Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Phobias and Irrational Fears

We are exploring the idea of writing characters with phobias or irrational fears. For example, imagine if your protagonist had a globophobia, a fear of balloons? How would that direct your story?

Take some time to research some fears. We used http://phobialist.com/.

Ultimately, your assignment will be to write a story with a character who has a unique phobia.

 
Did you know that Oprah has globophobia??
 
 
While this is another character based assignment, try to challenge yourself to write in a new genre. We will be focusing on genres for our next assignment.
 
Don't forget to choose an independent read if you have not already. We will be discussing them next class.
 
 
 
If you have any questions, please ask!

Friday, April 10, 2015

Quarter 3 Portfolios Due Tuesday!

As far as portfolios go, here is what you need to remember:

1. Please include at least 3 workshopped and polished pieces of writing.
2. Write a reflection that gives insight to more than just the assignments given. Remember while you were given a few prompts and ideas, but you were asked to start thinking of yourself as the generator of your own thoughts, ideas and style. Has this class given you an opportunity to write more of what you want to write? Or has it just given you a chance to procrastinate?
3. I also want you to consider how soon you will be walking across the stage next month... It is so soon.
4. This is your last marking period portfolio, as our final portfolio exercise will be on a larger scale (including a look back at past years...)

I hope these pointers help. If you need more prompts, ideas, questions for reflection, etc. please let me know.

Portfolios are due Tuesday at the end of class!

 Questions? Please ask!

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Flow Writing

There are various ways of starting off. One is to use a sentence opening which suggests discovery , movement, encounter or memory. Begin writing with one of these:
  • "I opened the door and..."
  • "For the first time in my life..."
  • "I looked down and..."
  • "I began to..."
  • "It's been years since..."
  • "At first I thought..."
  • "What I wanted was..."
Then continue writing for five minutes. 

Here are some other openings:
  • "Coming towards me was..."
  • "What I wanted to tell you was..."
  • "The music made me feel..."
  • "I was aware of pain..."
  • "I couldn't speak because..."
  • "What I want to do is..."
  • "A long way back..."
  • "I couldn't make out..."
  • "If I'm really honest..."
  • "He/She has changed since..."
  • "When I touched..."
  • "I looked in the mirror and..."
  • "If I dared I'd..."
  • "What excites me is..."
  • "I buried it..."
Try two or three of them and write for five to ten minutes. 

After you've written each piece read it and underline the sentences, phrases and words that strike you because they contain a thought or feeling or a word that catches your attention, interests you or excites you.

Monday, April 6, 2015

Tapping Into Memory

Memory is an essential part of ourselves. Without it we cannot find our bearings in time and place, make connections with other people, and understand ourselves. The experience of childhood is so potent it is not surprising that it is often the source of literature. Our lives are so shaped by childhood that recalling its detail and other memories is an important part of writing.

Exercise One
Try using photographs as triggers for writing. These might be old pictures of yourself or others which bring up memories of events on your life. They could be images of your first class in school, yourself outside a home you no longer live in, a family pet you loved, etc. Perhaps you want to consider pictures of places you once loved visiting or enjoyed travelling to a s a child. Begin by describing the photograph and the person/people in it in detail. Write about everything you remember about yourself at that time--the sort of things you did, wore, who you knew, what you felt, incidents relating to that time. One memory is very likely to set off others you want to write about.

*You can modify this prompt by describing an object, place, person, etc. as a memory trigger.

Exercise Two

Sometimes sense impressions--smells, sounds, textures, tastes, sights-- take us back to the past more powerfully than anything else. Make a list of smells that bring back your childhood or some time in your past. Here are some possibilities: bonfire smoke, lavender, the smell of clothes fresh out of the dryer, cocoa, etc. Describe one of the smell memories and write about what it brings up. Then explore your other senses in the same way. Examples could include pieces of music or textures such as clothes you remember.