Author Archives: sdgibson
Found poem
Let’s workshop this poem together before we look at each other’s work. Snow came down February 15th feeling bad I’d slept on the couch the night before and suddenly the next morning cold was thick on the ground, white, heavy … Continue reading
2250 Fiction criteria 2.0
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
I am too sick to teach.
Classes will not meet today, but none of our due dates will change.
Characterization and the 36 questions
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
Using summary effectively
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 educational program where the main character works, then the university (Ulthar, in the quotation below), and the valley … Continue reading
Revising toward style
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
Modulating suspense
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
2010 Negative example
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
2250 Poetry criteria 2.0
Give a general reaction to what you’ve read. How might the language of the poem be condensed? Which line or stanza break is most significant? Why? How do rhyme or rhythm add to the poem? Which phrases seem stilted or … Continue reading
Crime fiction
Consider this description of mystery fiction from John Lanchester’s “The Case of Agatha Christie” in the London Review of Books. Her career amounts to a systematic exploration of formal devices and narrative structures, all through a genre with strictly defined rules … Continue reading
Metaphor by Metaphor 