From Brian Kiteley’s always excellent The 3 A.M. Epiphany, try this exercise.
Quick characterization
Answer these questions about your character. Consider interesting contrasts between at least two of your answers.
- What does your character look like?
- What’s the last thing your character said to someone she or he loves? Dislikes?
- Describe your character’s default attitude, their recent thoughts.
- What does your character want? What is he or she willing to do to get what they want? What would they probably not do?
- What do your character’s actions and decisions reveal?
- How do three other characters feel about your character? How are those feeling expressed?
- What sorts of things does your character choose to surround him or herself with? What is their living space/setting like?
- How might your character change?
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3420 Workshop
Let’s consider these stories and fragments for our workshopping on 3Oct16.
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2250 Poetic forms
Here are a sestina; three prose poems; thoughts on composing prose poems; haiku by Basho, Buson, and Issa; a pantoum, and two contemporary ghazals. They can all be found in Wendy Bishop’s outstanding Thirteen Ways of Looking for a Poem.
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3420 First person
Here are two excellent first-person stories: Lydia Davis’ “Story” and Donald Barthelme’s “Chablis.”
In a small group, locate their narrators in each aspect of the chart on page 55 of our text. Which words of these stories lead you to argue for which location?
Then, in a brief paragraph to yourself, consider your current draft. Where does its narrator fit on the chart on either page 55 or 32? In what ways might your story be more engaging if the point of view is revised?
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2250 Sensory language
Which of the lines in these three poems appeal to which of our senses?
Imitate one of these poems as an individual. Include images.
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2010 Examples of rhetorical analysis
Here are two example rhetorical analysis essays. In a group of three, peer review one. Be prepared to offer specific evidence in support of your evaluation.
The first example is titled “Developmental Disabilities,” the second addresses marriage.
Looking at these examples should help prepare you to draft your own rhetorical analysis.
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2250 and beginning with formal poetry
Let’s start with Justin Quinn’s poem in the 22Aug16 issue of The New Yorker. Then, let’s look at haiku.
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2250 and starting something
Here is a PDF of a few pages from David Starkey’s Creative Writing. We will talk about them in class.
Consider these general suggestions for writing poems from Wendy Bishop’s Thirteen Ways of Looking for a Poem.
Look at this painting and, as strategy six on page 72 suggests, let it inspire a poem.
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3420 Final exam
English 3420
Final Exam
The final exam is worth twenty-five points.
For the final, read Dennis Johnson’s “Car Crash While Hitchhiking” as a fiction writing textbook. The story is found on page 292 of Deepening Fiction.
When you write, be specific. Quote the story to support your assertions about it. Your identification of a fiction writing technique taught by the story should be no longer than 500 words. An example effort of your use of the knowledge you find in the textbook/story is also required, but has no word limit. Your use of the knowledge you find might take the form of a hypothetical consideration of how you might use the technique you find, a quotation from your work this semester, or an actual fictional fragment written for the exam.
The final is due on Wednesday, April 27th at 12:50 pm. I will stop collecting the exam after it is due. Turn the exam in by providing me with a hard copy or emailing it to me before then, or attending and writing the exam in person on the 27th beginning at 11:00 am.
If you have questions, please email me.
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Metaphor by Metaphor 