, and looks toward another approaching cop car. Are two cops really necessary? I think.
    Another bald policeman with a grim expression walks up, shaking his head. “Have you turned off the fountain yet?” he asks.
    The first cop shakes his head, and they head to the fountain trying to avoid soapy puddles so as not to mess up their shiny shoes.
    Minutes pass and my friends and I stand hugging our shoulders, avoiding eye contact with all the passengers in cars that go by. I feel like a little kid that just got caught with her hand in the cookie jar.
    After a few minutes I see a car that looks familiar. My mother drives our black minivan onto the curb and gets out. She has a worried expression on her face and as she approaches all she says is, “Wow. This is a mess.”
    All three of us look down at the ground, guiltily. She notices we’re all shaking, “do you guys want something to keep you warm? I have blankets and a jacket in the car.”
    “Yeah that would be nice,” I answer for all of us.
My mother turns back to the car and brings a warm quilt for my two friends to share and a jacket for me.
    I watch her as she pulls the quilt tighter around my friends, “is that a little better?”
    They nod. For the first time, I feel like everything is going to be okay.

Camille Q
I think your paper was well put together. Great dialogue and description of the scene. I think you portrayed the police officers and how they treat kids playing a prank like terrorists. They are harsh-- Marcelo N 

Camille Q,I really enjoyed your story. I think I have been pulled over by that cop myself (or maybe they just all seem alike?) I think the adjective I would use to describe your mother is "unconditionally loving." It's a great story and you told it very nicely. You are really lucky to have such a great Mom. -- Marty G

Past Winner: Erin M.

Graduation 2008

 After five long years of hard work, my sister had graduated college. She took five classes every semester including summers for five years and finally the goal had been reached.

 “I can't believe your finished with school!” Aunt Sarah said hugging Angela, my sister.

 “I know!” Angela proudly exclaimed. Even though the graduation had been hours before, she still wore her black graduation gown. The restaurant was crowded. Especially now, that our family and my sister’s friends had arrived for her long awaited graduation party. Mini black graduation caps and “2008” lettering adorned the table. A big orange and blue cake with the words “Congratulations” sat at the end of the long table.

 I sat near the middle of the table. Family that I hadn’t seen in years were pouring in the entrance way. My aunt Sarah and Uncle Frank had flown in from California to attend the graduation. I hadn’t seen them since the turn of the century.

 Aunt Sarah took a seat across from Angela, who was seated next to me.

 “So Angela,” Sarah began “now that you’re finished with college, what’s next?” Angela twirled her hair around her finger and thought for a moment before answering.

 “Well, I’m not really finished with school,” Angela said, “I applied for graduate school and plan to start my masters in the fall.”

 Aunt Sarah beamed. “I am just so impressed,” she said, “I could barely finish a semester of school before dropping out, it was just too hard! And you, you must be so proud!”

 Angela laughed, “well I am taking a slight break over summer,” she said, “I’m going to Mexico to do some volunteer work for two months.”

 This was news to me, “you are?” I asked surprised. “I thought you were going to move to Phoenix for a job?”

 “Oh no,” Angela laughed and reached for her coke, “that didn’t work out, just last week I decided to go to Mexico for volunteer work, I figure it would look great on my resume!”

 I looked up to see my mother walk by to greet Aunt Sarah.

 “Oh!” Aunt Sarah said standing up to hug my mother. “You must be so proud of her! Finishing school and now grad school! I could never!” My mother laughed. I said in my chair feeling almost invisible. Aunt Sarah had not so much as to even said hi to me, and here she was gloating about my sister.

 “I’m thinking of actually going to med school once I complete my masters degree,” Angela said. I nervously cut my spaghetti noodles and stared down at the table.

 “You are?” I asked.

 “Oh dear!” Aunt Sarah said. She reached across the table and placed her hand on top of Angela’shand and smiled. After a moment she turned to me.

 “And you, dear?” she said, “What have you been up to? Still working at that coffee shop? Making God knows what, how can you even survive on those kind of wages?

 I smiled. Finally, she had acknowledged me.

 “Well, no. The coffee shop job, that was two years ago, now I’m working for a hotel, it’s really great actually and I started school again,” I looked up to see Aunt Sarah looking into a compact mirror reapplying lipstick.

 “Oh, you’re in school again?” she asked.

 I nodded anxiously.

 “Isn’t that just a hoot!” she said now blotting her lips.

 “What is?” I wondered how much a drink would cost in this restaurant, I was sure going to need it.  

 “Your younger sister graduating college before you!” she laughed.

 “Well, it was a lot of hard work,” my sister chimed in, “I was at the library weekend, I just couldn’t accept anything less than an A.”

 Of course you couldn’t, I thought. I sighed. Last semester I’d received a C in my math class and that was a small victory for me.

 Just then, my Uncle Frank walked by our table.

 “Is that the graduate?” he bent down and gave my sister a hug. “You are just such a hard worker!  You will go far in life.”

 I reached my hand up and called the waitress to our table.

 “What can I get for you?” her pad and pen were ready to take my order.

 “Anything with vodka,” I said. I began to wonder if I should have even showed up to this party.

06 Quiz 3: Fiction [100 points]

Due Date: Wednesday, October 10

Goals     

• Understand the differences between memoir and fiction 
• Read short-story masterpieces, observing the variety of subjects, themes, points of view, and presentation styles

Means of Evaluation

• You will take an objective reading quiz available from Wednesday, October 3 through Wednesday, October 10 in Canvas.
• In the coming weeks, you will also create a short, complete story arc of your own. It's time for full-on artistic expression.  

Links

• "Joe's Old Lady" - student essay
• "Esmeralda" - student fiction
• “She Being Brand-” by e. e. cummings

Directions for Unit 2 

Step 1

Read "Joe's Old Lady"(essay/memoir) and "Esmeralda" (fiction), two completely different compositions that spring from the same topic: A woman's significant other is more emotionally involved with a prized automobile than with he seems to be with her.

Observe the differences in the presentation styles: understanding that all-important difference between reporting a moment in a factual way and conjuring that moment as if it were happening in real time is important distinction between memoir and fiction: the subject is the same, but the presentation is different. Read them first on your own. Then, click on the "Commentary on 'Joe's Old Lady'"and "Commentary on 'Esmeralda'" and compare your observations with mine. I am showing you how I grade the fiction component.

By the way, "perfection" is not a requirement. "Esmeralda" is a brilliant piece of student fiction writing because it conjures 'the moment' in all five senses; it deserves its A, but it is far from perfect and not ready for publication.

After you have read these student pieces, please read "She Being Brand--" by e. e. cummings, and see an example of how a poet uses the car/woman metaphor in a completely new way. 

Step 2

Read the following short stories in the Portable Literature textbook. As you read, identify all the levels and types of conflict. 

• “A & P” by John Updike, p. 160 (I'll do this one for you: privileged class vs. working class; conservative small-town folks vs. the rich folk who summer in the colony at the Point; the behavior of the locals vs. the behavior of the out-of-towners (the 'sheep' vs. the girls); the desire to be seen vs. not being able to control how one is seen (the girls vs. the ogling boys and the creepy meat-counter man); poor, ordinary-looking boy wanting beautiful rich girl; not wanting to make waves vs. people's expectations about someone based on his social position (Lengel, the Sunday-school superintendent vs. the 'sheep'). I could go on, but I won't. 
• “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates, p. 453
• "Gryphon” by Charles Baxter, p. 172
• “Everyday Use” by Alice Walker, p. 344
• "Araby” by James Joyce, p. 288
• "The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, p. 434
• “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver, p. 353

        Then read the following materials, also in Portable Literature:

• "Understanding Fiction” by Kirszner and Mandell, pps. 66-74
• "Plot” by Kirszner and Mandell, pps. 123-127 (please study that checklist!)
• “Character” by Kirszner and Mandell, pps. 156-159
• “Theme” by Kirszner and Mandell, pps. 381-386

Step 3

Take your quiz, which will be available from Wednesday, October 3 through Wednesday, October 10, in Canvas. Keep these important things in  mind:

• The quiz will be available in "Tests" in the left-hand sidebar of the Canvas Home Page for our  course.
• The quiz will evaluate your understanding of the readings above.
• You will have only 30 minutes to take this 20-item quiz. 
• If you miss the quiz, you earn a zero. No exceptions. If you are worried that an unforseen emergency might interfere, then complete the quiz on the first day it is available, not the last.
• If you encounter a problem with Canvas, call the helpline immediately at 407-582-5600. Then send me an email with the exact time Canvas went down. I will try to resolve a problem only if you have followed these instructions. 

If you have any questions, contact me through Atlas.

In the meantime, enjoy the readings. See if you can figure out all the levels of conflict in each piece. Remember that there's no art without tension; you'll see that when you begin your piece.

That insight will help you make better artistic choices when you are called to create the short story.  

05 Assignment 1: The Memoir/Magazine Article [100 points]

Due Date: Wednesday, October 3

Goals    

• Experience creative-writing boot camp to develop strategies to carry you through this session and on to your artistic vision.
• Create a 1000-1200 word Memoir/Magazine Article that satisfies your need for honest self-examination and offers a compelling read for an audience. If you go over the limit to tell the complete story, that's fine. If you go over the limit because you're too lazy to be clear and tight, then the extra verbiage will count against your scene-management score. Be thoughtful here; make good decisions. 

Your Grade for This Assignment

• Score on the Memoir assignment. Please review this score sheet before submitting your final draft. The best surprise is no surprise.

Student Model

• "The New Normal" by Shumaita K, available in the Assignment link in Canvas (look for the link in "Assignments" on the left side bar.) Read this piece first--and then read it last.

The Brief Lecture 

May I offer a word about the approach presented here in these ten steps?  Here it is: what worked before in high school or in other writing classes won't work here.

If you do this work correctly, you will need the allotted two weeks to prepare this assignment. I take for granted that a piece of writing takes multiple days to perfect, but this may be genuine news to some folks with histories of waiting until the last minute (it worked in other classes, right?) Those folks can sometimes get into trouble by underestimating how long it takes to make a good piece and overestimating how polished they are as writers.

Please don't make this mistake. Since you chose this class, I can only hope that this is work you'll find both challenging and fulfilling. 

For the greatest chance of success, print this post and do one step per writing session. Then you will know what it feels like to create a piece the way professionals create. It feels pretty good, in case you were wondering, and it's way more fun than waiting until the last minute. Good luck--and enjoy. If you took this course to enjoy yourself, then this is how to achieve enjoyment.

Directions 

Remember the advice from those ten awesome memoirists in the previous post? Now is the time to show what you have learned. Adair Lara urges you to use the form to see the value and meaning in your experience; Bill Clinton cautions you not to use the form to get even with the wrongdoers in your life; and Stephen King reassures you that the fear you feel is good and natural--and then he tells you to get over yourself.     

A memoir may develop from an essay, but there are key differences between the two genres. For one thing, essays tend to stay more on the surface of the experience, emphasizing the external historical elements; they express life lessons about common experiences. Memoirs, on the other hand, although also unrelentingly honest, are vehicles for a deeper, more personal truth.

You will find the Kabir piece and two handouts for this assignment at Canvas in the "Assignments" link. Print them out and read them thoroughly. Also, you will upload the final copy there. 

 Step 1 - Wednesday (first day)

        For your first writing assignment, select a topic from the list below:  

A time you almost almost died

A time you stole something

A time you found out something you didn't want to know

A time you let something slip that you never intended to reveal

A gift you gave that went unacknowledged

A gift you wanted and got--and regretted getting

A hard thing you had to do

The list is just a place to start, so if none of these topics speaks to you and you have your own idea, feel free to run it by me. 

The most important thing is to tell the story of how you dealt with conflict, and how that experience changed you. Good memoirs require a struggle, either with one's self or with an insurmountable external obstacle. Most importantly, they offer a profound story arc.

Look closely at our models in the previous post. Choose wisely. You might consider adapting the same source material through all the genres we experiment with this session.

Step 2 - Thursday

Once you have made your choice, get started. There is no reason to feel nervous about freezing up or having nothing to say because this is how you start. 

The fastest way to open the doors to your own creativity is to examine an artifact from that time in your life: letters you kept, concert ticket stubs you held on to, a ring you might still have but no longer wear, your hospital discharge papers. This really works. When I look at cancelled checks from my own college days and see what I spent money on, I zoom straight back to that first apartment and can draw it with my eyes closed. I can even see the parking lot right off Archer Road, smell the diesel exhaust from the campus shuttle bus, and step off in front of Turlington Hall all over again.

So: put your hands on an artifact from that time in your life. Feel those feelings--the sweetness and the loss.  

 Here are some suggestions from the Memoir website about how to further enhance these artifacts:

1. Call someone familiar with the situation or at least the time you are writing about. Invite him or her share perceptions and memories. Do not correct what you hear. Be open.

2. Pull out old files and records, photos, home movies, letters or postcards, diaries, even bills or bank statements from the time.

3. Look at marriage or birth certificates, grant deeds, or car purchase papers.

4. Go back to the place it all happened, if possible. 

Step 3 - Friday

Set up your writing area. Select a quiet spot. Arrange your favorite pen or pencil and a notebook you really like and aren't intimidated by. I like to rough out a discovery draft in a large sketch pad like one:

  

  I tend to avoid beautiful, expensive numbers like this handmade Turkish leather notebook because I don't have a thought in my head worthy of such a showcase:

See what I mean? If this were my notebook, I would never write.  Choose your materials wisely. 

 Step 4 - Saturday

Start writing--wherever the words want to start. Let it all pour out of you without judgment and without worrying about how all the pieces will come together. You MUST open these doors. This is the part that starts hard--but then, all at once, you will get so deeply into the memory that your pen can't keep up with your thoughts. Hemingway referred to this moment as "the story writing itself," and it is what you had hoped Creative Writing would feel like and be. Good job! Stop for the day, say 'thank you' to the genius assigned to you, and go play outside for a while.

This is what writing the Discovery draft feels like: 

Notice how the "track" appears just as the "car" gets close to the edge? Isn't that a visual metaphor for how the words just appeared as you tore through your discovery draft? 

Step 5 - Sunday

This step is very satisfying. During the next writing session, type your handwritten material into a Word document. As you type, you will see magic happen as moments that were already good take on depth and color. Spend about forty minutes on this step. And then let yourself be done. Go watch a football game or something.

Step 6 - Monday

This is where the rubber hits the road. Read over what you have written. Now, you must write the story and assert order and control over the material.  This may be a shock. The drafting material has felt so good to write that you might be tempted to believe that it must actually be good.

But you'd be wrong. So wrong. You'll be seeing that for yourself soon enough.

You needed that open, unjudging experience to know what you wanted to write about, but you won't create anything anyone else wants to read until you step back from that awesome raw material, give it a day or so to rest, and then shape it. By "shape," I mean that you must compose the material now to fit the prime directive of any writing for a creative-writing class: you must tell a story. And that means your piece must have a very clear beginning, middle, and end.

Here is an example of what I mean. This first student-written paragraph was conjured during a session where the writer felt like every word came to him on wings. The experience of crashing into the tree and nearly killing himself was fresh in his memory, and he felt compelled to write about it. Here is the paragraph: 

    The perspiration had swallowed my white T-shirt. My heart was pumping furiously and my hands were tightly gripping the handlebars. The chrome on my bicycle glistened as the beads of sweat bounced off it and disappeared on the scorching pavement. As I raced down the street, the wind became my opponent and it beat against me like the waves on a beach. The anticipation of the victory grew as I managed a tense smile with the thought of a record time.  With the race half over fatigue began to set in. The tree that marked the finish line mocked me as it seemed to move farther away. All of my energy was being used up. My legs were churning  and the fire inside was about to engulf them. So I lowered my head, as I had seen on TV, to focus all of my energy on the finish. 

When he wrote it, he was in the moment and loved the writing. That was appropriate. But he gave it to me without shaping it, and I did not love the reading. What a mess! The metaphors are so mixed that there is no hope of subtext, the verbs are flaccid ("was pumping, was gripping"), and the organization is nonexistent. Think about it: how can perspiration swallow anything? Wouldn't the shirt disappear?  And if you tighten the verbs to "gripped" and "pumped," aren't they more powerful? 

This is, in its current form, about a C-. You may think that the piece is better than that, and that I am harsh. I assure you that I am not. It may well be that you don't notice the problems because this is what you currently do--and that is what the class is here to help you correct. 

Four days and three rewrites later, I got this version:

    Perspiration soured my white T-shirt. My heart pounded. The oak tree marking the finish line beckoned. My hands gripped the handlebars. The chrome on the bicycle glistened. Beads of sweat rolled off my face onto the shiny surface and then evaporated on the scorching pavement below. The wind whipped my arms and face.  I stole a glance behind. The nearest cyclist was easily fifty feet away and dropping fast. I managed a tight grin at the thought of a record time. 

    The race half over now, fatigue gnawed at my smugness. In my blurring vision, the old oak seemed to swim away. All of my energy waned. My legs quivered.  The breath I drew in ragged gasps turned to fire inside my lungs. I lowered my head, as I had seen on TV, to focus all of my energy on the finish. 

Isn't it now more focused, organized, and fun to read? From a series of scattered, disconnected sentences, the writer has produced a sleek moment that has the all-important beginning, middle, and end.This is what you must ruthlessly do to your own piece. And this is just the first draft. Stop for today. 

Step 7 - Tuesday

Now the hard work actually begins. Read over the work from the day before. Ask yourself: why am I writing about this? What is the insight I hoped to achieve? 

You must answer these questions in order to move the piece from "very good essay" to "compelling memoir." Look at the memoir pieces I assigned you, particularly the  last four paragraphs of Peter Orner's wonderful "Writing About What Haunts Us."

Slice away any material that was fun to read but does not contribute to the overall direction of the piece. With your insight in mind, you will now know what you must cut and what you must keep. Make those choices. Scrape away any words that don't serve the story. If I see a fifteen-page submission, I will know that you made no artistic choices and that the piece will bore me.

This is a visual metaphor of how the drafting process sometimes feels!

Step 8 - Wednesday (second)

Carefully proofread your work. Here are some common errors you can avoid:

1. If you question the spelling or meaning of a word, LOOK IT UP!

2. Eliminate any connector words like "and" and "as."  

3. Eliminate as many -ly adverbs as possible; edit your verbs accordingly.

4. Keep the action as close to chronology as possible.

5. Don't use you [or any other second-person pronoun]. 

6. Remember that you are writing a memoir, not sending a text, so use language and punctuation accordingly

Step 9 - Thursday, Friday, Saturday, etc. (second) Prepare to re-read it each day, making tiny changes as you go through it. 

Produce the final draft of your piece [a minimum of 1000 words, maximum of 1200]. Follow these format guidelines:

           1. In the top left corner of the first page provide the following information:

Your name

Professor Orsini

CRW 2001 Online

Date

In the top right corner, type your last name, key word from your title, and page number, like this:

                                                                                Last Name/Title/1

   2. Double space the memoir. Do NOT add extra space between the paragraphs.

   3. Indent all the paragraphs

   4. Have a one-inch margin on all four sides of the page.

   5. Use a 12-point font.

If you miss the assignment submission window in Canvas and must submit your piece via Atlas email (with attachment), please remember to include a polite note that follows Professor Leddy's example. Late pieces submitted without the polite email note will receive an additional five-point penalty. Politeness in submissions is mandatory if you one day want an agent or editor to respond positively to you. 

Step 10 - Monday and Tuesday of Submission Week

Spend the next couple of days polishing the piece, and when you are ready, upload your polished memoir to the Assignment in Canvas.

Step 11 - Upload your piece to Unicheck in Canvas.

To avoid late penalties, I must receive an electronic copy uploaded to the assignment in Canvas by Wednesday, October 3.

A cautionary word about submissions: Canvas will accept only pieces with .doc or .docx endings. As a Valencia student, you have access to the full Microsoft Suite (available for free download in Atlas,) so get it and use it. 

Email me through Atlas if you have any questions.

 

04 Quiz 2: Memoir/Magazine Article Readings [100 points]

Due Date: Wednesday, September 26

Goals     

• Understand the differences between essay and memoir 
• Sample masterpieces of the genre, observing the variety of subjects and presentation styles

Your Grade for This Assignment

• You will take an objective reading quiz available from Wednesday, September 19 through Wednesday, September 26 in Canvas.
• In the coming weeks, you will also create a memoir/magazine article of your own. Pay particular attention to specific moments that hold your attention the most intensely. That is the kind of control we aspire to have over our readers. 

Directions for Unit 2

    Step 1

Read these memoirs and articles at the The New Yorker, NewYork Times, Huffpost Books, and Netplaces: 

• "Understanding Owls" by David Sedaris [Memoir/Magazine Article]
• "Writing about What Haunts Us" by Peter Orner [Memoir/Newspaper Article]
• "No Labels, No Drama, Right?" by Jordana Narin [Memoir/Newspaper Article]
• "I Was A Hotline Psychic for Miss Cleo" by Bennett Madison [Memoir/Newspaper Article]
• "Two Questions" by Lynda Barry
• "Ten Secrets of Successful Memoir Writers" by Victoria Costello (click on each of the ten windows: the blurbs are entertaining and informative!)
• "The Key Elements of Writing a Good Memoir" by Adair Lara
• "Memoir" definitions and insights (various artists)

    In addition, read these pieces from Portable Literature:

• from "Maus" by Art Spiegelman, p. 115 
• from "Persepolis" by Marjane Satrapi, p. 111 

Try to put your finger on exactly why these authors chose to write these pieces. That insight will help you make better artistic choices when you create your own memoir.    

   Step 2

 Take your quiz, which will be available from Wednesday, September 19 through Wednesday, September 26, in Canvas. Keep these important things in mind:

• The quiz will be available in "Quizzes" in the lefthand sidebar of the Canvas Home Page for our  course.
• The quiz will evaluate your understanding of the readings above.
• You will have only 30 minutes to take this 25-item quiz. Please therefore do all the readings before you begin the quiz.
• If you miss the quiz, you earn a zero. No exceptions. If you are worried that an unforseen emergency might interfere, then complete the quiz on the first day it is available, not the last.
• If you encounter a problem with Canvas, call the helpline immediately at 407-582-5600. Then send me an email with the exact time Canvas went down. I will try to resolve a problem only if you have followed these instructions. 

            If you have any questions, contact me through Atlas.

In the meantime, enjoy the readings! These are among my favorites.

03 Quiz 1: Orientation Lecture & Readings [50 points]

Due Date: Wednesday, September 19  

Goal            

• Complete the Orientation for this course

Means of Evaluation

• Your score on the Orientation Lecture Test

Readings/Viewings/Performances on the test (refresher)

• Course Syllabus
• Course Calendar
• PowerPoint: "First Things First--Are You In The Right Class?"
• Memoir: “Would Our Two New Lives Include a Third?” by Ronda Kaysen
• Short Story: "Hills Like White Elephants," by Ernest Hemingway, p. 74 in Portable Literature
• Poem: “The Mother,” by Gwendolyn Brooks
• Poem: “The Abortion” by Anne Sexton
• Newspaper Article: Weldon Gets Thirteen Years in Abortion-Pill Case
• Spoken-word poem: “Black Barbie Doll,” by Red Storm

• Video: “Brick,” Ben Folds Five:

• Song: “Love Has Come For You” by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell on PBS:

• Screenplay: Scene from Juno

Directions

If you are ready, take the quiz, which opens today. To take a quiz in Canvas, follow these directions:

• Have both required textbooks and the syllabus at hand and have the Orientation PowerPoint open before you begin the quiz.
• Log into Canvas
• Click on our class—CRW 2001.
• Click on Tests in the left sidebar.
• Click on Orientation Lecture Quiz. You will have 60 minutes to take the quiz. Keep an eye on the timer at the right. If you let the 60 minutes elapse before you have finished, your choices will not count.
• Click Save Answer or > after you have finalized your choice for each question. The check mark that appears at the right means that you have answered the item, not that you have gotten it correct.
• Click Save and Submit at the end of the quiz.
• You have only one attempt at this quiz, so be sure to follow all of these directions.
• If you encounter a problem with Canvas, call the helpline immediately at 407-582-5600. Then send me an email with the exact time Canvas went down. I will try to resolve a problem only if you have followed these instructions. You will also find a help link in the left sidebar of our course home page.

Your score will post in Canvas when the time period for test-taking expires. 

Caveat: Each part of the Orientation assignment earns points that are part of your final course grade and cannot be made up after the respective windows close. 

02 Online Discussion 1 [25 points]

Due Date: Wednesday, September 12

Goals            

• Respond in writing to masterpieces of craft built on the same subject in multiple genres 
• Meet the other students in our class and practice writers'-group etiquette
• Earn 25 points for this assignment

Means of Evaluation

• Full participation in Online Discussion 1, worth 25 points, due Wednesday, September 12 

Readings/Viewings/Performances

(Warning: Mature themes and language about unplanned pregnancies to follow!)

• Memoir: “Would Our Two New Lives Include a Third?” by Ronda Kaysen
• Short Story: "Hills Like White Elephants," by Ernest Hemingway, p. 74 in Portable Literature
• Poem: “The Mother,” by Gwendolyn Brooks
• Poem: “The Abortion” by Anne Sexton
• Newspaper Article: Weldon Gets Thirteen Years in Abortion-Pill Case
• Spoken-word poem: “Black Barbie Doll,” by Red Storm

• Video: “Brick,” Ben Folds Five:

• Song: “Love Has Come For You” by Steve Martin and Edie Brickell on PBS:

• Screenplay: Scene from Juno

Directions

Step 1

Each of the assigned pieces is dominated by the same subject: a response to an unplanned pregnancy. Review the Readings/Viewings/Performances. For your convenience, the links are at the top of this post.

While the subject is the same for each piece, each piece offers something unique: a perspective, an insight, a presentation style. It's important for you to see this. There is nothing new under the sun; however, what we have to say about our own experiences with the human condition is the one thing that is uniquely our own. Learn this now, and be both challenged and comforted.

Step 2

Time for work. On a notepad, answer the following questions:

• Which piece was your favorite--and why? 
• Which part did you enjoy more: the message or the signal? 
• Did these presentations make you re-think your ideas about the kind of material worthy of artistic interpretation? 
• Which of the genres appeals most to you?

Step 3

Read over your notes and use them to compose a thoughtful, 150-200 word response. If you take a short cut here, you won't get the points, FYI.

As you prepare your answer, first introduce yourself and explain what drew you to creative writing. Then weigh in on the materials.

I recommend preparing the draft in a Word or Google Drive document, editing it there, and then pasting the finished product into the post. If you think your tenth-grade English teacher was picky, believe me when I say you haven't seen 'picky' until you've been raked over the coals by your classmates.

Step 4

When you are ready to post, click the "Comments" link at the bottom of this post. In the "Name" field, type your first name and last initial (for example, 'Ernest H,' and use your Atlas email address in the "Address" field (for example, ehemingway@mail.valenciacollege.edu). Leave the "URL" field blank.

Type or paste your answer in the "Comments" box and click "Post." You may be asked to validate your comment by typing a random list of letters and numbers.

Step 5

After you have posted, comment on at least three other students' posts. This way, we can all get to know one another before we begin our work--and then the harder work of commenting on each other's creative endeavors. FYI: create a separate post for each of the three students whose ideas you're engaging. If you lump the comments into one post only the first student will read, you won't get any points. 

Consider this an opportunity to make friends, show us who you are as an artist and colleague--and earn points for doing it. Just be courteous and professional--and make it easier for us to follow your posts--and earn points for doing it.

Email me through Atlas if you have any questions.

01 Introduction: the Dr. Leddy Email [25 points]

Due Date: Wednesday, September 5

Goals            

• Secure your spot in CRW 2001 Online (a Valencia College requirement)
• Practice effective audience management
• Demonstrate your willingness to read and follow directions

Means of Evaluation

• A thoughtful email composed in accordance with principles laid out by Dr. Michael Leddy of Orange Crate Art worth 25 points due Wednesday, September 5.

Link

• "How to Email A Professor" by Dr. Michael Leddy

Directions

Step 1

Read "How to Email a Professor" by Dr. Michael Leddy. Read it carefully. Your email will indicate the degree to which you have done so.

Step 2

Open a Microsoft Word document. In this document, answer the following questions:

• What drew you to this creative-writing class at this time in your life?
• When did you first know you wanted to write for a larger audience than just your friends and family?
• What are your ambitions for the work you do this semester?
• Where do you see yourself and your writing in five years?

        Take your time with this. I can be so much more helpful to you if I have a sense of who you are and what you most hope for.

Step 3

Read over your notes and use them to compose a thoughtful, 150-200 word email. When you are done with your draft--stop. Save and close the doc. Then wait a day. 

FYI: this is a little taste of the process by which we get long pieces like our first YA novels done. What's true of the little things is true of the big ones.

Step 4

The next day, read and review your composition. Tighten up the draggy parts and offer me as much specific detail about specific moments as you can. Then be sure to edit it: this will be the first piece of writing I receive from you, and you'll want to make a good impression.

Grammar and spelling will ALWAYS count, so if you took this class to <ahem!> write anything you like any way that you like without worrying about 'stupid' rules and 'stupid' grammar, then here's some friendly advice: get out now. This class is for writers. Get your money back if you still can. 

Step 5

When you are pleased with your work, open up your Atlas email account and paste the finished product into an email addressed to dorsini@valenciacollege.edu.

 This will be our first interaction--and it will confirm that you are a participating student in CRW 2001 and not a no-show. Show me who you are as an artist and a student.

Step 6

Check back tomorrow morning for instructions about how to handle your first online discussion, due Wednesday, September 5.

Email me through Atlas if you have any questions.