First Drafts of short story

AGENDA:

Work on first draft of short story for Thursday Writers workshop.

Discussion Questions "Boys and Girls"

1. Who is the narrator? What perspective does she have on the events in the story?

2. Where and when does the story take place?

3. What roles are assigned to men and to women in the world of this story? How do the mother, the father, Henry Bailey, the narrator, and her brother Laird exemplify aspects of these masculine and feminine roles?

4. What people and things represent freedom in this story? What people and things are not “free”?

5. What do you see as the primary conflict in the story; in other words, what does the dramatic tension come from?

6. What do you see as the turning point in the story?

7. What changes occur in the course of the story --to the girl, to her fantasies, to her relationship with Laird and her father?

8. The phrase “only a girl” is used in two different situations. What meaning does the phrase have for the girl in each situation? How does it contribute to the overall meaning of the story?

9. This sort of story is called a “coming of age” or “initiation” story. Why do you think that is? What is the girl “initiated” into? Of what does she become aware?

10. In “Boys and Girls”, what does the girl gain? What does she lose? Do you think what she becomes reflects nature or nurture? Do you see these changes and losses as necessary?

 

Alice Munro

AGENDA:

ACTIVITY:
First Sentences (Handout)  Write 10 first sentences that indicate where the story may go and places the reader "in the middle of things."


from Wikipedia:

Alice Ann Munro (/ˈælᵻs ˌæn mʌnˈroʊ/, née Laidlaw /ˈleɪdlɔː/; born 10 July 1931) is a Canadian short story writer and Nobel Prize winner. Munro's work has been described as having revolutionized the architecture of short stories, especially in its tendency to move forward and backward in time.^[3] Her stories have been said to "embed more than announce, reveal more than parade."^[4]

Munro's fiction is most often set in her native Huron County in southwestern Ontario.^[5] Her stories explore human complexities in an uncomplicated prose style.^[6]Munro's writing has established her as "one of our greatest contemporary writers of fiction," or, as Cynthia Ozick put it, "our Chekhov."^[7] Munro is the recipient of many literary accolades, including the 2013 Nobel Prize in Literature for her work as "master of the contemporary short story",^[8] and the 2009 Man Booker International Prize for her lifetime body of work. She is also a three-time winner of Canada's Governor General's Award for fiction and was the recipient of the Writers' Trust of Canada's 1996 Marian Engel Award, as well as the 2004 Rogers Writers' Trust Fiction Prize for Runaway.

HMWK: READ over break Alice Munro's "Boys and Girls"

More links to Munro's stories:

http://www.openculture.com/2013/10/read-14-short-stories-from-nobel-prize-winning-writer-alice-munro-free-online.html

George Saunders

AGENDA:
Go to this link:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/22/short-story-read_n_4220181.html


READ: "The School" by Donald Barthelme and
“A Lack of Order in the Floating Object Room” by George Saunders

Continue to work on your own short story for workshop.

Remember, this marking period you will need to have 20 pages of fiction writing-You can combine a longer short story (5-10 pages) with flash fictions or short short stories, but you will need 20 pages by the end of the marking period.

Amy Hempel--In the Cemetery Where Al Jolson is Buried

AGENDA:


Read and print out a page with answers to the following questions:


http://fictionaut.com/stories/amy-hempel/in-the-cemetery-where-al-jolson-is-buried.pdf

http://medhum.med.nyu.edu/view/11796

1.  Why did it take the narrator two months to visit her best friend in the hospital?
2.  What is referenced by the 2^nd “it” (“it scared him to death) in the story told by the mortician?
3.  Where does the narrator’s friend seem to be on psychologist Kubler-Ross’ six stages of grief process?  Explain your answer.
The stages are, in order:
Denial:  “This can’t happen to me.”
Anger:  “It isn’t fair.  What did I do to deserve this?”
Bargaining:   “I’ll do anything if you just make this go away.”
Depression:  “I feel hopeless, nothing matters anymore.”
Acceptance:  “I’ll be okay.”
Hope:  “What can I do to help others?”
4.  What’s the real difference between the Good and Bad Doctor?
5.  Why is the setting of “earthquake weather” appropriate for the story?
6.  Does the narrator stay the night with her friend?   Why or why not?


Continue to work on your short stories.

Where is the Voice Coming From?

This story has a background in fact. Welty wrote it on the night she learned of the murder of Medgar Evers, a local black civil rights leader much like the fictional Roland Summers, which took place in 1963 in her hometown of Jackson, Mississippi. Unaware of the killer’s identity, yet familiar with the bitterness of racism and class resentment, she created a poor white narrator who so closely resembled the real murderer that several details of the story had to be altered before its publication in The New Yorker, in order to avoid prejudicing the case.
A major strength of the story is the speaker’s voice, rich in local dialect, which also reveals him as uneducated and self-righteous. A proud man, he feels himself betrayed by everything in which he has believed. Clearly, he is a man overwhelmed by a growing movement he does not comprehend and cannot prevent. By allowing this narrator to tell his own story, Welty does not treat him as a stereotypical villain but presents him with understanding and even a certain level of compassion.
The credibility of the story is increased by passing references to historical persons, including Governor Ross Barnett of Mississippi; Caroline Kennedy, the young daughter of then-president John F. Kennedy; and James Meredith, the African American student whose enrollment integrated the University of Mississippi. In addition, sensory details are plentiful. When the narrator describes his early morning journey to Summers’s neighborhood, he offers a litany of typical street and business names, locating the familiar railroad tracks and the lighted bank sign that gives the time and temperature. He notes the brutal heat, even at night; the intense emotional pressure that he experiences; and his sudden relief when Roland Summers falls.
Perhaps the most obvious symbol is the gun. Although the gun bestows temporary power on a powerless man, the narrator tells his wife that he threw his rifle in the weeds because the barrel was scorching hot and because there was really nothing worth holding on to anymore. At the story’s end, he has replaced the gun with his old guitar, an enduring part of his own past, while he plays and sings “a-Down” to comfort himself—a mindless refrain and a foreshadowing, for now he, not Roland Summers, is going down.

Hunters in the Snow/Lorrie Moore

AGENDA:

Think, Pair, Share and Post:
1. Discuss the importance of characterization in the story.  What distinguishes the three men from each other?
Is there a protagonist in this story?

2. Why is setting important in the story?  Is there anything ironic about the settings?

3. This is a "chilling" story (pun intended).  How does Wolff control the tone of this story up until the ending?
Any similarities to Ozick's "The Shawl"?

Read Lorrie Moore's "How to become a Writer, or Have You Earned This Cliche"
http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/09/20/specials/moore-writer.html

Work on your short stories.

HMWK:  Read Eudora Welty's "Where is the Voice Coming From?"  pg. 481
http://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/a-murder-in-deep-summer

The Shawl Cynthia Ozick

AGENDA:

Please post responses to questions on "Heat" and "The Shawl"

Continue to work on your exercises #1 and #3 (or "Because")

Where and when does the action take place?

2. Does Rosa think Stella is responsible for Magda’s death?

3. Why doesn’t Rosa run to protect Magda at the end?  Is it because she fears death?  Because she is traumatized?  Because she is physically exhausted?

4. What do we make of Magda’s physical appearance?

5. What is the significance of the shawl?

HMWK:  Read Tobias Wolff  "Hunters in the Snow"

Heat/Extenuating Circumstances

AGENDA:

Discuss "Heat"/
POV, Symbols and Themes

http://www.levity.com/corduroy/oateshea.htm 

https://www.enotes.com/topics/heat-joyce-carol-oates/in-depth

Post on the blog:

1. Why do you think Oates chose to tell this story using the narrator and POV that she did?  What effect does it create on the reader?  How is the narrator affected by the story of the Twins?

2. What are some of the key symbols, images, leit motifs that Oates uses in the story?  What effect do they have on the reader?

3. Ultimately, what do you think this story is about?  What is the "big theme" that Oates is trying to express or understand by writing this story?

Read "Extenuating Circumstances"

WRITING PRACTICE:
Finish Synaesthesia exercise
Write a "Reluctant I" exercise (#3) or attempt a "Because" exercise that reveals the motivations and actions of  a character

HMWK: Read Ozick's "The Shawl"