Choose two people to be in your workshop group.
On Friday, hand these two people a copy of your EDITED story. DOUBLE SPACED.
In other words, the story you hand to them is the BEST you can do with it. You have checked and re-checked and revised and cut and added material so that the story meets our criteria.
Check our criteria list.
Monday, you will have THREE assignments due.
1. A 300 word critique of your own story. Use the criteria sheet and our fiction report guidelines for items to discuss.
2. A 300 word critique of the two stories you were given on Friday.
You will have all of Friday's class to complete this assignment.
In the critique, you write an honest reflection of what is working and what is not working.
Start with what you like: description of the ______ setting or character, the use of 2nd person point of view, the implications of the title, the dialogue on page 5, the way the story ends. Be specific in your comments. What you like and why.
Next, discuss the parts of the story that you feel need more attention. Rhythm, pace, dull parts, too much telling and not enough indirect presentation, no insight into the character or into our own humanity, no sense of a dynamic character, a conflict and a reasonable change, nothing surprising, too much cliched language, way too many adverbs and adjectives, hard to follow, not believable, etc
Have TWO copies of these critiques. You will hand one to the author and one to me.
We will workshop the stories on Monday, Dec. 15. Please BE here as our groups are small.
