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. 

Reading Like a Writer

Today:

Yay! You've finished your books. You'll be in your book groups, each group discussing their books, addressing the following prompts:

1) What is the central/primary purpose of the story? Is it important or meaningful? 

After discussing, you're going to plan for individual presentations. As this is a Craft of Writing class, you'll be analyzing and presenting your novels through the lens of writing craft! The prompt asks for the purpose of the story and whether or not it's meaningful! Use the prompt to approach your presentation planning and analysis of your chosen element of fiction. You remember the terms:

Plot/Structure

Imagery

Point-of-View

Character/Characterization

Setting

Dialogue

Theme

Genre

Tone and Mood

Diction and Syntax

Conflict

Questions to consider when addressing your chosen element of fiction:

How do I want to approach this author? What meant the most to me? 

How does the author's purpose (or a part of the purpose) shine through one of the above aspects of craft?

How is the story's importance or meaning made clear, powerful, confusing, weak, unimportant, etc. by these elements? 

Examining a writer's craft is a more careful, meticulous art versus summarizing a book. Your goal is to take one aspect each and prepare a presentation that analyzes that particular aspect of your author's writing. These will be presented on Friday, 3/28. 

This is solid list to choose from By the end of 7th period, each group member will have chosen an aspect of writer's craft to present their novel/author through. 

Your presentation is going to take some thought. You're not merely answering questions, you're exploring a novel through a writer's craft. There isn't one answer, there are many. 

8th Period:

Use this time to prepare your presentations. Visual aids are great (Prezi, PowerPoint, etc.) and quite helpful. 

Your presentation should have:

1) A title

2) A clear description of what you're presenting (author, novel, and element of fiction)

3) At least 2 examples from the text to support your point

4) Material enough for a 5-7 minute presentation

5) Visual aids are nice, but not required. If they help, use them! What does matter is the information you're presenting.

Homework:

Prepare your presentations and be ready to deliver them on Friday. 

Continued Writing and Finishing Novels

Some reminders for you in the first few sentences. The things we're getting toward in the writing process have already been reviewed. Mr. Craddock has kindly resurfaced past information to help you start, continue, and refine your writing. Hit that link to have another look at: beginnings/middles/ends, conquering write's block/getting unstuck, finding a theme, and establishing structure. Go check this stuff out! 

Today, you're at different points in the writing process. Some of you have strong beginnings of your stories and others have only started to scratch the surface. Since you know writing isn't a process where everyone will be at the same place at the same time, this is totally natural. For those of you who haven't typed a solid beginning of your story, today you're required to do so. Last class's blog gave tips on the beginning of stories, so I'll again post them here:

1) Make a declarative statement. Start bold, don't be afraid. Beginning in this way, you establish power and can grab interest quickly. It can also set the tone for the rest of the story. Beginning with a powerful statement or dialogue is a great way to grab attention. Remember hook and inciting incident. Be bold, be clear! 

2) Start with an interesting flashback. You have already practiced writing flashbacks and are familiar with how powerful they can be. They have the ability to set the reader in the fragmented nature of a character's mind. This is a powerful tool to use when beginning a story. 

3) Start with what's at stake. What's the chief crisis of your story? Start with that. Introduce the conflict, a character flaw, a secret, or a memory that pulls the reader in immediately. 

4) Don't fall into story starting cliche! Beginning stories with an information dump, boring descriptions, fanciful language, and a needless amount of questions, paths, or characters for a reader to follow are a few ways to disinterest the reader. Don't fall into these traps.

If you've not really started your story, by the end of class today, you're to have written at least 750 words. Remember, this is the beginning of your story, so it doesn't have to be perfect. You should strive for that, but recognize that's it's okay if it's not perfect. 

On the other hand...

For those of you who've solidly started your stories, now is the chance to do one of two things: 1) write to a decent stopping point and then re-read/edit. 2) stop where you are and re-read/edit. Why would we do any of these things? Writing process, foo. Here's some stuff to consider:

1) When starting a piece of writing, the first words on the page are sometimes a way of the author getting out the nonsense before actually getting into the meat of the story. Like when someone clears their throat before speaking.

2) Read it out loud to yourself. Or, even better, have someone else read your work aloud. When reading ou own writing, we automatically correct any awkwardness in our own heads, making us sort of blind to the imperfections in our own writing. When someone else reads your writing aloud, everything becomes much more clear. It's weird. Like when Aleah reads my blog posts out loud. I'm like, "Ugh, is that how I really sound?" 

3) Look for the unnecessary information and cut it out! In the first stages of writing, we sometimes tend to get overly excited and start going into such gruesome detail that it bogs down the pace of the story. Look for this! remember to choose only the most important pieces of information to include. You have to be disciplined with yourself and your own writing habits. Constantly ask yourself, "Do I need this? Is this important?" 

4) Share with each other. I know y'all do this anyway, but take some time to really listen to, read, and critique stories of your peers. When ideas are tough to come by, it's often just a little nudge that's needed from a friend or someone who sees things a smidgen differently. So, never say you're stuck or don't know what to write. Ask the opinion of other people. Do you have to do what they say? Nope. It helps to have ideas coming from other people. Use everything around you, twist it, cut it up, blend it, turn it into your own.

The moral of the story in today's class is that you'll have: at least 750 words written for the late starters and 750-1000 well-written words for those going through their work a second time. 

Homework:

I didn't forget about the books. You're supposed to have read for today, but I've decided today was to be a writing day. By Wednesday, both novels are to be finished completely. 

Test Review, Missed Stuff From Yesterclass

Ooookaaay, so the marking period ends tomorrow, FYI. Get your stuff done! Anyhow, you took a test last class. Y'all did fine. We should talk about a few things, though. First, talk to each other, look over your test, and ask questions. Go!


My turn.

Read. The. Instructions.

I cannot stress this enough.

Ya dig?

Essays:

1) Watch your words. I know which novel you've read, you don't need to continuously repeat the title. One time will do. Avoid generalizing! Words like "all", "every", "never", "any", etc. These are absolutes and they're dangerous. Synonyms make your writing less monotonous. What's that mean? If I started every 5th sentence with "It's likely that..." you'd probably be like "omg plz change it up already!" Right? Same. 

2) I know what happens in both novels and I made the essay questions. Do not summarize. This is a waste of space. Use only the most essential pieces of evidence.

3) Explore deeper, hidden connections. This is the stuff the book might not specifically say. Again, I know what the novel says. Use the words on the page to show me that you're looking beyond the words on the page.

Ex: "Celie first experiences love for her sister Nettie. Celie was abused by Pa at a young age. She knew that Pa was looking at Nettie funny, so she sacrificed herself to assure that nothing happens to Nettie."

Ex: "A reason why the men in this story abuse their women could be because it was the only power they had in their world. They were oppressed by the outside world around them and the only control they had was within the home. They placed their anger with the world they live in upon their women and beat and mistreated them."

Writing:

Continue your brainstorms and/or begin your stories! By the end of class, you should have a solid idea of the form you'll use and a rough beginning to your story. If you get done with this, discuss it with me or a partner. Write, write, write, my young apprenti. May the force be with you. 

Some past advice on starting a story:

1) Make a declarative statement. Start bold, don't be afraid. Beginning in this way, you establish power and can grab interest quickly. It can also set the tone for the rest of the story. Beginning with a powerful statement or dialogue is a great way to grab attention. Remember hook and inciting incident. Be bold, be clear! 

2) Start with an interesting flashback. You have already practiced writing flashbacks and are familiar with how powerful they can be. They have the ability to set the reader in the fragmented nature of a character's mind. This is a powerful tool to use when beginning a story. 

3) Start with what's at stake. What's the chief crisis of your story? Start with that. Introduce the conflict, a character flaw, a secret, or a memory that pulls the reader in immediately. 

4) Don't fall into story starting cliche! Beginning stories with an information dump, boring descriptions, fanciful language, and a needless amount of questions, paths, or characters for a reader to follow are a few ways to disinterest the reader. Don't fall into these traps.

This is creative fiction, so have some fun (this beat is sick) and create something you'd want to read! If you need help talk to each other. Or talk to me, my brain is weird. You're surrounded by creative people, talk to them. Write!

Remember the advice of this guy:

#Imagination

Homework:

The Color Purple - Read to page 225

Slaughterhouse-Five - Finish the book