We had THE most wonderful writing class but we missed all of our musicians. If you were away today, stop by and pick up a novel that you now own. They are in a box on the floor beside my desk. The novel is called Mean Boy and it's been charged to your account. Please bring it to all classes except on day 9s when we are in the lab.
Homework:
You will write one scene three times. Bring all three versions to class next Thursday, Feb. 9. These are not to be handed in but will be read aloud and shared so we can have a discussion on the role of point of view and verb tense in our stories. It will be interesting to see which point of view and verb tense you start with and which one you prefer.
Make the scene a possible opening to a short story. Use some dialogue but not too much.
- 1st version: 3rd person past tense-- He/She went to the store. She bought a coke.
- 2nd version: 1st person present tense-- I am going to the store. I go to the store. I buy a coke.
- 3rd version: 2nd person future tense -- You will go to the store. You will buy a coke.
The point of today's class was to distinguish the difference between truth and fiction. Similar to poetry, you will be showing and not telling. You won't say, Susie was a loser or Susie was isolated. You will describe Susie doing things and saying things and feeling things and we'll figure out--ohhhh Susie is really isolated. She's such a loser.
The other KEY difference is the old adage that TRUTH IS STRANGER THAN FICTION.
It is because in fiction the actions, speech, etc. must BE plausible....the character must be motivated, i.e. you've developed your character enough so that we believe it's TRUTH. I know, it's strange, but fiction is much harder to write than non-fiction. You still apply all you learned in poetry--the exact image, surprise, hyperbole, rhythm, repetition, sound devices, etc BUT you are now working with the sentence rather than a line.
The descriptions of the bedrooms this morning were wonderful and memorable.
Here is the trick to writing a great story--if you can read it 6 to 10 times without getting bored, than it is a strong story. It works. It works because we remember the details, empathize with the character, are moved by his / her dilemma, and we can relate to (even if we don't like) the ending. Most modern short stories open up at the end rather than shut down. So . . . we'll learn to do that too.
Things I remember from today's oral stories:
My father paid me 10 bucks for every book I read.
I liked to re-arrange my furniture and my mother would put it all back.
My laundry shoot is a basketball hoop.
I have 7 pillows on my bed and I use all 7.
My room has 13 walls. I painted all my furniture black.
A snake named Flix. A cat named Snitch.
A trundle bed, a collection of yogourt containers organized by flavour
A guy gets paid to paint murals on bedroom walls
A house in Prince Rupert where I grew up. We still own it so I can go back there and sleep in my childhood room.
A room with all the months of the year on the walls.
A girl who has nightmares about an erg machine.
My parents store boxes in my room. It's a trick just to make my way in. I look out my window at the bonfires of university students.
A pink chair that has been passed down via grandmothers for four generations.
An 8 year old bringing an enormous chair home from India.
A room decorated with fairies.
Bedsheets with LA Lakers on them.
Cutouts of favourite outfits taped on top of fairy drawings and pictures of friends partying.
Giant locks on bedroom doors
dogs and cats that steal things
These details are all unique, accurate, surprising, wonderful. Listen to each other's stories. Start asking perfect strangers to describe their bedrooms. Everything you need for a story is there.
Think about all the stories you could write based on these stories. Wow.
