Tonight in Creative Nonfiction

Please remember to bring copies of your first essay to class to share for workshop. Have your copies ready to distribute at the beginning of class. (No printing and stapling during class, o.k.?)

Before we begin workshop, we'll discuss the week's readings and I'll give a short lecture ("The Building Blocks of Creative Nonfiction"). We'll do one in-class writing exercise, too. Please remember to put any in-class exercises into your Prompts binder for credit.

We should be able to workshop a few pieces tonight. Workshop comments should be designed to help the writer revise his/her work. You'll each have a chance to revise your piece before you submit it to me for a letter grade.

You may choose to focus your comments by discussing some of the concepts we've covered in class so far. These include (but aren't limited to):

*  Voice -- Does the author sound like him/herself? Why or why not?

*  Interest -- Does the author demand the readers' attention right from the first sentence? How interesting is the piece to you? What makes it interesting or what interferes with your interest?

*   Focus -- Is the piece tightly focused on one or two moments? If not, how might the writer sharpen his/her focus here?

*  Character Development -- How well are the characters in the piece developed? How well do you feel you know them? What do the characters (including the writer) want? Consider character development through scene, action and dialogue. How are these techniques working here? Which character do you feel most connected to and why?

*  Scene -- Locate and highlight or underline the scenes in the piece. Are they active and vivid? Why or why not?

*  Dialogue -- How effectively does the writer use dialogue to tell his/her story?

*  Luminous Details -- Locate the nouns/details in the piece. How vivid are they? Do they propel the story forward and add layers of meaning to the narrative? Why or why not?

*  The So-What -- Is the So-What/Artifact of the story clear? If so, locate a moment on the page that reveals this.

*  Self-Discovery -- Locate a moment where the writer seems to have a moment of discovery.

*  Overall Technique -- Is the piece well-written? Does the writer show technical expertise? Are there any basic grammar problems you can point out to help make the piece better?


Assignments for next week:

Please read through and comment on all the other pieces we didn't get to tonight in workshop. That way we can move quickly next week.

Please also read ENCYCLOPEDIA OF AN ORDINARY LIFE.