Last Day!

Your stories are due today, obvi. Print 'em out, hand 'em in! 

We've spent a whole bunch of time together over the last 8ish weeks. I had a wonderful time and totally appreciate every one of you. Below, I made a cool little survey for y'all to complete. It's nothing incredibly fancy, but it'll help me gauge where your heads are at. I've found that the best advice that's rarely heard or asked fo can come from the students. This is your chance for you to record your thoughts, learning, opinions, etc. in writing. It'll help me see how I should adapt and evolve as a fellow human being who teaches other human beings. So, take some time and do the survey. Talk to each other, talk to me, and write! Take the survey here!

You don't have to leave your name if you don't want to, but you're more than welcome to. Thanks a bunch, kiddos! You rock. 

Hump Day Writing

Your stories are due Friday morning. Before class. Not after class. It's pretty simple, you know the rules. Recall the requirements from the blog last class. If you can't remember, scroll down and check. 

Today is the last day you'll have to draft in class. You should have a nearly complete story. I'm available for individual writing help, so don't hesitate to ask. Use this time wisely. 

If you're struggling with ending your story, check out these tips:

1) Your ending should definitely be related to the rest of your story, it should tie it together. It can be however you want it to be, as long as it brings everything back together. 

2) If you have no idea what to do, write several endings. Free write, brainstorm again, re-read your work. 

3) Write in concise sentences. Remember, this isn't a beginning. It's an ending. Avoid going into great detail while trying to end. The end should be final, even if the story is to be continued. 

4) Go back and proofread your entire story. I cannot stress this enough. It is likely that most of you will end up losing points for punctuation, spelling, grammar, usage, and mechanical mistakes. They're easy to miss, so you must read through your work. This is an incredibly important part of the writing process. 

5) Avoid being cliche! really put some thought into how you're going to end your story. Killing everyone, waking up from a dream, etc. are cliches that cut corners rather than making an ending worthy of being proud of. THen again, these are your stories. Keep this in mind. 

Clearly, you have until Friday to finish your stories outside of class. Friday (before class) they're due. By then you will have a published piece of work for me to read! If you're at all curious as to what I'm going to use to grade your stories, click here. Hint: it's a rubric. 

Now write! 

Requirements (a reminder):

Length - at least 12-14 pages, double spaced. That's 6-7 single spaced. A reasonable 10-12 point legible font. I like double spaced for better readability. There's no maximum limit.

MLA Heading - Top left of page

Your Name 
My Name (Mr. Ludwig)
Class Name (The Craft of Writing)
Due Date (4/10/14)

Writing Workshop

So, I've looked at your stories thus far. Some of you have substantial starts, others have small beginnings. Luckily, today we'll be writing most of the class. Some things I've noticed:

1) Use of excessive, unimportant details. These things will slow you down and make your writing a task to read. Keep only the most important stuff there! However, you decide what's most important. Decide carefully! 

2) Dialogue punctuation is a very specific thing. Some of you don't punctuate dialogue correctly. We've already gone over how it should be done, so here are some links to review. See that your dialogue is properly punctuated. Or try this spot, too. 

I'll hand your stories back to your groups, to refresh your memories on your own comments and so that you can review mine as well. Conference with each other again and help one another figure out how to get through parts you're struggling at, etc. I will, of course, be around for individual support, so don't be shy (HA). 

Note: If you think you're done, think again! Def not done kthxbye. 

Requirements:

Length - at least 12-14 pages, double spaced. That's 6-7 single spaced. A reasonable 10-12 point legible font. I like double spaced for better readability. There's no maximum limit.

MLA Heading - Top left of page

Your Name 
My Name (Mr. Ludwig)
Class Name (The Craft of Writing)
Due Date (4/10/14)


Homework:

Keep writing. Don't forget the due date! Prepare yourselves to miss me :(

Sharing, Writing, Looking Forward

Today, you'll be printing out and sharing your story progress. In the past blogs, it's been suggested that you have your stories at a certain length. You'll be in your workshop groups, sharing what you have thus far and giving feedback to your peers. It's a nice time to have some creative sharing. Here's how it's going to work:

1) Print out your stories. 

2) Take turns reading stories aloud to each other in your groups. Everyone does this. No recording, no notes, nothing. Just read out loud; give your words life! It helps to be able to hear them.

3) After hearing a story read out loud, take a minute or two to record impressions, thoughts, feedback, etc. This may be on scrap paper, etc. 

4) Once everyone has read aloud, pass the stories around the group and read them quietly, adding comments to the paper. This way, there should be comments from everyone in the group on each story being shared. Remember that valuable feedback will help your group members develop their story further. Phrases like, "it's good", "it's bad", "keep going", etc. aren't helpful without supporting reasons and suggestions. 

At the end of class, I'm collecting these printed out stories, with comments on them. Each story must have your name on it, along with comments from your group. Again, this is due at the end of class.

If there's more time after you've gone through the stories of each group member, you're not done. Use the comments, continue writing. Bear in mind I'll still be collecting the printed copies with comments on them.

Also:


If you've not gotten a substantial amount of writing done to share in a group,you'll be writing instead. Except today, you're to print out your story and hand it to me by the end of class. No exceptions. The 750-1000 word mark wasn't a suggestion. This is where you should've been since your last writing session. The stories must continue and end! 

Homework:

You're going to have fully finished stories by the time spring break starts. They'll be due 4/10. This is consequently the last day of my student teaching (for this class), so I'd rather have some fun with y'all than working the whole time.