Author Archives: sdgibson

2250 Fiction criteria 2.0

Posted on March 27, 2019

Give a general reaction to what you’ve read. Which scenes are interesting? Why? Is there a character that wants something? How do you know? What action does the character take to get what they want? Describe one of the characters … Continue reading →

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I am too sick to teach.

Posted on March 14, 2019

Classes will not meet today, but none of our due dates will change.

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Characterization and the 36 questions

Posted on March 6, 2019

Answer these questions as a way to help create a character or characters. When the questions mention “you” think of the character. If they mention “we” or a partner, either think of another character or yourself. The questions are the … Continue reading →

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Using summary effectively

Posted on February 22, 2019

Kij Johnson’s excellent The Dream-Quest of Vellitt Boe starts with the main character’s efforts to help one person, a former student, then the program where the main character works, then the university (Ulthar, in the quotation below), and the valley of … Continue reading →

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Revising toward style

Posted on February 20, 2019

Here is a found paragraph. The garage door had been up all day. The neighborhood was quiet. I came out to run to the store and saw a rattlesnake crawl behind a paper bag. Trash in the cooler garage. I’ve a … Continue reading →

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Modulating suspense

Posted on February 15, 2019

Consider these example stories. In a small group, rate the suspense of each section of Boyle’s story on a scale from one to ten. Discuss you’ve noticed about the modulation of suspense. As an individual, chart the suspense in William’s … Continue reading →

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2010 Negative example

Posted on February 12, 2019

This is a negative example of an annotated bibliography. Which of the criteria does it fail to meet? What problems does it have? How can you be sure your annotation meets more of the criteria than this one?   By: … Continue reading →

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