LTWR 8A: INTRODUCTION TO FICTION – Spring 2011

Professor: Anna Joy Springer Lecture: 7:00 – 8:20 PM

Email: [email protected] Room: Center Hall 113

Office: Literature Building # 438 TAs:

Office Hours: Wednesday 1 – 4 PM, and by appointment

Sections:
B01 Day: M Time: 12:00p - 12:50p Room: PCYNH 120 Amy Forrest

B02 Day: W Time: 09:00a - 09:50a Room: HSS 2154 Jennifer Ritenour

B03 Day: F Time: 11:00a - 11:50a Room: PCYNH 120 Amy Forrest

COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course introduces many of the basic elements of contemporary fiction, including
characterization, style, point-of-view, dialogue, theme, and narrative structure. Emphasis
will be placed upon writing first from your most unfettered imagination, AND upon
sculpting these wild writings into shapely short stories through a variety of creative
revision techniques.

Each week we will read both conventional and innovative short stories published
(mostly) in the last thirty years, in order to discuss in context the fiction-writing
techniques you’ll be practicing in your own writing. We will read 2-3 short stories a
week.

To explore craft and experimentation, there will be a number of brief writing exercises,
both in and outside of class, which will help to generate a final short story as the quarter
progresses. You will turn in a polished 2-page story every week for group discussion.

Therefore, there is a LOT of writing and reading for this course, which is a requirement
for declaring a LitWriting Major and working in upper division fiction and prose classes.

Writing exercises and drafts will be reviewed in small groups led by undergraduate
workshop leaders in order to facilitate your creative revision, revision, and revision
process.

COURSE TEXT
Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft (8th Ed.) by Janet Burroway and Elizabeth &
Ned Stuckey-French, plus an additional [COURSE READER available at Cal Copy.]

COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Attendance and Participation – no computers, ipads, smart phones on during
lecture.

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Attendance is expected, and more than three absences will affect your grade. Please do
not use a computer, ipad, smart phone or any other device that allows you to check email,
look at Facebook, etc., during lecture, as actual participation is required and it’s
distracting for me and your classmates. You will sign in for lecture, and your TA and
workshop leader (tutor) will keep record of absences. Participation is based on the energy
and thought with which you contribute to discussions in lecture, section, and your small
workshop groups.

Course Website
Our course will have a site at WebCT, located at: http://webct.ucsd.edu. You must have
a sign-in name and password to access the course site. I will give detailed assignments
for the week there. You will also be able to ask me and each other questions on the site,
and to chat. I may upload lecture notes and other materials there. Please make sure to
check the site a couple times each week to know what your assignments are, and whether
there are any updates.

Weekly Story Prompts

Each week you will also write a more carefully crafted and revised work of fiction (2-3
pps., double-spaced, 12pt font), based on a prompt I give you. Sometimes I will give
more than one prompt, and you can pick one to respond to.

This is the piece you will turn in to your TA for credit every week, while you will have
your story workshopped every other week.

Workshopping in Small Groups

You will hand your story out to all the members of your small group at the end of class
on Wednesday, for workshopping on the following Wednesday. Each small workshop
group will split in half, Group A and Group B.

In order to discuss each story really deeply, only half of the small workshop group will
have their work discussed on Wednesdays, about 5-6 people a week.

Group A will be up first, then group B the following Wednesday. Workshop leaders will
meet with small groups to discuss these exercises, and will also provide written feedback
and a check, check plus, or check minus (or 0 if the story doesn’t come in) to both the
student and their TA.

In small groups, we will employ two very different methods to discuss student writings:
For the shorter weekly exercises we will discuss the writings as if they were already-
published works of literature (like you would talk about a short story in a Literature
class) without giving any editorial advice. This does not mean you have to be fake and
sweet and say “I like it.” Your opinion doesn’t come into play in this process. Your
advice is not needed. What is needed is your analysis of the piece based on the kind of
language it uses to dramatize scenes and ideas. This practice is meant to teach students
how to read like writers, rather than as passive readers or as editors. You will learn to
understand how different techniques work to create meaning in a work of fiction, and

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reading other students’ work like this will help you learn how to see your own early
drafts with new eyes that allow you to step back and analyze your own writing, and then
to see what you need to do in revision to make the writing stronger, tighter, and more
energetic for a reader. The meaning the work creates may (WILL) be different for
everyone in your group, and that’s fine – that’s what generates a good discussion, which
is what great literature does. It is important that you become clear that what you are
learning here is how to begin creating literature.

Later in the quarter, we will engage in the more common advice-giving “workshop”
model.

How many copies to make:

If you are in the half of the group who is up for workshopping, you’ll need to make
enough copies of your work for every member of your group, plus your tutor, plus your
TA.

On days your work is not up for workshopping, you will only need to bring one copy for
your TA.

Students are responsible for making copies of their prompts AND STAPLING THEM;
please bring enough copies for Small Group Members, Workshop Leader, and your TA
on the Wednesday before you are up for review.

***ASSIGNMENTS WILL NOT BE CONSIDERED COMPLETE UNLESS YOU

STAPLE THEM AND HAND OUT ALL COPIES on the correct Wednesday***

Final Short Story Package

You may begin working on a longer short story sometime near the 7 th week of the
quarter, and I encourage you to use your warm-up exercises and prompts to help you
generate the story. In its final version, it should be 7 to 10 pages long. The first draft will
be discussed in your small workshop groups during Weeks Nine and Ten; you may seek
further feedback from your TA and me, during our office hours. The final draft will be
due at the time of the final exam. With it, in a folder, you should include all Peer
Review Letters and your earlier draft with your TA’s (or my) comments on it.

***YOU MAY NOT TURN IN UNFINISHED (“TO BE CONTINUED”) STORY

DRAFTS OR EXERCISES – THE STORY HAS TO HAVE A BEGINNING,
MIDDLE, AND END because everything has to be there in order for people to discuss
the piece as a whole in workshop. It’s simply impossible to have a discussion of a story
that has no ending yet, or a missing middle. Unfinished stories will not receive written
responses or be discussed in workshop and they will receive a check-minus. So write
those last few closing lines even if you plan on changing them later.

Peer Review Letters

Each week half of the members of your small group will have their work read and
discussed. You will be responsible for reading all of the stories up for review each week

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(probably 5 or 6 of them), and then writing review letters for TWO of them. Your
Workshop Leader will tell you which TWO STORIES you are responsible for.
These letters should be addressed to the author and should be typed, then signed. They
should be about 2/3 of a page long. On stories you are not writing a peer review letter
for, you will annotate (reading notes as you read) the draft and write a short note at the
end of the manuscript. I will give you further guidelines on how to read the work deeply
and to write these review letters. When we begin discussing each other’s short stories
near the end of the course, you will write a peer review letter for ALL of your group
members’ drafts.

New Writing Series (Lab)

You are required to attend three readings of your choice during the quarter, and to write a
1-page response to each in your journal. Two of the readings must be part of the New
Writing Series, which is normally held on Wednesdays at 4:30 in the Visual Arts
Facility Performance Space.

Schedule of readings
4/13/2011 Davis Schneiderman
4/20/2011 Myung Mi Kim
4/27/2011 Heriberto Ypez & Jerome Rothenberg
5/4/2011 John Keene and Chris Stackhouse
5/11/2011 MFA first years
5/18/2011 MFA second years
5/25/2011 MFA second years
6/01/2011 Tara Jane O'Neil, Rachel Carns, and Anna Joy Springer

You may also attend one off-campus reading. Label it “Response to NWS Reading
(#1, #2, or #3),” and include the author’s name, so your workshop leader is sure to
give you credit for it. When writing the response, think about what struck you most
about the reading in terms of what we’ve studied so far in class: what provoked you in
terms of character, structure, rhythm, energy, specific detail, etc.? Please quote from the
reading to support your claims. What questions arose for you? What ideas did the reading
give you for your own work? etc. I’ll be looking for originality and description in your
responses, not a summary of what was read and not a basic opinion.

Midterm & Final Exam

The midterm will ask you to show your proficiency with literary terms discussed in
lecture, section, and in the textbook in multiple-choice, short answer and essay form. The
final exam will be a one essay question about your own final story in relation to the
techniques you’ve learned in class.

OTHER IMPORTANT INFORMATION

Manuscript Presentation

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Very Important: All manuscripts must be typed (in a reader-friendly 12-point font) and
double-spaced; pages must be numbered and stapled. Please do not hand in work that is
not stapled.

All exercises handed in must have a title, and the title should not be the name I’ve
given the assignment. You should put the name of the prompt and its due date near your
own name at the top left hand side of the page. The title of your piece should be
centered, just above the writing. Please also title your stories with a title that’s different
from the name of the assignment.

Labeling work:
At top left corner of page

[your name]
[your TA’s name]
[due date]
[my name of assignment]
[your tutor’s name + also whether you’re in Group A or Group B]

This will allow us to enter it into the grade book correctly.

Email
Please email me with correspondence only. I will not read assignments sent by email, but
you can bring work to my office for me to read and discuss with you.

Grading
25% Tests: 5% reading quizzes; 10% Midterm; 10% Final Exam

25% Community: 9% Letters; 8% Attendance & Participation in Lectures and

Section; 8% Workshop Participation. Attendance is mandatory in
Lectures, Workshops, and in Sections. You will score high points for
being prepared (having done all of the reading and taken notes of
insights, disagreements, and questions) and participating in discussion in
Section, and for the depth, insightfulness, and generosity of your
workshop feedback and peer review letters

25% Writing Exercises: 15% weekly stories from my prompts, 10% Writing
Journal and New Writing Series Responses

20% Final Short Story Package: 10% Revised Final Short Story (with
evidence of significant revision from first draft); 10% Rest of the Package,
including first draft with comments from TA, plus all letters from
workshop group and workshop leader. (You will include your final exam
into this package).

Week 1 - “The Only Story Allowed; or Why Write Fiction?”

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Monday 3/28 – Introduce course. Explain rules of Section ie., It starts on Monday, and if
not there on the first day you give up your seat. Tutors talk about their own writing.
Students get into small groups with tutors. Group exchanges email addresses and names.
Tutors divide small groups into A and B for workshopping. Tutors to send me copy of
names, Group A or B, and email addresses of small group members.

Homework in preparation for next class.

-Reading: Chapter One “Whatever Works: The Writing Process” in Writing Fiction.
Read also “Catskin” by Kelly Link on WebCT

-Mandatory Warm Up Exercise for Writing Journal to bring to class Wednesday:

“The Only Story Allowed” – Pretend you are only allowed to write one short story before
you die – maybe you are in prison, about to be executed, or maybe some other horrible
thing is about to happen to you. Really, imagine this is the last piece of writing you will
ever get to do.

Answer each of these questions in writing in your journal - Why do you write it? What’s
it about? What’s in it? Who is it for? Do events happen, or is it more of a sketch or series
of impressions? Are there characters? What kinds? Are there philosophical themes?
Describe them. Why are you writing a fictional story rather than poetry or nonfiction?
How does your story fit in with the history of mainstream and resistance literatures that
you’ve read – or is it totally new? How? Why? What sort of language does your story
use? Why? Are there political reasons for telling your story? Or spiritual ones? Or will
the story help YOU figure something out, or test some idea? Is the story experimental or
conventional – and if so, by whose conventions? Why? How will the specific kinds of
language you use accomplish these goals?
Now, Write the last sentence of this story.

This exercise should get at the heart of why you write (or want to write). Try not to
chicken out by going for something easy like “I want to entertain people with a funny
story about interesting characters”. Writers have to summon a lot of courage, because
writing fiction is about staging and helping guide a reader through complex truths that
can only be developed in narrative form. Read last sentences from “the only story
allowed”

Wednesday 3/30
Lecture on story generation (freewriting vs. planned writing) and revision (complete
seeing anew vs. editing). Discussion of Editorial Workshopping vs. Project Attention.
Last 30 mins: Move to small groups & introduce each other by reading aloud The Only
Story Allowed answers to questions from writing journal.

Homework
-Reading: Chapter Two “Seeing is Believing: Showing and Telling” in WF, including
“We Didn’t” by Stuart Dybeck, plus “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by
Ursula LeGuin (WebCT)

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And for section please read Chapters 1-3 of The Eye of Argon at
http://www.ansible.co.uk/misc/eyeargon.html.).

-Journal Warm Up Exercises: In textbook, pick two of the following Chapter 2

Writing Exercises to warm up with: 2, 3, 7. Label your exercises in your Writing Journal
so your tutor can easily see which ones you chose to do.

-Writing due Monday – 4-5 Pages - Story Prompt is “The Secret Scar.”
After you’ve done this week’s readings and exercise, write a story about a kind of scar
that only one character knows about and can expose. One other character would be very
upset if the “scar” were exposed. The story should dramatize a moment of struggle
between these two characters though it might not be an obvious struggle that anyone
would understand. The scar can be a physical scar that no one knows about or talks
about, or it can be a metaphorical one, on a body, a psyche, a culture, or on the landscape.
The scar could be in a strange shape, mysterious but compelling. Or it could be a scar on
a family, or a scar on history. The story may enact the scar’s origins or a character’s
relationship to it. What is a “scar,” (figuratively) for the purposes of this piece? Is the
language of the story also somehow “scarred”? How do you write in scarred language?
Try to make your language scarred too, if you like.

The main challenge of this exercise it to write with specific and significant detail and to
use very strong sense imagery that is both significant AND relevant to your story. Do not
describe things that don’t have much meaning for your story (ie. don’t describe the
weather, if the weather doesn’t figure in to the story somehow), and don’t keep any
language that isn’t absolutely necessary for the story. Make sure that all details are crisp
and bold and that your images force your reader to see things with new eyes, as if for the
first time. For specificity, metaphor and other figurative language is great. Be aware if
you start writing detail in language you (or your characters) wouldn’t use in everyday
speech (like “amongst” or “scantily” or “ever so sweetly”). If you find yourself narrator
sounding like a “Writer”, ask yourself if the story needs to be told in this voice, or if one
closer to yours would make the writing ring more true.

*Content rules for this exercise: No murders or suicides and no college-campus dramas.
If you have to hurt a character, maim them, don’t kill them.

*Focus on: Specificity of detail and details’ relevance to story.

Section: Introduce selves. Then do exercise on differences between common

occurrences in life or in story versus cliché way of describing them. Do a group story
with the most clichés exercise.
Week 2 “Vivid Detail That Matters”

Monday April 4 – Class on specific and significant detail and rhythm in “We Didn’t,”
and “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”; Go over Workshop Instructions.

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Writing to Turn In on Wednesday (both A and B groups will turn one copy in to small
group leader and TA) - Deep Revision of The Secret Scar: Write a new revision, based
on “The Scar” with a new compelling title. Revise (not edit) “The Scar” so that it’s only 2
pages, double-spaced. That means you must condense the language. It also means that
you will likely start the piece at a different place in the story. Stories often begin on the
3rd page of the first draft, sometimes later. You can usually cut a lot of those first two
pages. Cut all detail that’s not relevant to the story, as it flows along and builds. Don’t
forget smell and taste. You can use unexpected metaphor (or other figures of speech) for
freshness and clarity. Make sure your details are relevant to your story. Go for the
unexpected because readers like to be surprised. MAKE SURE THE NAME OF YOUR
STORY IS NOT “THE SECRET SCAR,” which would be pretty clichéd at this point,
don’t you think?

-Everyone in small group brings one copy of the story to read aloud on April 6
-Group A hands out REVISED “The Scar” to everyone in small group including
workshop leader for workshopping on April 13.
-Workshop leaders hand in copies of both A & B Groups’ scar story to the appropriate
TA.
-Workshop leaders make sure all the information listed above in “Labeling Work” is
written on the story that goes to the TA before handing it in.

Wednesday April 6 – Small Group – Everyone reads out loud story “The Scar.” People
in group pick out two most vivid specific details in story. Quote actual language from the
story. Discuss how each of these details appeals to one or more of the senses and why
these details are relevant to the story, rather than extraneous.

Homework:
Reading: Chapter Three, Building Character, including “Fiesta, 1980” by Junot Diaz in
textbook, “The Blue Wallet” by William T. Vollman and “The Bloody Chamber” by
Angela Carter on WebCT.

Reading Quiz: There will be a reading quiz during section on Friday of this week
and Monday and Wednesday of next week, so be sure you can identify all the stories
you’ve been assigned by style, character, plot summary, and author.

Mandatory Warm Ups:

A. Eavesdropping: Write down what you hear strangers say, in their voices. Go to the
DMV, the Emergency Room, a bus you normally don’t take (not on campus), a self-help
meeting, a church, a wedding, a funeral, a Planned Parenthood waiting room, or some
other public place you don’t normally spend a lot of time. The DMV is really a good
one, since NOBODY wants to be there, not even the employees. Write down lines of
dialogue you hear. Be discreet. Try to use exactly the language the speaker used. Write
the opening to a story, starting with one of the lines of dialogue you have overheard.

B. Character Profile: In this same public space, find two or three people who are not like
you. Describe what they look like. What are their gestures like. Imagine what words or

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phrases they use all the time, like, “whatever!” or “Um”. Write those down. Also,
answer the following questions about your character: Make up whether they have any
repeated gestures (of hand, face, foot, etc.). Under what circumstances do they engage in
these gestures – Nervous? Feeling superior? Lying? What is the character’s cultural
background? Gender identity? What does the character do for a living? What does the
character believe about God.? What was the character’s first sexual experience? Who
does your character love? What is the character’s biggest conscious fear? What is the
character’s biggest unconscious fear? What is the character hiding? Who does the
character wish he or she was more like? Who is the character’s mother? Father? Are
they still alive? Married? Come up with 20 questions for EACH character, and answer
them.

Remember, all these things will contribute to how the character sees the world and
therefore, the language the character uses. An astrophysicist will describe a McDonalds’
Playland scuffle differently from a recent immigrant from Kenya interviewing for a job at
the McDonalds.

Story Prompts: “Interesting Character” Story

Pick one of the following prompts, and use it as a basis to write a

2-page short-short story due next Wednesday: B Group is up for workshop.

Prompt 1. Rewrite a story you already know, like a fairy tale, fable, myth, pop-culture
rumor, or a well-known book or movie plot, but change the story by using the same two
or three characters you created in Exercise Two above as its main characters. You may
also otherwise alter the plot of the known story however you want to make your piece
more original, surprising, or interesting. In fact, if you want, you can combine two well-
known stories to create a hybrid third story.

Prompt 2. Pick two of the characters you developed in Warm-Up Exercise 2. Make
them interact, and their interaction will become the basis of a short-short story (2pps, ds).
Let them reveal themselves at least as much through action as through dialogue. That is,
don’t sit them at a table and have them chat, but instead move them around and have
them do things that affect one another. Reveal both of them with equal interest
and make both of them equally complex.

You can use one of the following scenarios, or make up your own:
* The doctor’s office has messed up and sent (by phone, mail, etc.) each of them the
Other one’s medical results and they feel they have to tell the other one.
* They are both competing on American Idol, or another game show.
* One’s the bad guy who’s really pretty good, and the other’s the good guy who’s
really pretty bad. Put them in a struggle where children are watching.
* Put them on a first date at an unusual location.

Prompt 3: Turn one of the characters you created into a very interesting villain. Write in
the first person, using this character’s voice, including what they do not say. Don’t work

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with dialect for the purposes of this exercise, but go ahead and include a quirky speech
pattern or a repeated phrase this character may say. Do so sparingly, though! A little
“Like, wowzers!” goes a long way and can become distracting. Have this villain tell the
story of something they did wrong, but the villain is trying to convince the reader that it
wasn’t really a bad thing, or that they had to do it, or that everyone else was really wrong
just by the way they tell the story.

Prompt 4: Write a story in first person, in the voices of five characters as they tell the
story of how they all ended up together at the scene of a minor drama or disturbance. At
some point some of the characters should speak to other ones. Maybe they recall an
incident differently. Use their rendition of what happened to reveal their character’s
background, fears, interests, intelligences, weaknesses, etc.

Section F,M,W: Reading quiz will ask you to identify passages from stories, as well as
other questions about the stories you have read so far. In-class - do character background
sketches.

Week 3 “The Way They Describe Things Says So Much About Them”

Monday April 11 – Lecture on Character

Reading: Chapter Four, “The Flesh Made Word” including “Bullet in the Brain” by
Tobias Wolff; Read also “Isla” by Susan Steinberg and excerpt from Cane by Jean
Toomer (WebCT).

Wednesday April 13 – Group A Workshop of “The Secret Scar” in small groups.

Discuss visuals, rhythm, scene. Discuss character in each story, based on direct methods
of characterization from this week’s chapter and lecture.
Group B hand out “Interesting Character” story for workshop next Wednesday. Tutor
hands this piece from both A&B in to TA.

Mandatory Warm Up Exercise in Journal. You have to do these warm up exercises

first, before you can write the story that you’re turning in.

Description and Metaphor:

FIRST: Describe TWO of the following places in List A below in detail. Just describe
the visual details you see and other sensory details. Don’t draw conclusions. Don’t tell
the reader what to believe or know. Just objectively describe what you see, hear, smell,
etc.

SECOND: DESCRIBE THE SAME TWO PLACES you just wrote about WITHOUT
SAYING WHAT THE PLACE IS, but only what it is like and/or what they remind you
of (through use of metaphor, simile, and any other figurative language). Use very
specific, detailed imagery describing only what you see/hear/smell/ taste/touch when you

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imagine these things. Be very careful to not write a metaphor you have read or heard
before. Make it completely new.

LIST A - PLACES
A broken-down playground – Metaphor Example: “An expanse of giant rusty kitchen
utensils half-buried in pockmarked sand.”
A gated community that’s trying too hard to be “perfect”
An unusual strip club
A small-town zoo
A frozen-foods factory
A secret underwater lab
An abandoned town in Alaska

NEXT PART OF MANDATORY JOUNRAL WARM UP:

Now, pick at least three of the following characters:
LIST B - CHARACTERS
A coal-miner
A junkyard dog
A chipped porcelain doll
A very old, washed up tyrant
A female physicist
An unused musical instrument
A person on the verge of suicide who doesn’t really want to die
A god/goddess (Retired? Over-enthusiastic?)
A kaleidoscope
An unlikely pervert

Write specific, possibly metaphoric images of the things in LIST A through the eyes of
each of these 3 characters. How does each character see/hear/smell/taste/touch the
world? What associations do they make? Their world-view, cultures, and interests will
inform their vocabulary, cadence, syntax, as well as their opinions and what they are
capable of seeing. For instance, a small-town zoo looks different to a female physicist
from how it looks to an unlikely pervert. Each of these characters will describe the zoo
differently. They will pick up on different details and use a different kind of language.

Prompt for Short Story to Turn in: “Character’s Own Language”

Write a short story – One of the characters in list B is the narrator, so the whole story is
written in that character’s voice and style of storytelling. That narrator is letting a story
unfold about a terrible mistake he or she made earlier in life – the narrator is telling
someone who cares about that character and wants to know about the narrator’s past. The
mistake should involve two of the characters from list B. The narrator should be located
in one place from list A as the narrator tells the story now, but the terrible mistake should
take place in another place from list A.
For example, I am a goddess telling my grandchildren deities the story of how I banished
all the unlikely perverts to Oxnard in my youth, when I thought they should all be under
surveillance all the time. I am telling you the story while sitting in a strip club in El

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Cajon, hiding, because no one will think to find me here, but there are also no unlikely
perverts here (because I banished them all to Oxnard). The moment I banished all the
perverts, I was at a secret underwater lab with my friend Momo, a physicist. With the
combined power of her scientific skills and my supernatural ones, we were able to locate
all the unlikely perverts in the world and transport them to Oxnard. The underwater lab
is done all in Ikea-style furniture because Momo is a female physicist with streamlined
taste, and I like to describe the Ikea furniture to my grandkids because they have no idea
what Ikea furniture looks like.

F,M,W Section: Character writing exercise; continue to discuss character in stories so far.

Week 4 “Who’s Telling Whom, and Why? Point of View & Motive For Telling”
WRITING JOURNALS with All Warm Ups and at least 1 Responses to Live
Readings Due Wednesday April 20.

Monday April 18 – Professor Springer gone. TA Lecture and exercises on Character –

indirect methods, conflict, paradox.

Wednesday April 20 – Small group workshop “Interesting Character” – B Groups

Group A hands out workshop piece “Character’s Own Language” to small group for
workshop next Wednesday.

Section Friday, Monday, Wednesday: Reading quiz – be able to describe all the main
characters from each of the stories in detail, plus be ready to give a synopsis of the plot of
each story and its title and author name. Then go through 99 ways to Tell a story by Matt
Madden and Exercises in Style by Raymond Queneau.

Read Chapter 8 “Call Me Ishmael – Point of View” including “Reply All” by Robin
Hemley, “Who’s Irish” by Gish Jen, Then read: “The Babysitter” by Robert Coover
(reader)

- Journal Warm Ups – Writing Exercises on p. 338 – Do exercise number 2 with the
opening to a story you have turned in for workshop; do exercise number 4 too.

-Prompts for story to turn in “Changing the Lens”:

Revise a former story or warm up in the style of “The Babysitter,” where viewpoint shifts
are made obvious by changes in voice (syntax, diction, pacing), but also where multiple
simultaneous contradictory events can take place (unlike in real life).

OR: Revise a former story by changing the viewpoint character.

Create 1-2 tightly constructed pages – eliminate all words that aren’t absolutely vital,
including pronouns like “that” and “it”.

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***Try not to go too sentimental – remember to create a vivid setting and to let your
character be unpredictable and interesting. Focus on important details in “close up”.
Create atmosphere by choosing what to describe in a location, but also in what tone to
describe it – is the world of the story creepy, friendly, hopeful, complicated, confusing?
What specific words do you use to make the world seem to have this atmosphere?

Week 5 “Unique Perspective”

Monday April 25 - Lecture on POV, talk about narrative simultaneity in “The

Babysitter”

Wednesday April 27 - Small Groups – Workshop Group A “Character’s Own

Language” piece.
Group B passes out their “Changing the Lens” story for workshop next Wednesday.

Section – Friday, Wednesday, Monday: Go over point-of-view (tense is unnecessary)

in each (or at least some) of the stories read so far.

Homework
Reading: Chapter six “Long Ago,” including “Hominids” by Jill McCorkle, “Mrs. Dutta
Writes a Letter” by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni; Read also “New York City in 1979” by
Kathy Acker (WebCT).

Writing Journal Warm up: do #3 on page 246.

“Scene/Exposition” Prompt for story to turn in – Write a 2-3 page story in the present
tense. Show the character or multiple characters moving (or not moving) moment-by-
moment in a specific setting during the last 1 or 2 minutes (only) of “the end of the
world” – don’t make it happen all in thought/internal monologue, allow there to be
physical action and external action too. It can take place now or in the future.

OR: Do number 6 on page 246 as your story prompt.

***NOTE The below story is DUE Monday not Wednesday:

Week 6 “Location & Atmosphere”

Monday April 18 –Lecture on Fictional Time and everyone turns in “Scene/Exposition”

story to TA.

Wednesday April 20 – Group B Workshops “Changing the Lens” story. Everyone hands
out Writing Journals to Small Group Leader Tutors. All exercises must be labeled in a
way that’s obvious to the tutor so the tutor can mark down that you have done the
assignment.

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***Final Story “Pre-Draft” – Take one sitting of three hours undisturbed to freewrite or
sketch out the pre-draft of your final short story.

Reading: Chapter five “Far, Far Away” including “Love and Hydrogen” by Jim Shepard
and “Wickedness” by Ron Hansen; Read excerpt from Madeleine is Sleeping by Sarah
Shun-Lien Bynum (WebCT).

OR: Write a story that takes place in a landscape/location you have read about in another
work of fiction. Borrow language from that other work of fiction to describe the setting
and create the atmosphere for the new characters and new events of your story. Here’s an
example – place characters based on yourself and your girlfriend/boyfriend in the setting
of Sarah Bynum’s Madeleine and have one of you break something important. Or put
yourself in the shoes of the schoolteacher in “Wickedness” and describe the world
through your eyes/voice. See what happens.

For either of the prompt choices, create “atmosphere” by choosing what to describe in a
location, but also how to describe it – is the world of the story creepy, friendly, hopeful,
complicated, confusing? What specific words do you use to make the world seem to
have this atmosphere?

Week 7 Midterm
Also: WRITING JOURNALS with All Warm Ups and at least 2 Responses to Live
Readings Due Wednesday April 27.

Monday April 25 – Review for Midterm on all readings, writing exercises, and
vocabulary terms so far, (for example, Specific Detail, Scene, Character, Reportage,
Drafting, and Point of View, among others). This midterm will ask questions that require
short answers, multiple choice, and a couple longer answers.

Wednesday April 27 - Midterm on all readings, writing exercises, and vocabulary terms
so far. Writing Journals due to tutors at beginning of class – don’t be late!

-Reading Chapter seven “The Tower and the Net: Story Form, Plot, and Structure” (very
important) including “What you Pawn I Will Redeem” by Sherman Alexie. Read also
“Lull” by Kelly Link (in Reader). Recommended: “Everything That Rises Must
Converge” by Flannery O’Connor

First Draft: After you’ve written wild and unknown pre-first draft, make an outline of the
scenes and summaries in the order you’ve written them. Decide whether you need to
build different scenes and/or summarize at points. Remember scene is a way of slowing
down a relatively short amount of time – like a minute or an hour. Summary is a way of
speeding up a longer amount of time – like a day, a year, a millennium. Summary gets
the reader oriented so he or she will be able to understand what’s happening in the scene,
but a story is built of scenes.

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Use the checklist for revising scene and summary on page 215 & 216 of your textbook to
revise the story for more engaging scenes. Revise your pre-draft, to create your First Full
Draft.

First Draft is DUE Monday May 2 - in order for this to count, this first draft must
include the entire story arc (beginning, middle, and end), even if it’s rough - no
exceptions.

*Content rules for the first draft: No murders, sexual assaults, or suicides, and no
college-campus dramas. If you can, steer clear of high-school road-trips and proms, but
these are not totally off limits. If you have to hurt a character, maim them, don’t kill
them. Or better yet, just scare them. Or accidentally hurt the wrong character.

Long Short story ideas

1. A person is auditioning for a reality TV show or a job with ulterior motives.

2. Write a critical fake autobiography of your generation in its/their voice(s) – you
may need to do some historical research
3. The parts of your character’s body are at war or in an argument, and your
character doesn’t want anyone to know.
4. Write a story like Kathy Acker’s “New York City, 1979” called (you can change
it) “San Diego, 2008” – follow or somehow re-imagine her structure
5. Write a story where the characters are strangers whose lives barely touch, but all
circle around one freak incident. Move from one character to the next, making
each character vivid and unique and intertwined with all of them somehow.
6. Begin freewriting, starting with the stupidest or rudest thing you ever heard
someone say. Make this character the narrator of his own story – in the first
person. Make him be a jerk, but prove through scene that he/she/it has a likable
side too.
7. Write in the voice of a very interesting, disillusioned, ugly character who prevails.
8. Write the scariest imaginable story in the scariest style possible about fear itself.
9. There’s a hair/bug/gun in the take-out food and your character is trying to take the
food back to the restaurant, but keeps getting stopped.
10. Or, expand a story you have already written for one of the short-short story
prompts or journal exercises. You can change it around however you want.

Section: Scene vs. Summary – find in stories we’ve read or in student drafts.

Week 8 “Story Architecture”

Monday May 2 – Lecture on Setting and Atmosphere with Music exercise

Writing to turn in Wednesday - Long Short Story– First Draft Revision Homework:
Reorder the structure of your story so that it starts mid-action (in medias res). That could

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mean starting in the middle high-action scene and flashing back to important moments
that built toward this opening scene. It could mean writing the entire story backward in
time. It could mean a lot of things. Cut all scenes and summaries that are not vital to
engaging the reader with the heart of the story – the moment of profound change and
connection/ disconnection. Often the real story starts on about page 3 of your draft, or
somewhere very close to the end of the piece. Make the DEEPEST STORY the central
hub of your short story – cut anything that distracts, especially unnecessary summary of
background information that is implied by characters’ speech, actions, reactions,
appearance, etc. – Everyone prepares copies of revised long short story for small group
workshop, to hand out on Wed. May 4.

Wednesday May 4 – Lecture and exercise on story structure – Everyone hands in drafts
of stories AND writes a letter to EACH writer up for workshop in the next three class
sessions. Letters are due on the day a story is up for workshop. Workshop leader to
determine whose story is up for workshop on Wednesday May 11 (3-4 people), then
Monday May 16 and Wednesday May 18.

Homework
Section: Discuss specific issues writers are having with long short story – come up with
journal practice exercises to deal with problems – try some in class.

Reading – Chapter Eleven, “Play it Again, Sam” including Notes on “Keith” and “Keith”

Week 9 “Workshopping First Drafts of Final Story”

Monday May 9 – Lecture on Story Form, Plot, and Structure continued

Wednesday May 11 – Small Groups – 3-4 people workshop final story. Radical
Revision Suggestions.

Homework: Deep Revision on Final Story.

Week 10 “Workshopping Continued”

Hand in final Writing Journal to Tutor on Monday May 16. Extended office hours
by appointment to discuss manuscript.

Monday May 16 – Small Groups – B Groups workshop final story

Wednesday May 18 – Small Groups – B Groups workshop final story
Final Story Packet instructions, revision instructions, final exam essay question given.

Finals Week

06/06/2011 Monday 7:00p - 10:00 Location TBA. Final Class Reading and turn in final
story packets, including take-home final exam essay.

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