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Summary Slide. Week 1- Getting Started. Week 1- Getting Started. By now, you should have completed three tasks:. Week 1- Getting Started.

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Summary Slide

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  1. Summary Slide • Week 1- Getting Started English 70 A/B

  2. Week 1- Getting Started • By now, you should have completed three tasks: English 70 A/B

  3. Week 1- Getting Started • Attending the orientation, where you have met me and your peers, obtained your password for the course and familiarized yourself with WebCT, the vehicle WVC uses to implement on-line courses. English 70 A/B

  4. Week 1- Getting Started • Reading the syllabus to understand the course objectives, expectations and schedule. English 70 A/B

  5. Week 1- Getting Started • Reading the first chapter of the text, Writing Fiction by Janet Burroway. This should indicate the goals of this week, which is simply to get started. English 70 A/B

  6. Week 1- Getting Started • Some of you, but perhaps not all, have taken creative writing courses before. • Some of you, but not all, already consider yourself to to be writers. • But all of you, regardless of your level of experience, at some time or another, will need help getting started. English 70 A/B

  7. Week 1- Getting Started • Chapter One suggests several methods for you to begin: free writing, clustering and journaling. • I’d suggest that you use all three. English 70 A/B

  8. Week 1- Getting Started • As I prepare this course for you, I am also in the process of completing my novel; so that while I am writing these lectures, I will be sharing with you the challenges that I face daily and the methods I use to overcome them. English 70 A/B

  9. Week 1- Using A Journal • As a writer, I keep several journals – one for personal writing which I write in daily. • Another for each project (yes, each project) that I am working on regardless of the stage that it’s in. In it, I write down ideas for characters, plot, setting, dialog, book references and various ideas for research. • In addition, I keep a journal for poetry. I am awful poet but it’s good creative exercise for me. English 70 A/B

  10. Week 1- Keeping A Journal • I INSIST that you keep a journal for the purposes of this course, if you do not already keep one. • This is the place where your ideas are born, allowed to gestate and to be nurtured. English 70 A/B

  11. Week 1 – Keeping a Journal • No, you will not be graded on this and I will not be asking to read it. • The journal is between you and your muse. Often you will find your inspiration there – the ideas that fascinate, terrorize and tease you. • Write whatever you like. It is a particularly useful place to do your writing exercises. English 70 A/B

  12. Week 1 – Using Free Writing • I often use free writing when I get stuck. • When I’ve gotten an idea; but I’m not sure what to do with it. • Free writing allows me to explore several ideas without really committing to one. • I think of it as causal dating. I’m checking out options, seeing whether I like them or not. • I don’t have to commit to any one. • If I see one I like, then I can develop it fully. English 70 A/B

  13. Week 1- Using Clustering • I happened to use the clustering method this week when I found that I had difficulty writing a scene. • I found I didn’t understand my characters’ motivations and as a result, couldn’t write dialog that was honest and real. English 70 A/B

  14. Week 1- Using Clustering • I used the method as described on p. 7 to try to understand why my characters were making the the choices they were making. • It helped me to focus my attention and get to the center of the scene. English 70 A/B

  15. Week 1- What I Learned • It’s important to allow yourself the opportunity to create. • All of these methods, including those not discussed in the book, serve only one purpose and that’s to get what’s in your head onto paper. • Writing is a courageous act, if it is done honestly. That is what makes it a challenge. • These methods are simply ways of overcoming our fears of revealing ourselves. English 70 A/B

  16. Week 1 – Choosing A Subject • I believe that writer’s block is simply a form of fear and that even ‘not knowing’ what to write about is a form of fear. • This isn’t a criticism; it’s the voice of experience. • I’ve been ‘blocked;’and I know now that I was really just afraid of what other people would think. English 70 A/B

  17. Week 1- Choosing a Subject • I am going to suggest that we use the anonymity of our course to our advantage. • Let us write the things we wouldn’t have to courage to write if we could see the face of our audience. • Let us write as if we are in the dark and our pens are the only light. English 70 A/B

  18. Week 1- Choosing a Subject • In Chapter One, Burroway offers several suggestions about subjects. • One of the most important things that she reminds of us of – is that writing is about getting the truth. English 70 A/B

  19. Week 1- Choosing a Subject • Regardless of your genre – literary, sci-fi, memoir, romance or suspense – your one obligation is to the truth that is the spine of your story. • Poets already known this. English 70 A/B

  20. Week 1- Choosing a Subject • I will be giving you many prompts during the course of the semester. To these, I will expect you to respond. • I want you to view these prompts as a beginning. • In each and every prompt, there is an opportunity for you to explore the urgings of your imagination. English 70 A/B

  21. Week 1- Choosing a Subject • It is vital that you find a way to write what you are passionate about. • That is still possible when you are writing an assignment for a class. • However, that should not discourage you from exploring other subjects or expanding and developing ideas as we go. • Remember your journal! English 70 A/B

  22. Week 1- Other Suggestions • Set aside an area to write. It doesn’t matter where. I am currently using my laptop on a cardboard box because I just moved. Just do it. • Act like a writer. Give yourself permission to write. Make time for it. • Collect the tools of a writer: dictionary, thesaurus, magazines, writing partners, etc. English 70 A/B

  23. Week 1- Other Suggestions • Read as much as possible, both to enjoy and to learn the craft. • Write every day. • Think small. You don’t have to write a novel in a day or even 6 months. A paragraph or two every day will add up. English 70 A/B

  24. Week 1- Let’s Start • Journal Suggestion: As I stated, you should write in your journal every day, but sometimes we all need a little push. • This week you might try the Writing Exercise on p. 28 of Writing Fiction. English 70 A/B

  25. Week 1- Let’s Start • Please go to Assignment for your first prompt. English 70 A/B

  26. Week 1- Let’s Start • I’ve also posted a discussion question that you are expected to respond to before the end of the week for credit. English 70 A/B

  27. Week 1- Let’s Start • I’ve also posted some personal comments on the reading under Lenore’s Reading Journal. English 70 A/B

  28. Week 1- Let’s Start • Have a great week. Please contact me if you have questions. end English 70 A/B

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