now that we've had some time to warm up, in unit II we will practice. stroke, stroke, stroke--either the stroke of a pen, the stroke of the keyboard. the purpose of this unit is to give us a chance to do more than simply "begin"--and so the exercises here, and the readings, are geared to shaping the raw materials of free-writing into more readable, polished pieces.

we will also begin to offer constructive criticism to each other, since we've had some practice at critic-speak in unit I

Sept. 19 (T)

We will be using Peter Elbow's options for getting feedback to set up
critique groups in our class, and using Guin's questions as a guide
for our critical analyses.  Each group will be given an anonymous
piece of writing to criticize, and we will work in class on critic-speak.
 

HOMEWORK for Thursday: Exercise 3

Take a sentence from your free-write of Exercise 2, or
any other sentence you might desire,
and write a full narrative page, the beginning of
a story, using it as the jump-off point. Bring two
copies and the original to class.

Sept. 21 (R):  in-class critique
 

HOMEWORK for Tuesday: Exercise 4

Dialogue is an important aspect of any good piece
of fiction but it is also one of the hardest things
to write well. In this exercise, you must create
a dialogue between 2 people who are having a conflict
BUT neither person in your piece is allowed to mention
what that conflict is directly, and there can be no
use of description. Dialogue only, with, of course,
directions to the reader as to who is speaking

Thus, the reader must come to realize that there is
stress between these two people, without being told
what the conflict is about.
 

You are free to create whomever you want, but you
will also be required to stick with these people in
future assignments.

BRING FIVE COPIES OF DIALOGUE TO CLASS.

HOMEWORK for Thursday: Read online The Informer: An Ironic Tale
Come prepared to comment orally on the story as a piece of writing,
using Le Guin's questions as your guide.

Sept. 28 (R)  Discuss the story.
 

HOMEWORK for Tuesday: Come to class prepared to write.

October 3 (T)  In-class writing exercise: rhyme & words & tales
 
 

HOMEWORK for Thursday: Exercise 5

Exercise 5: Choose the first line of a poem you admire, and use it
to start off a short story or a chapter of a novel--get as far into the story as you can go.
Be sure to give me the poem, too, even if it is one of your own.
 

HOMEWORK for Tuesday: On two separate pieces of paper, write two nouns. Any two nouns. Bring the two pieces of paper to class.

October 10 (T)  In-class writing exercise: beginning again
 

HOMEWORK for Thursday: read "The Perils and Payoffs of Persistance" in WHC

HOMEWORK for Tuesday: Exercise 6

Exercise 6: Revise and try to extend exercise 3 to a conclusion
Bring 2 copies of it to class

HOMEWORK for Thursday: Read and critique the two pieces you have been given;
write the critique out and return them to the author; give a copy of the critique to me.

October 19 (R) continue
 

HOMEWORK for Tuesday: Read A Conversation With My Father by Grace Paley