Category: Creativity

I Answer Some Questions About Writing XI

1/22/2021

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Outlines...?
Make a list of 30 things you want to have happen in the novel. Bullet points are fine.
Each bullet point is a day's writing. Then double it--number it 1a, 1b...15a, 15b, or whatever.
Does your bullet point take up less than 800 words to tell? Well, no it doesn't—there is always something more to say about anything.
Don't let your internal editor worry you about continuity and/or "quality"—just keep moving forward.
Eating is a profound rhetorical connection between writer and reader. So—do it. Use eating.
Remember that eating is about memory as much as it is about nutrition. (Watch some shows on Food Network and see how chefs and cooks present their food—very often they start with a memory).
Making coffee becomes an anchor for a memory.
Meals eaten with two or more people are about how the people relate to one another.
Go back to Food Network again and see how Guy Fieri describes food. He's kind of annoying but he's good at what he does. Watch almost any episode of The Sopranos. Read writers to see how they do it. Research is fun!
I always look for new things to try—these Participation Questions are a pandemic adaptation....
I would rather not be confused.
People have lives—they are very busy!
Most writers pay—or at least buy dinner for—their beta readers.
This might sound glib, but—pretend to be confident?
The people reading your work do not and will not know you. So if you pretend to be confident, they will think you're confident.
Writing is about acting as much as it is about putting words on a screen or a page....
Also, I sense a writer's confidence by how the scenes unfold early in a story. The beginning works, then the next scene takes the story another step, then another. The writer shows that they know what they are doing structurally.....
So....maybe pretend to be confident while you learn structure...??
For a long time I subscribed to several word-of-the-day email lists, and any work I found interesting would go into my writing. I particularly liked the one with archaic words. ("carking" made it into my novel). But imagery can be constructed with basic words, too....
I read Lord of the Rings when I was in the 6th grade and I wanted to do what Tolkien was doing. A year later I read Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and it changed everything in my life....
I've had a few poems published, though not many. I tend toward narrative poems—stories that have been stripped down to 14 or so lines....
Here's a poem....

The writer should always interrogate themselves about how they are using the character who is unlike them. Is the writer appropriating a story? Is the writer stereotyping or exploiting?
The first step is always empathy. And empathy doesn't come naturally, you have to work for it and learn it.
This is something I do not know! I've had students who are game writers--I assume there are books written about game-writing....
When I started I was in a class like you all, and I just wrote the story as it came out. I did a LOT of reading outside of the classes—I went to the Best American Story shelf in the library and worked through about 40 years or so, and I subscribed to multiple literary magazines. And I wrote a lot, which is also a way of learning. And as I learned more I became more methodical--planning the story with—yes—outlines, and focusing on revision rather than generation.....
I started calling myself a writer fairly late--probably about the time I got the Dobie Paisano Fellowship. Even though I'd been writing for a long time, that was a big external validation....
Keep them simple--only describe what the focal character is seeing/experiencing....
Also keep in mind that fighting is really hard. And exhausting. And most fights are settled swiftly....
I've had students totally turned off by Christine Granados or Oscar Casares because their characters code-switch. But I look at those writers and see that the dialogue is totally in context and understandable. So—make sure the context works....
I love Tolkien and I would BURN those stupid fucking LOTR movies if I could! ha!
But—the Godfather, Parts 1 & 2, is/are the best adaptation ever. The Godfather novel, by Mario Puzo, is very mediocre. But Francis Ford Coppola, in his adaptation, found the inner story and elevated it to greatness. You can buy a book, The Godfather Notebook, by Coppola, which contains his annotated copy of the novel and the shooting script. It's a revelatory insight into the creative process....
Oh, yes! Absolutely! You can learn a whole lot about the structure of narrative by watching film. Film structure is different from literary structure in its details, but the scene-to-scene structure can be really helpful....
Start by knowing that your revision will take multiple passes.
Each pass you will focus exclusively on a different aspect:
character (a pass for each character)
setting
scene transitions
beginning
ending
plot holes
widows & orphans
weasel words
Then read it aloud!
Then read it aloud—backwards!
This is the fun part of writing....
Pre-pandemic I would take a week to 10 days to grade, now with the pandemic friction, it's 10 days to two weeks....
All assignments are good—some are terrific!
I wouldn't worry about plot holes until until you begin revising. As you consider (and reconsider, and re-reconsider) your work, the holes will become more and more apparent....
Maybe...something political and topical? The protagonist's significant other (or father or mother) becomes enveloped in conspiracy theories or fascism or white supremacy. What then to do...?
This is a problem that many, many people are facing right now.
Don't look at your story as a whole. As an entire story. As a plot.
Look instead at the writing.
At each sentence, ask—Is this the best sentence I can write?
Seriously interrogate your work and your writerly self.
You'll find things to fix!
Every semester someone does something truly terrific!
Too many students focus on plot. A story is much more than a plot.
Any plot can make for a good story if it's written well.
If you focus on character and setting and language you'll be successful....
I come up with a character, then find an idea to put them in, then a setting. Then I figure out what will happen (the plot)....
Sometimes that's simple—my current work is a sequel to my last book, so the character and setting are done.
A lot of my stories are set in Austin, so there's a setting I know well. I'm able to visualize my characters doing stuff in the setting....
That's part of the outline. I make an outline and then update it every couple of days—motifs, themes, maps, are all part of it....
Thanksgiving’s my favorite holiday! Because I get turkey and beer! Especially now that I'm an adult (an adult for many years) and can organize things however I want and get all the turkey!
I think I'm going to zoom happy hour with a friend. And then sleep.
What are you going to do?
Well, stories are about characters. They can have objects, or they can interact with objects.
Oh my gosh yes!
Several students have won awards for work they've done in my classes, and several others have been published.
In fact, two stories from this semester are very close to publishable....
Still—personally, I would not feel safe teaching a face-to-face class. And I'm very happy I'll be teaching online next semester.
My guess...is that nationally the pandemic will get worse before it gets better. Cases are going up all over the country right now.
Please keep wearing your masks and doing your social distancing
Yes! In fact, you're going to read one of them a couple of weeks from now.
It's a story that was published and, yes, I was dissatisfied with it, so I revised it while teaching a class of Advanced Fiction Writing, to show students methods of revision....
You'll read the original and the revised version, and you are not under any obligation to like either one!
By looking at the photos, perhaps we become more absorbed into the memory/story...?
I call it a memoir. Or a work of creative non-fiction....
Collapse.
I can get TOTALLY lost in old photos! Sure—I could go on and on.
Women tend to be judged harshly—harsher than men—for marital infidelities.
There are a lot of different thoughts about how to arrange a story collection. I tend to go strongest story first, next-strongest last, weakest in the middle.
A writer writing about a murder in Texas would frame things differently....
This was scanned in—the scanner made errors. Sorry about that! Typos are distracting--
Sure—we can look at the photo, read the text, look back at the photo, contemplate the person as someone who once lived....
Guilty.
Yes—I sure do. They really help to bring it to life....
People often feel trapped. Very often. Trapped by economics, church, gender, family....
So, sure—to a trapped person it might seem easier and quicker to murder your husband than to get a divorce.
Mental health needs to be addressed everywhere!
It’s a tawdry illusion with a rotten core...
No.
To make money.
I'm thinking she was guilty....
Memory is a construct—it's always changing. Incidents get compressed and expanded and rearranged....
There's legal trouble? You need a lawyer. Also in this case, a comfort factor....
I don't think Didion likes this place—she finds it cheap and gaudy and shallow.
That's an interesting question!
My answer is...maybe?
Family cohesion can help people stay strong in a crisis. On the other hand, some families might be lax in social distancing and have a get-together that turns into a superspreader event!
Maybe, sort of...? The Hunter Thompson novel is about the sixties, but it's about drug-induced madness, and not so much about tawdriness and shallowness....
This might make for a good essay question...!!!
Collapse.
The Granados book is set in the right now. But I hadn't considered the time-perspective in the other books....
No, they were just sinners. They believed and fell short....
It's popular across all of literature. Stories need conflict—marital discord is conflict!
Almost all prisoners in state prisons get parole at some point—that's the (theoretical) goal of incarceration—get people ready to reenter society. (Maybe).
Murdering someone for the insurance money is not a good thing.

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I Answer Some Questions about Writing IX

12/25/2020

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Once again...The Answers. BYOQ!

The hardest part might be figuring out what I really want to say. That takes effort and thought but it’s part of the process!
Then—I have to figure out the BEST way to say what I want to say, the most expressive language to say what I want to say.
How do I turn up the power of my language....?
The most useful writing class I had as an undergraduate was an art history class—we had to write about art! I learned so much!
Try it right now—go find a painting and just describe it. (Trad narrative art is easier at first).
Then write an ekphrasis….
(I’ll wait…).
Other history classes are good, too. (I was a history major, ha).
Knowledge is good.
We're in the 21st century, so you will also need to know some basic Photoshop and InDesign. These are very valuable skills!
I always wanted to tell stories. When I started college I wanted to be a journalist (I wanted to write the A-heds for the Wall Street Journal!).
But I'm too shy to talk on the phone, so that didn't work out at all....
Once I set foot in grad school I wanted to be a professor....
But, basically, I'm a linear word-type guy....
No, not too much. I just move onto something else....
Titles...
When I’m grading or editing, I look at the formatting—it’s something that just jumps off the page. Sloppy formatting is a bad sign.
If your reader can’t read what you’ve written, you have a problem.
Be generous—both with other people and with yourself. (Writing is an act of generosity).
Perhaps practice writing longer sentences, and embedding your ideas in those sentences....?
Walt Whitman.
I'm not in college anymore, so I don’t have to read things I don't like. Or finish everything I start.
It's nice!
In grad school I was reading a lot of memoirs as I researched my dissertation, and I read The Dead Girl, by Melanie Thernstrom. Dreadful. It was the last book I hated that I finished....
In my downtime I work on my own books. Also: I drink beer and watch tv.....
What a great question! And—there is no definitive answer.
Generally, punctuation is more important in a poem than a story, since there are fewer words in a poem, and every word has to be in the correct context and carry a lot of weight.
But! Sometimes you can remove punctuation from a poem and speed it up!!!!!
Read your poem closely, and experiment. How do you want it to sound?
I go through phases, though I always like reading histories about American stuff in the 19th century....
The ending should be a big part of your outline. Maybe even the starting point!
What I've found a couple of times is that the novel stops the scene or two before the projected ending in the outline. Just—there is nothing more to say about this story or this character.
So: The End.
But the overall tone of the ending itself is dependent on what has transpired in the novel. Triumphant, elegiac, whatever.
And—whatever happens—maybe turn up the volume in writing the ending? It's the second-most important part of your book. It's what will stay in your reader's memory.
Also—who gets the last line? This is really important.
I guess some writers do the name symbolism thing. But I'm feeling that character names should just be names.
That said—the name should be appropriate for the characters. Who are they? What year were they born? Where were they born?
All these factor into the naming conventions....
Yes...but--
It will vary from poem to poem!
George Martin is kind of an outlier, but at the same time his big novels are still under focal control. (Maybe). (Sort of).
Also—it’s a long long series!
(Martin needs to get busy and finish those last two books!)
(Robert Caro needs to finish his LBJ biography, too!)
I would still advise you to limit the number of important characters in your short stories. Do you really have enough space really make them into individuals?
Or will they just be names on a page? What is your available narrative space?
Okay—titles. In ye olde face-to-face class days, I would often send students out to walk about the halls for 10 minutes and come back with 10 titles. (Everyday objects can make great titles!)
Or—maybe a song lyric that represents something in your story. Or a line from a poem. Or something odd your overhear while walking around....
We are surrounded by titles.
And—I usually start stories with a title. The title is sort of where I get the inspiration from.
(I have a notebook which is nothing but titles. I'll never get them all written!)
Character names? I really really good resource is the Social Security Administration's baby name listing. The most popular baby names, decade by decade.
So—figure out more or less when your character was born, and go from there....
Or—use phone books. (Do phone books still exist?)
For Burnt House, I had an old WV phonebook and chose many names from there, mixed up by first and last names....
Outlining! (Outlines are my answer to every writing problem!)
So I outline, of course. But, yep, I start writing the book or story at the beginning. It's the most important part of your story/novel/memoir/whatever.
I worry most about beginnings and endings....The middle, generally, can take care of itself.
I think it's a pretty good idea to have multiple projects going. You can switch from one to another as your get stuck.
But my experience has been that at some point, one of the projects will catch fire and take over all your time. If that happens, just go with it—you can get back to project B later...
I'm writing a sequel to Normal School. It takes place in 2020 and features the pandemic and Trumpism and ghosts.
I haven't generated any new material on it in about six weeks. I'm just too tired. But I have @45000 words, so I work on revisions every day.
And—last weekend I pulled out an old project and worked on it for a couple of days.
There's always something to do. As busy as I get, there's always 15 or 20 minutes a day for writing....
And 15 or 20 minutes a day is enough.
A page a day is a book a year.
You can republish a story in a book, no problem. In fact, I'd say that's encouraged! Some journals will take previously published work—always check their listings in Novel & Short Story Writers Market.....
I read a lot of student stories, and I see the army of characters as a real problem.
When there are too many people in a six-to-eight-page story, there’s not enough space for the secondary characters to be even flat characters. They're just names on the page.
And the fact that they stake up valuable narrative space means that the protagonist is given less to do....
Well, both. Sort of. But you need good work for your buddy to promote.
Good writers come out of the slush pile all the time. But you have to put yourself in a position to benefit from any publication.
Hence my encouragement of Literary Citizenship.
Be active on social media, and support other writers. Let people get to know you.
Try pushing ahead. The work that is forced is just as good as the work that flows. Can't tell the difference.
But—you can always skip the tough spots (make sure to update your outline) or bypass a stuck place for something easier.
(Me—I usually force my way through the tough spots).
I'm a total oddball and outlier—I look at genres as mostly marketing. (Which has its place, of course). On my level of pen-to-paper, I just write words....
No—you're fine!
And—a lot of people do this. I'm thinking right now of the Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls. The book opens with the protag laying on pine needles in a forest watching people, and the last scene...there he is again.
(His life has changed a lot in the previous three days!)
So—a form of circularity.
You can easily do this in a short story or novel. When you're dreamstorming your outline, just work the circularity into it....
I have a list of seven books I need to write before I die. So—I'm racing the clock.
I'm 62—will I get them all done? Will my physical and mental health hold out?
We'll see!

Revision advice from the great Megan Abbot, from her Twitter feed....

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I Answer Some Questions About Writing VII

11/27/2020

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Giving thanks for the defeat of the traitorous slaver armies in 1863....

All the exciting answers, none of the boring questions...Thanksgiving Edition!

Turkey legs & turkey leg pie!
I've written a Holiday/Christmas story—it's in my book Burnt House. It's pretty grim!
I didn't want to drive a cab any more....
People have appetites; how do they sate those appetites?
When people dine together, they talk. Food gives them something to do. (A lot of dialogue I read seems to take place in a vacuum).
Also, food is itself intrinsically interesting for most people. (Always be looking for ways to connect with an audience).
Be humble.
Big picture hope: I'd like to see America healed. It's going to take some time!
Personal hope: I hope I live long enough to get all my books written. (Which might take a long long time and that’s fine!)
But there will always be a demand and desire for stories.
I miss hanging around the Teacher's Bar and bragging about my students!
Basically, what I said upthread—cultivate Humility and Patience.
Writing doesn't happen overnight. Many young writers find this discouraging.
Humility will win the day.
And I would encourage all of you to follow Lev Nikolayevich's example—be excited about your next project!
I've learned to adapt and survive (so far).
Horror.
Everything is equally easy or difficult, depending on the writer's state of mind....
But here's some advice: don't wait to tell your stories!
So I sat on it, and waited until I was "good enough."
And I never wrote it.
I should have written it immediately! It would have sucked, but who would have cared? (Other than my ego).
Moral of the story: don't wait! Write—now.
Everyone needs to read more.
Those of you who already read a lot need to read more.
Those of you who don't read a whole lot need to read more.
Every book you read helps build your Writer's Toolbox. You'll be able to see all the options you have as a writer.
I think just about everything is important enough to write about—if the writer takes their writing seriously.
Understanding what a story is, and making it happen....
Go with what's in your heart. That's vague—but true.
What poems do you feel strongest about?
Activities: keep a journal. It doesn't have to be complicated and sound like the all-knowing voice of whatever. Just write down your observations about what you see and experience. It can be a list. Or photos!
(Actually, if you use social media, you are in fact keeping a journal).
The world is always changing and slipping away. Notice the changes! (It takes practice).
Develop HUMILITY and PATIENCE.
It takes a long time to get really good at writing fiction. A writer's ego and perfectionism can in the way.
And also be PERSISTENT.
Pretend to care.
Make it a game. In the end, everything you write is just words.
Watch how one scene flows into another. Look at how the dialogue is edited and cuts from one character to another. Look for how setting is used. Look for how it is lit and filmed. Read the movie like a writer....
I don’t buy it.
I’m seeing the Stranger as an idealized romanticized personification of America itself. The Cowboy! Honest, straightforward, kind, respectful. How America sees itself reflected through media/Hollywood....
That may not be factual, but it's True enough to be a starting point for a novel or a film....
Though I wouldn't want to hang around with him....
The drugs are definitely making him irrational.
There are easy-going, good-hearted stoners everywhere.
I see him as the innocent victim of capitalism….
Nihilism is the denial of the value of reality, so here the nihilists are the cats-paw of capitalism, which believes in nothing outside of profit/greed/gain....
I liked it. Dark and funny.
We've had some grim readings and viewings this semester—I thought it might be nice to close with a comedy....
The War on Drugs has been a catastrophe for our country.
Food.
This job is easy when you have a lot of great students!

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I Answer Some Questions About Writing V

10/23/2020

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All of the answers, none of the questions....

I think an occasional ALL CAPS might work. Italics are the usual way of emphasizing.
Be careful—readability is very important....
Guilt won't get your book written—it just makes you feel bad.
Find something that makes you feel good—knitting, fly fishing, basketball, old movies, video games....
The process of learning something is for me the best part of any activity....
Playlists for books are a great idea….
Do it.
The "real" person will be transformed by the magic of imagination and the exigencies of the story into a "fictional" person.
My response was pretty basic—don't base your characters on people who will be hurt.
Your life as you live it is your most precious writing resource. Don't be afraid to use it.
What does your focal character see? There's your description—maybe, if it's needed
I actually think Tolkien was doing this….
The best novel? Oh—War & Peace, by my boy Tolstoy.
You'd don't want your best writing buried where no one will notice it!
Setting is always important, unless your characters are floating around shapeless in a formless void. They are some place.
Remember—the BODY is also a setting....
Probably The Great Gatsby, for the punctuation.
Yes—I am inspired by em-dashes and commas!
I may have talked about this before....

Shelby Hearon, my first creative writing teacher: "It's never the book in your head."

Larry Heinemann, my last creative writing teacher: "Revision is where the money is."

You can tag the dialogue through action or setting, too.
What are your characters doing while talking? What are they seeing?
Read it backwards, aloud.
This removes the context of the paragraph, and you can see (hear) each sentence in all its glory/ignominy.
Fifty-one years, ha!
You have to be persistent.
I think foreshadowing is best accomplished as an aspect of revision.
In your first draft, going forward, it's more important to just get to the end.
They disappear into the background—which is what we want.
Obvious isn't always bad, and what's obvious to you—the author—isn't necessarily going to be obvious to the reader....
Are they talking on the phone or face to face?
They could be walking, shooting zombies, fishing, watching tv, washing dishes, sitting on the can, shopping, driving, in church, in a meeting, fighting—they could be doing whatever it is people do....
Also—it's important to think: are they actually listening to each other?
I mean, really—how many times do people actually fully pay attention to one another?
Good question! I'm trying to figure this out myself!
Try going for empathy.
No one is really frightened.
I would keep moving forward and get the story written and then look critically at what you have.
Do you really need a backstory with past relationships? Maybe—but maybe not.
You take something you've written that has a lot of problems (all texts are flawed) and then you fix the problems.
It takes time and attention and is really rewarding.
I think the aging process has left me more easily distracted than I once was.
The problem with writing is that life gets in the way.
How much time can you afford to spend on writing? For most of us—not enough.
Having a roof over your head and food in your belly is probably more important than writing!
A lot of writers do practice writing….
It's great to treat yourself when you accomplish something! Everyone needs to do this!
For me—champagne and turkey legs!
Many years ago in a class like ours I wrote a story I thought was pretty good. But I know now it was a good student story....
I know for a fact that at the time I wrote it, I didn't know what the heck I was doing….
There are any number of writers who have gone down the road of pomposity.
The best writers—the best revolutionaries, the best eye doctors, whatever—are informed by a sense of humor.
My advice--always be aware of the absurdities and ridiculosities. And embrace them.
My whole life up to the point I finished...?
The difference is—LIFE.
A LOT OF TIME.
Just keep going down one path or another until you find the right path....
DO NOT DELETE ANYTHING! Keep all your variations. Trust me—you have room on your hard drive.
Each round of revision I focus something else—dialogue, setting, transitions, colors, textures, whatever....
Write a story with a strong beginning.
From looking out the window, from the things I see in life. From dreams. From snippets of people talking that I overhear. From things I learn....
I look at a situation and ask, "What if...."
There are often big big BIG differences between "Truth" and "Fact."
The highly personal voice is always very engaging. You can do a lot with a memoir
Do you have a citation for that?
(I could also be stupid!)
Borders are interesting—they are where things come together, and where things come apart....
Life gets in the way. You just have to do the best you can with the time you have....

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My Second-Greatest Teaching Innovation...

2/24/2018

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…is just a collection of PowerPoint slides.

Years ago I was teaching a section of the American lit survey, Colonial through Civil War, and I found myself facing a really common problem: that when at the end of class I said, “Okay, for next time—” and before I could say “we’ll be reading Emerson" or whatever, the room would be filled with the sudden thunder of Young Scholars getting ready to flee—closing their books and laptops, sticking things into their backpacks, moving their desks, talking…and no one—not even me!—could hear the detail of my reminder of the next reading assignment. It really is common—I remember this happening back in my long-ago undergrad days, too.

It was very annoying. But what to do?

I began talking about the assignments at the beginning of class. “Okay, today we’re reading Emerson. On Wednesday you’ll be happy to know that we’re not reading Emerson—we’re reading Whitman.” (I had a lot of sad Emerson-haters in that class).

The oral announcement at the beginning of class worked better at the beginning of class than at the end. But then I had my brilliant innovative idea—put the schedule on slides!

So I did, and it works great. I’ve been doing this now for about six years or so.

But no one ever really acknowledged the greatness until this week, when a Young Scholar said, “I really like your slides.”

Damn. That’s just about the nicest thing anyone has ever said to/about me.

So now I’m sharing my brilliant innovation with the world. Below are the slides for my current ENGL 345 class, “Writers’ Studies: Prose.” I post the previous week, the current week, and the coming weeks, along with anything else the scholars need to know….

(I just noticed a typo on the slide for the 26th--but that just adds to the authenticity of my presentation, no?)

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What the Scholars Write About II

1/13/2018

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Tropes Themes Things Stuff

I continue to keep a record of what the young writers in my creative writing classes write about. I started this about two years ago and I've found it to be enlightening and fun and sometimes moving. Of course there are some things I'd like to see less of (depression stories and waking-up-at-the-beginning stories) and some I'd like to see more of (real places and jobs). The list is of course highly subjective--someone else reading these stories might come up with different categories. What I've learned since starting this project is that any trope/theme/thing can make for a good story--that the overall quality of a story derives from how it's told. In the end I love them all--good, bad, indifferent.

Based on @670 stories
(Listed as (ranking) (thing) (number of examples))

1          real place       118
2          student          79
3          love/misc      73
4          violence/misc           61
5          drugs/drinking        60
6          job      58
7          meet cute      52
8          cell phone      46
9          depression     39
10        driving           37
11         kids     36
12        kid focal         35
13        eating 33
14        memory         32
15        non-pet critters        31
16        sex/lust         31
17        texting           29
18        car wreck       28
19        weather         28
20       breakup         27
21        waking up      26
22        waking up/beginning          26
23        pet       24
24        cancer/illness/injury          23
25        grief    23
26        nature/outdoors      21
27        knocked on head/Pippen    20
28       friendship      19
29        death/self      17
30       religion          17
31        sports 17
32        death/parent 16
33        death/spouse-fiancé           16
34        light out for territories        16
35        murder          16
36        theft/robbery           15
37        dream 14
38       music 14
39        social media 14
40       death/misc   13
41        gltb     13
42        mental illness           13
43        sexual assault           13
44        aging 12
45        start with dialogue 12
46        abusive parent          11
47        death/child   11
48       death/sibling 11
49        divorce           11
50        ghost 11
51        war/military 11
52        infidelity        10
53        magic realism           10
54        death/friend 9
55        death/suicide           9
56        kidnapping    9
57        stalker            9
58        travel 9
59        vomit/feces/menses 9
60       farming/ranching    8
61        psycho            8
62        fantasy           7
63        computer       6
64        death/grandparent 6
65        games 6
66        generations   6
67        getting engaged        6
67        dystopia         5
69        jail      5
70        motherhood 5
71        politics           5
72        reading          5
73        secret family 5
74        tv         5
75        amnesia         4
76        bad date         4
77        immigrant     4
78        pregnancy      4
79        race/ethnicity           4
80       torture           4
81        western          4
82       abuse/misc   3
83       crime/misc   3
84       drowning       3
85        funeral           3
86       shopping        3
87        writing           3
88       abortion        2
89       art       2
90       birth   2
91        cadaver          2
92        fairy tale        2
93        homelessness           2
94        letters/correspondence      2
95        reincarnation           2
96        trains 2
97        coma 1
98       comedy/misc 1
99        critter POV    1
100     explorer         1
101      false identity 1
102      hospital          1
103      life change     1
104      parenting       1
105      psychic           1
106      revenge          1
107      science fiction           1
108     wedding         1

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They Built a Wall Around Texas

10/17/2016

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What My Students Write About: A List

9/24/2016

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Tropes Themes Things Stuff

A pile of stories

At the end of Fall Semester 2015 I was reading student creative writing portfolios when I noticed a surge—a spate—of stories about young people getting engaged.

The stories were all pretty much the same—girl and guy out for dinner, then they take a walk around the neighborhood, and then the guy suddenly drops to his knees and offers the girl a ring, and the girl cries. The end. There were six of them out of one class.

I realized I had noticed similar spates of stories over the years, and so I was inspired to start keeping track of what I was reading. Just a simple list of whatever the writer appears to think is important to their story. And—I love it. All of it—all of the stuff my students write about, good or bad or whatever. Some of what I notice is thematic (boring engagment stories), and some of it is just stuff—things—that gets repeated in multiple stories. I’m aware that it’s a highly subjective list, that a different reader might well notice different things, or classify the things differently. Yet I just find the list fascinating and wonderful. I wish I had been keeping records like this for the past 15 years or so…..

Anyway—here is the list, based on approximately 251 stories my students have written this last year….

(Listed as (ranking): (thing) | (number of examples))

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Student Engagement

1/16/2016

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I had terrific students in all four classes last fall--enthusiastic, lively, smart, and hard-working. Here are a few photos I took over the course of the semester....

Don't you wish you were in one of my classes?

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A Passage from My CW Syllabus

8/6/2014

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Very early in the semester students become aware that I usually begin almost every class by saying something like:

“So—what’s going on today?”

I ask this question with the hope that a student will speak up and tell me something they have done since class last met. Maybe the student will have had an adventure—gotten arrested or fallen in love—or maybe they will have done something as mundane as taking out the trash. If no one volunteers a story I’ll usually ramble on with a story or three of my own.

Every semester there is a student or two who are very annoyed by this in-class storytelling. They really do get mad! I can see it in their eye-rolling in-class faces and I can really see it in their end-of-the-semester class evaluations.

I find their annoyance both amusing and sad.

I find it amusing because these students are apparently unaware that the class will last a mere 50 minutes no matter how many stories get told.

I find it sad because these students are apparently unaware that stories are at the very heart of what we do in class. Whether through poetry or prose, this class is devoted to increasing our individual and collective understanding of the world we live in. And stories are one of the most important ways we gain this understanding.

Remember this at all times: You have a voice. Your voice is unique. No one knows the stories you know.

Time is limited. Time is running out. Someday, sadly, you will be dead and your untold stories will die with you.

So: seize every chance you get to tell your story....

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I Answer Some Questions About Writing XI

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I Answer Some Questions About Writing VII

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My Second-Greatest Teaching Innovation...

What the Scholars Write About II

Tropes Themes Things Stuff

They Built a Wall Around Texas

What My Students Write About: A List

Tropes Themes Things Stuff

Student Engagement

A Passage from My CW Syllabus

Lowell Mick White

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