READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEK OF OCTOBER 30-NOVEMBER 5, 2006:

Tuesday, October 31, 2006:

Please read Chapter 6 (Long Ago and Far Away: Fictional Time and Place) in Writing Fiction.

Thursday, November 2, 2006:

Please read Chapter 4 - Building Character: Characterization, Part I in Writing Fiction.

Important!! Your first fiction assignment is due in class today! Please see guidelines below.

Guidelines for Fiction Assignment #1 - Due Thursday, November 2, 2006:

The assignment is to write an opening scene (or exposition) for a short story. This will be the first installment in the 8-10 page (2,000 word minimum) short story that you will be writing in stages during this second half of the semester.

Your short story scene should be approximately 3 pages, or 750 words.

The scene should reveal aspects and traits of the characters who are in the scene.

The scene should set up a dramatic situation/narrative tension/central conflict.

Your scene should jump right in and begin in medias res and attempt to engage the attention of your reader right off the bat.

Your scene should attempt to skillfully weave together different elements of fiction writing (action/dialogue, narrative summary, scene setting/description, etc.) in ways that work best for the scene.

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And here is your memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box for blog posts due on Sunday, November 5, 2006:

Describe a significant event that brought you closer to, or further away, from your religious devotions. The spiritual life can come upon a person in a sweeping moment or over the course of a long period of time. Have you ever experienced visions or other moments of a spiritual nature? If you had a single moment that you can recall, describe the details leading up to and following that epiphany. How did it change your life afterwards? If you slowly gravitated to a religious tradition or a way of thinking about the divine, show in a series of snapshots how you were brought closer and closer to the spiritual over that time.

READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEKS OF OCTOBER 15-22, 2006 AND OCTOBER 23-29, 2006:

Tuesday, October 17, 2006:

In-class open mic today.

Thursday, October 19, 2006:

Class canceled today. Instructor giving out-of-town poetry reading.

Important!! Since we didn't do any in-class exercises this week, or have any assigned readings, please write two freestyle blog posts entirely of your choice to replace the in-class exercise and the reading/process post.

Here is this week's memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box for blog posts due on Sunday, October 22, 2006:

Remember something or somebody you pursued with a passion. How old were you when this happened? Does it seem a rite of passage, or a turning point in growing up? Did you get the thing or that person? If so, was it worth it? If not, do you have regrets?

Tuesday, October 24, 2006:

Please read Chapter 2 (The Tower and the Net: Story Form, Plot, and Structure) in Writing Fiction .

Important!! Your Writerly Immersion Paper #1 will be due in class today! Guidelines for the paper can be found in the post below.

Thursday, October 26, 2006:

Please read Chapter 10 (I Gotta Use Words When I Talk To You: Theme) in Writing Fiction.

Here is the memoir prompt for blog posts due on Sunday, October 29, 2006:

Write down a story that you tell people that didn't really happen the way you usually tell it. So many times we have a good story we embellish with exaggerations, switch events for the sake of timing or humor, all kinds of things. Come on, it's fun! But after you write down the story you tell everybody, tell the same story in its bare-bones, no-frills, true version. Think about the reasons why you twisted the facts around.

READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEK OF OCTOBERR 9 - 15, 2006:

Tuesday, October 10, 2006:

Please read Chapter 9 (Beyond the Rational) from Writing Poems.

Thursday, October 12:

Please read Chapter 12 (Becoming a Poet) from Writing Poems.

Important!! Poem #3 -- Dramatic Monologue with Bibliography is due today! (See post below for guidelines). Note that this date is postponed from the original due date of Tuesday, October 10.

Important!! Please make sure to bring eight copies TOTAL of ANY one of the three poems you've written thus far to class for small-group workshopping today.

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The link below will take you to an excellent website that will tutor you in MLA citation procedures, and allow you to practice your citation skills in interactive exercises:

MLA Citation Tutorial

Also, here is a website called KnightCite that allows you to put in publication information, and then generates bibliographical citations in MLA format.

KnightCite

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Here is this week's memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box for blog posts due on Sunday, October 15:

Write about the first time you went away from home alone. Was it a vacation? Was it for work? Were you looking for something? Were you running away? Do you see that excursion as a "hero's journey", or did you go kicking and screaming? How did it change you?

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Guidelines for Writerly Immersion Paper #1 (Due Tuesday, October 24, 2006):

Please write a 3-4 page comparison and contrast paper that compares and contrasts two literary journals.

One of the literary journals should be the VLP 2006 Literary Magazine (available for purchase from the English Department secretary, Melanie Westin, Dakota Hall 212, if you didn't purchase one already at the start of the semester). If, for some pressing reason, you would prefer to replace the VLP 2006 Literary Magazine with an alternate print journal, I will be open to discussing this with you.

The second literary journal can be either another print literary journal or an electronic literary journal. Click on the Portal del Sol link below for an excellent guide/listing of electronic journals and print magazines. (Scroll down past the WebDelSol editor interviews). Electronic journals listed here have a direct link to the online journal, and you can check to see if our library carries subscriptions to any print journals that sound interesting to you.

Portal del Sol

Please make sure cite appropriately using MLA format as needed.

READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS FOR WEEK OF OCTOBER 2 - 8, 2006:

Tuesday, October 3, 2006:

Please read Chapter 4 (Building Character: Characterization, Part I) in Writing Fiction . (Please note that we're dipping into the fiction book for this reading, since we'll be using the same skills that fiction writers use to create character.)

Important!! Don’t forget to bring in your blue Harbrace book to class today! Please also be prepared to research the persona/character in whose voice you’ll be writing your dramatic monologues!

Thursday, October 5, 2006:

Please read Chapter 10 (Finding the Poem) from Writing Poems

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Next, here is this week’s memoir prompt from The Autobiography Box for blog posts due on Sunday, October 8, 2006:

Create a word portrait of yourself. Using as much descriptive language as possible, draw a picture of yourself, including physical attributes but also the things that have given your face character--what you inherited from your parents, what life and time have done to alter it.

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And finally, don't forget that your next assigned poem will be due on Tuesday, October 10, 2006. Here are the guidelines (which were also handed out and reviewed in class):

Write a dramatic monologue (a poem in the voice of someone other than yourself) that requires research:

The dramatic monologue should be in first person, representing a single person speaking to an implied listener.

The speaker in the monologue should be a person, as opposed to an inanimate object. They may be real or imagined, famous or anonymous, dead or alive, from history or fiction, etc.

The monologue should reveal the speaker’s personality and character through the course of the poem – perhaps by leading up to or right at the time of a significant event or moment in the situation of the speaker.

The monologue must establish the physical and/or historical setting of the speaker, as well as his or her particular dramatic situation.

The monologue should be at least 30 lines long to establish voice and character.

Please make sure that your poem is typed/word processed, and that you make sure to give your monologue a title.

Your monologue should also include a separate, typed/word processed bibliography that includes a minimum of six sources, appropriately cited in MLA format (two books, two newspaper/journal/magazine articles, and two internet sources--although you may use additional/different sources such as a video in place of one of the books, for example.)