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What the Scholars Write About II

1/13/2018

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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A New Year, Alive

1/6/2018

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I was sadly and stupidly ill over Christmas break—got sick right as Fall final grading was beginning (try grading when you’re sick sometime—it’s unpleasant) and I stayed sick through the New Year. A fitting way, maybe, to end wretched 2017—worn down, with a weird and seemingly endless cold. A fucking uncommon cold. But I survived.

Helping greatly with my healing were the three Cass Neary novels by Elizabeth Hand: Generation Loss, Available Dark, and Hard Light. Cass Neary is the greatest character of 21st Century American Literature—a damaged human, knowing and cynical and resourceful and funny. One of the great pleasures of reading a novel is identifying with a character who’s about to do something you know they shouldn’t do—and you’re yelling aloud—“NO! DON’T DO IT!”—and then of course they do do it. Cass does it—whatever the it is she shouldn’t do—over and over again. Fun.

Read them.

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Ordinary Horrors

Burnt House is Coming

Writings and Editings XIV

What the Scholars Write About II

Tropes Themes Things Stuff

Writings and Editings XIII

A New Year, Alive

Lowell Mick White

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Ordinary Horrors

Burnt House is Coming

Writings and Editings XIV

What the Scholars Write About II

​Tropes Themes Things Stuff

Writings and Editings XIII

A New Year, Alive

Lowell Mick White

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Categories

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Tropes Themes Things Stuff