Prompt #10: Plot (The End.)

Your mission, if you choose to accept it. (Actually, you have no choice. Sorry... Yay! You accept!) Anyway...

Read through all the stuff you've written prior to this week. Pick a character or a setting that seems sort of interesting to you. Now use that character or setting to start an entirely new Seven Sentence story of your own, following the sequence below:

1. Introduce a character (A) and a setting. Remembering to use compelling sensory details.
2. Introduce another character (B) into the same setting.
3. Character A does something somewhat unexpected. Include a new detail about the setting that has some bearing on the interaction.
4. Character B says something in response that raises the tension.
5. Character A does something in response that raises the tension. Include a new detail about the setting that has some bearing on the interaction.
6. Character B does something to bring the tension to a climax. Reference one of the setting details from sentence #3 or #5.
7. Resolution. One of the characters (preferably both) has to change in some important way.

You may add up to three (3) perfect sentences wherever you see fit to round out the action. These stories must be at least 100 words, but no more than 250. Try to include one very short sentence (two or three words) and one very long one (twenty-five words or more).

DO NOT FORGET HOW IMPORTANT GREAT NOUNS AND VERBS ARE TO ANY STORY.

Note: don't be zany just for the sake of being zany. Stay true to the rules of cause-and-effect. Aim for "believability," which is to say establish the rules of your story's world and stick to them.

Here's the kicker: save it and send it to me in an attachment [tjbeitelman (at) asfa...] by the end of class today! Yee-haw!

Everyone who writes a story of precisely 101 words on the dot will receive a prize. No joke.

PS...Do not stress. This is no big deal. What's a seven-to-ten sentence story amongst friends?

Prompt #9: Plot (to be continued yet again)...

...Storyboards!

Prompt #8: Plot (to be continued)...

...Seven Sentence Stories!

Prompt #7: Field Trip!

After our visit this morning to the Oak Hill Cemetery, pick one of the following prompts to write about:

...Use the cemetery as the setting for a scene in which something upbeat happens. Neighborhood kids might use it as a kind of mysterious playground, or a young couple might get engaged there. Use your imagination. Try to write about the sensory details of the place in a way that emphasizes the positive mood of the events.

...Write a scene in which the cemetery caretaker arrives for work early in the morning. Try to show how much (s)he loves the place.

...Write a scene from the voice and perspective of one of the old trees on the cemetery grounds.

Remember: it's impossible to separate Setting from Details and Character. These three elements of fiction work very closely together in all successful stories.

Prompt #6: More Setting

...Write a scene using a setting from the book you're reading, but significantly alter the time. Could be a hundred years after the events of the story you're reading; could be thirty years before. Whatever. You don't have to use the same characters or pick up the same narrative threads (in fact, I encourage you to invent new ones). Just borrow the place and imagine the ways it would A) change and B) stay the same.

...Create a setting for one of the following and furnish a place with his/her character -- you create the character through observation of the setting. The place can be any kind of locale -- house, a specific room in a house, an outdoor grounds, an office, a cell, even a bed. The catch? You have to evoke this character just through the place -- they're not even there. The description must incorporate enough characteristic things so that the reader can visualize the absentee dweller accurately. Resist stereotypes with every fiber of your being.

Pick one:

• An unsuccessful painter
• A former movie star who still thinks she's famous
• A high-school senior about to flunk out
• A blind person
• A supermarket check-out woman who just won the state lottery
• A paranoid person
• A fugitive

...Write a scene that takes place on the moon.

Inauguration Warm-Up

Take a gander at this article in today's Washington Post on-line. Write for fifteen minutes without stopping. You can write to, for, or about Barack Obama. You can write about something in the article. You can write about how your fellow ASFAns are responding to the festivities. Or you can just write about whether or not today feels historic to you. No wrong answer. Just write.

Prompt #5: Setting

After soaking in all the Inaugural festivities this morning, spend some time writing some fiction that is set in a massive throng of people. Could be the inauguration itself, could be something else you imagine. Try to capture the energy of that many people in one space. Remember sensory details and character. What's the weather like? What does it smell like? The sounds? Etc.

Prompt #4: Still MORE Character!

Pick one:

Take one of the two-dimensional ("flat") characters you've encountered in the book you're reading and make him/her three-dimensional ("round"). Remember that round characters tend to defy expectations in some way, so feel free to reimagine this character's underlying circumstances (backstory, motivation, etc.). You can remain in the book's established setting or you can change the setting however you see fit. For example, if you character is a child in the book, you can imagine her sixty years later as an old woman.

Use a particularly interesting line of dialogue from the book you're reading as a springboard to a new scene about some entirely new character.

Write about two characters who are discussing the book you're reading. Try to use their conversation about the book to hint at some deeper underlying tension between them. (Keep in mind that tension is not always negative.)

Prompt #3: More Character

Make a list of ten things you really dislike. Write about a character who really likes one of the things on your list. Make him or her a round character that a reader can empathize with.

Write about a character who cherishes the item you choose from the Grab Bag.

Bonus Option: Pick two of the characters you've written about this week and put them in some conflict in a scene. It doesn't have to be a big, huge conflict. Something subtle will do.

(Because here's another little secret about characters: they almost always interact with other characters.)

Prompt #2: Character

Write an honest and sensitive description (or sketch) of A) one of your parents, B) a mythological beast, and C) a ghost. Remember our discussion last week about details, particularly keeping in mind the idea that nouns and verbs are vital to vivid description.

Prompt #1: Descriptive Details

Pick one of the following:

1. Describe a barn as seen by an old woman whose disgusting and detestable old husband has just died. Do not mention the husband or death.

2. Describe a lake as seen by a child whose brother has just been born. Do not mention the brother, the birth, or the child's mother.

3. Describe a landscape as seen by a bird. Do not mention the bird.

Follow these leads wherever they take you, remembering to pay close attention to sensory detail (nouns and verbs in particular).

How We Roll

Our objective in this class is pretty simple: read, write, have fun. I want you to feed and cultivate your innate passion for writing in general and stories in particular. We won't be doing full group critique, as such, but those of you who are moving on to the upper level CW courses next year will be prepared with the basic vocabulary and strategies you'll need to successfully analyze stories in critique. Just as important (probably moreso) everyone will get a lot of practice in reading a story like a writer. That is to say: slowly, closely, with an eye towards not just what happens in the story but how the writer made it happen.

We'll spend the first couple of weeks reading exemplary stories, writing in class, and talking about the core elements of writing fiction. Then we'll set up a conference schedule.

My goals are for you to write everyday, for us to do a weekly close group reading of a published story, and for me to meet with each of you individually once a month about your own writing/reading for this class.

I also want you to read on your own and I'll set aside class time each week for you to do it. The minimum requirement is three books during the semester, but you're not limited to just three. The only requirements are that the books are fiction, you haven't read them before, and they're not assigned for another class. These are books you want to read. We'll work with these books in various ways, so it's important that you keep up with this extended assignment, and bring your current book to class everyday.