- Write about something in your family, neighbourhood, school, or world that you wish to investigate (What bugs you?) (What can't you accept?)
- Choose a very small incident to explore (a photograph moment)
- Actions speak louder than words so put your characters in an uncomfortable situation and watch them squirm their way out of it
- Cut almost every adjective and adverb and use specific nouns and strong verbs that create the atmosphere you wish to achieve
- Aim for 1200 to 1500 words (This story is quite short. The length imitates Leon Rooke's story, "Want to Play House?"
- Choose a title which can act as a symbol. Think of the symbols in the titles of the stories that we studied: a sick pigeon, a lamp at noon, a doll's house, a line in the sand in "Want to Play House?", a haunted house in Whiteford's "Haunted House"
- Imitate the styles of the stories we have read.
- Re-read "Haunted House" because it was written by a student and it was published in The Claremont Reveiw.
Homework:
Describe a house on your street in 10 or more sentences. Use details which evoke sadness. You are attempting to make the reader feel sorrow so choose details which will make the reader feel sad. You can't "just say it"; you must show it.
Tomorrow: We will work on your stories.
Be sure that you have read to the end of chapter 3. You will need to read the novel this weekend. Try to finish the first section by Wednesday.
