Week 6: Your autobiography

NOTE: Over the weekend, your homework was to BRAINSTORM and OUTLINE the first chapter of your autobiography…if you wrote the whole thing, you need to backtrack and start with the following exercises.

Writing Chapter 1 of your autobiography:

Review your outline by asking these questions:

1. Can readers connect to my main topic?
2. Does the chapter have an arch (does the action rise slowly and then come to a close)?
3. Will the material be 3-5 pages (double spaced and typed)?
4. Does this topic really introduce me to the reader? Why?

Before you begin drafting:

1) Choose a motif, or bead, to include throughout this chapter. For Burroughs, it was broken and/or tarnished objects. For Walls, it was fire. Choose a bead to “thread” throughout this chapter. Then, think of ways you can use it to create metaphors—Burroughs used his to show us that he’s OCD; Walls used hers to show us that her parents dangerous behavior shaped her life.

2) Decide on the conversations that will take place in this chapter. Map/outline them before you begin. Do this in MS Word. Example: Conversation between my mom and I about why Granny died—about ½ a page. This will show how upset I was about not being there when she died. My mom will assure me that Granny would have wanted me in school.

3) Decide, clearly, how you want your first chapter to end. Write the ending paragraph first. Even if it feels awkward, try it! Some authors do this in order to keep in mind while writing where they want their chapter/story to end.

Complete Draft due Friday, May 2nd, at the end of class (Tuesday and Friday we will be in the Lab)

Test Monday in Creative Writing

(picture of Jeannette Walls)

Test Monday

Reading Short fiction

• The Glass Castle
• Wunderkind
• YA books we read as research

Writing short ficton

• characterization
• dialogue
• narration
• showing v. telling

Updates, Reminders, and Announcements (Well, commas are used in a list, too.)

Frankly, the entire class need some help with comma usage. The following are rules that should be reivew. We're going to go over them together. You are going to incorporate them into your short story. Then, they'll be included in the test we'll have on Monday, April 21st.

#1 Use a comma after an introductory prepositional phrase that contations additional prepositional phrases.

• At the break of day, I water my flowers.

#2 Use a comma after introductory words or mild interjections such as oh, yes, no, and well.

• No, Sam, you can’t go to the party.
• Well, I do think it’s a possibility, Susie.

#3 Use a comma after verbal phrases and adverb clauses that are used as introductory elements.

• After the storm ended, I examined the damage to my crops.

#4 Use commas to set off one or more words that interrupt the flow of thought in a sentence.

• Tending a garden, I believe, improves my mental health.

#5 Use commas to set off nouns of direct address.

• Doug, go pick some tomatoes for a salad.
• It isn’t a possibility, George.
• Listen, Amy, it is totally out of the question.

#6 Use commas to set off nonessential appositives.

• My youngest sister, Amy, helps me with my math.
  Ms. Lambert, our teacher, never listens when we complain.

Need Help? Read below--link at the end!!!!

Suggestions for Writing a Catchy First Paragraph
(From Seaton Hill Writing Website)

In today's fast-moving world, the first sentence of your short story should catch your reader's attention with the unusual, the unexpected, an action, or a conflict Begin with tension and immediacy. Remember that short stories need to start close to their end.

I heard my neighbor through the wall.

*This is dry and uninteresting.

The neighbor behind us practiced scream therapy in his shower almost every day.

*The second sentence catches the reader's attention. Who is this guy who goes in his shower every day and screams? Why does he do that? What, exactly, is "scream therapy"? Let's keep reading...

The first time I heard him, I stood in the bathroom listening at our shared wall for ten minutes, debating the wisdom of calling the police. It was very different from living in the duplex over middle-aged Mr. and Mrs. Brown and their two young sons in Duluth.

The rest of the paragraph introduces the main character/narrator and an internal conflict as the protagonist debates a course of action and introduces an intriguing contrast of past and present setting.

"It is important to understand the basic elements of fiction writing before you consider how to put everything together. This process is comparable to producing something delectable in the kitchen--any ingredient that you put into your bowl of dough impacts your finished loaf of bread. To create a perfect loaf, you must balance ingredients baked for the correct amount of time and enhanced with the right polishing glaze." -Laurel Yourke

For more advice like this, check out their website "10 Tips for Novice Creative Writers"

Historical Fiction Workshop Tues, Wed and Friday

While in the lab these days we will not have journal work.

You're assignment is to complete 5 pages of your short story. Please use the rubric to be sure you are meeting the requirements.

If you'd like, you can also redo your bibliography, in order to raise your grade.

Due Friday at the end of class.

Suggestions:

• Aim to have the first rising action occur within the first 2 pages
• By the 5th page, you should have about 3 rising action occurances
• Make short goals. Examples: "I'd like to have this dialogue introduce another main character" or "I will use this paragraph to characterize the narrator"
• You should have some dialogue on about every other page
• Dialogue shouldn't be much longer than about 1 page.
• Avoid using exclaimation points, bold, italics, all caps, etc. Make statements will your words and the arrangement of them.
• Narrate in the past tense. Example: Susie walked to the store. She bought milk and eggs for their dinner. Breakfast for dinner has always been her favorite.