Goal for the day: To understand character arc
We started out the day reading the Poem Siren from Amy Gerstler. I asked what detail in the poem provides the clearest picture of the personality of the siren. We discussed the images that link “sex” and “death” in the poem as being especially potent.
I then passed out small bits of paper and asked everyone to draw the events in one of their stories (either their moment essay, a story involving their character, one of the stories we read, or something else that you are working on) on the pieces of paper -- one event per piece of paper.
I gave a brief explanation of the classic story arc (see above). I explained how 80% of the stories out there--films, plays, novels, stories, etc. fit this picture of the mountain. They work as stories because they build dramatic tension. They raise questions at the beginning that we want to know the answer to: is the girl he bumped into in the elevator his soulmate? Will the hero win the race? Will they have enough money to keep their house?
We ended with passing out the next assignment. A draft for this assignment is due on September 30th. I encouraged people to use the assignment as a guideline. If you want to do something different or special with the assignment, talk to me.
Assignment for Thursday, September 18th
Work on your character voice revision due Friday.
We started out the day reading the Poem Siren from Amy Gerstler. I asked what detail in the poem provides the clearest picture of the personality of the siren. We discussed the images that link “sex” and “death” in the poem as being especially potent.
I then passed out small bits of paper and asked everyone to draw the events in one of their stories (either their moment essay, a story involving their character, one of the stories we read, or something else that you are working on) on the pieces of paper -- one event per piece of paper.
I gave a brief explanation of the classic story arc (see above). I explained how 80% of the stories out there--films, plays, novels, stories, etc. fit this picture of the mountain. They work as stories because they build dramatic tension. They raise questions at the beginning that we want to know the answer to: is the girl he bumped into in the elevator his soulmate? Will the hero win the race? Will they have enough money to keep their house?
We ended with passing out the next assignment. A draft for this assignment is due on September 30th. I encouraged people to use the assignment as a guideline. If you want to do something different or special with the assignment, talk to me.
Assignment for Thursday, September 18th
Work on your character voice revision due Friday.