Hi all
This week offers you a final two writing opportunities before you develop your Midterm essay. Take time to brainstorm before writing responses to Prompts 14 & 15 this week... maybe you can apply some of the techniques you've learned so far this semester in creative and exciting ways.
This will also be your last couple of weeks to work with your current peer group members - enjoy it! After midterm, we'll switch groups and you'll get to meet other, amazing classmates.
Next week, check in on the blog to prepare yourselves for a slightly different schedule of work. I'll be introducing your first major essay assignment. Feel free to get a head start on writing this week. However, you won't be posting your rough drafts to Blackboard until early next week. (See the midterm assignment guidelines under your Week 6 Checklist/Tuesday, February 22nd.)
Below are Greatest Hits from last week & a weekly writing tip.
Happy Writing!
-AP
Greatest Hits
Alyssa's, "What a Place Is and How a Place Seems"
In Alyssa's Writer's Journal post on "Pyongyang", she writes, "Although I am not a graphic novel writer, there are still elements I can use in my own writing. I would be curious how to write a story using pictures to set the scene rather than descriptions. I also wonder how to flow in and out of the picture use." In her writing based on Prompt 13, Alyssa seems to explore an answer to her own question. I love her topic: life on the Arizona/Mexico border. Certainly, her images make her thoughts even clearer. They also serve as evocative transitions between short passages of writing. Best yet, they provide support for her sense that the stigma about the AZ/Mexico border, caused by political arguments, seems somehow besides the point. Her final thought is provocative and original; she wonders (in reflection about the border fence) how "it seems so silly to have created such fear and intimidation over something so simple standing in front of me." Thanks to her use of images, she makes a great point.
Jesus' post, "it takes me forever to get anywhere"
Jesus' creativity in imagining his trip never taken is astonishing. What astonishes me is his ability to utilize this particular prompt as a method of sincere & authentic personal storytelling. His trip never taken doesn't romanticize place, rather, it laments a sibling relationship that continues onward with a sense of unrealized potential. This is a powerful story that is heartfelt and moving; it's interesting due to the skillful writing as well as the engaging personal story. When we, as writers, make a commitment to truly share our lives, our stories, our feelings and thoughts... the content is richer than any gold mine. An audience feels honored to have shared in the experience of the writer, through reading. This is the accomplishment of Jesus' post. See, also, his most recent post, "Superfly", which is the first attempt of the course at writing in the form of a graphic novel: http://cynicalgraycrayon.blogspot.com/2011/02/13-superfly-or-if-i-only-had-brain.html. This is an enjoyable story that's wonderfully illustrated. If anyone else feels they'd like to try to write in graphic novel form, feel free to post the media to your blog using Google Docs, just as Jesus did.
Katie's posts, "A Trip [Not Taken] To My Homeland" & "A Monsoon"
I've marked two separate posts from Katie for this week because they both illustrate important writing accomplishments. In "A Trip Not Taken...", Katie writes a vivid and likable description of a trip-not-taken en route to Japan. As a half-Japanese-American woman, Katie tips us off to a certain identity struggle. On one hand, she sees Japan as a part of her heritage. On the other hand, she's been called "Americanized" by a Japanese born American person - a word that marks her as, perhaps, less Japanese culturally than he/she is. Considerations of identity, especially as they apply to culture, race, or gender, are powerful as topics of personal writing. I see this post as the potential beginning of a fascinating longer essay, in which Katie discusses her identity in relation to her mother, her father, her heritage, her personality, etc. In "A Monsoon", Katie creates an image so well-described and vivid, readers can feel they are looking outside their own windows. I love the patience with which this scene is developed.
Nicola's post, "Foregrounding Place"
Nicola's brief, yet unfinished, post about place is being highlighted today for it's potential, and for its great topic. What Nicola does well is transition seamlessly between topics that have to do with many things, all within single posts: her personal life, culture, and beliefs/opinions often appear as topics. In the past, Nicola has related information about being a traditional Hopi woman. As no one else in the class identifies as such, she deserves to know that even her writing about simple scenes from her life, family members, or cultural events are of utmost interest. This particular post sets up a feeling of longing for home. Whether home is the Hopi reservation or a high-rise in Manhattan, all readers can identify with the feeling they have upon approaching "home" after a long while. Because Nicola's written about her personal and very specific scene of re-accessing home, it lends to a universal feeling for all us that can imagine, or long for, "home". I imagine this paragraph could be expanded to a lovely, descriptive personal essay about place.
Thanks Alyssa, Jesus, Katie, & Nicola for sharing your work!
Writing Tip of the Week:
Remember to Write Physical Description of Characters
When young, we were told "it's what's on the inside that counts" or "don't judge a book by it's cover". This was society's way of teaching us not to dehumanize others based on our stereotypes or perceptions of who they could be based on pre-judgement.
I think this lesson carries over into story writing far too often. Writers sometimes cringe to describe the "looks" of a character, especially when they're writing about someone that truly exists, because we're afraid a reader will "judge" the characters based on appearance. We sometimes call characters, "beautiful", "tall", or "thin", but even these cues are vague.
Why not describe characters specifically, in ways that give readers a distinct visual image? If I were describing Einstein in his later years, for instance, I might say to readers, "He was old, with a curious face, a black mustache, and a wild mane of gray hair that looked as if he'd just stuck a fork in a socket".
Trust your readers to like your characters, no matter what they look like, unless you depict them as otherwise unlikeable. You're great, now, at describing scene, dialogue, personalities... so go ahead and use description as a tool for creating faces and bodies for your characters. The more specific your description, the better.
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