This writing activity is based on a very funny Kurt Vonnegut lecture on the shape of stories. In this project, students learn to develop compelling narratives by graphing the plots. American author Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) is best known for his book Slaughterhouse-Five (1969). In this very funny, very brilliant talk on the fundamentals of the narrative arc, Vonnegut explains through a chalk-board lecture how to graph the ins and outs of a story. Using the example of Cinderella, Vonnegut proposes a universal story structure that can be plotted with an X/Y axis. Only partly tongue-in-cheek, he suggests that most stories can be understood (and plotted) as moving from happy/sad on the Y axis (the vertical in a graph) and in time with the X axis (the horizontal in a graph) moving from the story beginning to story end. The X axis (happy/unhappy) could also be re-thought as good/bad, calm/scary, good fortune/bad fortune and any number of other dynamic pairs to shape story lines and characters. This talk is appropriate for young writers and can easily be adapted to concrete classroom writing projects. Project: Plot a story on a graph. Follow Vonnegut’s general concept of plotting a story on an X/Y axis. Have your students actually write on the graph’s curve the major plot points as the story moves from its beginning through its middle to its end. While Vonnegut’s model is for plot, this same structure can be used for character development to show how a character’s personality might change over the course of the story.
Homeschooling
Writing Activity: developing character and perspective with character sketches
This writing activity is built around 11-year-old Ella Staats’ story, “My Mother’s Little Girl'” published in Stone Soup in September/October 2012. Read the story and then work on your project, which is write a story with two lead characters. But before you write the story, write a full character development, at least two typed pages long, for each of the characters. The only place that the fictional world of your story really exists is in your head. The more you have imagined that world–what it looks like and what each of your characters is like–the more convincing your story will feel to your readers. In “My Mother’s Little Girl,” we are dropped into a family in which the daughter is what used to be called a tomboy. She likes her hair short, doesn’t wear dresses, and has no interest in playing with dolls. This puts her in conflict with her mother. So far, we can say, predictable and even boring. And then something happens. Towards the end of the story the daughter learns something about her mother’s childhood and why her mother acts towards her the way she does. You might say, towards the end of the story the daughter learns her own mother’s backstory. That is when something interesting happens. A light goes off in the daughter’s head, “Ah! So that is why my mother acts the way she does!” And I know, at that point, I found myself rethinking the story from the beginning. The whole story suddenly made sense. While neither character is likely to change, what I think the story is about is how understanding can replace misunderstanding when two characters, especially characters who love each other, can finally understand where they are coming from. I don’t know whether the author, Ella Staats, had worked out her two characters before she started the story, or if letting the daughter learn about her mother’s childhood was something Ella thought of as she was writing. Authors work in different ways. For this project, I want you to try working the more methodical way, which is to work out your main characters before you set them down in your fictional world. Project: First, read Ella’s story, to see a great example of the kind of writing you are trying to produce. Create a character sketch for two characters who are very different from each other. Think of the sketch as writing a short biography. Do your best to create characters that seem real enough to you that you can imagine several different stories in which they relate to each other. Write down what each character looks like, their family history, and their temperament. What do they each like to do? Let your imagination go. Then, when you have two people who feel real, put them together into a story. Let them interact with each other. You don’t need to share with your readers everything you know about the characters. But I think you will find that, with the main characters so worked out, you will be able to create a story that carries with it an unusual sense of reality.
A brief history of the Vietnam War
A Brief History of the Vietnam War Note: This is background history for people reading the story My Country and the Way to America written by a child who escaped Vietnam on a boat and was finally settled in America, and using the Stone Soup teaching resource associated with it. Vietnam is a country in Southeast Asia. It borders China, Laos, Thailand, and Cambodia. In the mid-1800s France conquered Vietnam along with Thailand and Cambodia. This area of French control was called French Indochina. Vietnam was therefore a French colony. 88 During World War II (1940-1945) the Japanese controlled Vietnam. After the defeat of the Japanese in 1945 French Indonesia broke up into its separate countries and in Vietnam a new war started because the French tried to reassert their control over Vietnam. Too many people in Vietnam wanted independence. The French were defeated in 1954 and withdrew from Vietnam. The story is a more complicated than this, but for a basic introduction to the Vietnam War, th war that began against the French continued after their defeat and their eventual replacement by the United States as the foreign power fighting for control of Vietnam. The United States was not trying to make Vietnam a colony, but as the victor in the war against the Japanese the Americans were looking for as much of Asia as possible to be friendly to the United States. At this time much of the world was dividing into two political camps — Capitalism where private property was the rule — and Communism where the government owned most or all of the property. Vietnam was moving towards Communism and the United States did not want that to happen. In 1973, when I was just finishing college, the United States was defeated and Vietnam became an independent country. As it has turned out communism itself changed and became more capitalistic. The US is now friendly with Vietnam. There is peace between these two former enemies. The story of the Vietnam War is long and complex. You can read about it in the Wikipedia. You may also want to look for books sin the library and discuss the war with your parents. Many Americans have very strong views about the American involvement in Vietnam. There are some who think it was a very good idea and are sorry for the American defeat. Many others think it was an awful idea, and are glad the war ended. During the time of the war there were many demonstrations in the United States against it. By the time the war ended a majority of the American people were opposed to the wear. This said, the Vietnam War stirs up strong emotions in the United States, and in other countries as well. What is important to understand for this project is that in the end, whatever the merits of war that may be declared by governments and politicians, children and their families always become the majority of victims. Wars, and in this case the end of a war, often leads to huge numbers of people fleeing. After the American defeat large numbers of Vietnamese were desperate to leave Vietnam and many escaped the country illegally on boats. Today, when I write this, it is May, 2016. One million people fled wars to Europe last year, most of them at one point in their journey crossed water on substandard boats. As I write this, boats like those described in one of the stories here are on the Mediterranean Sea heading to Europe. Many people end up drowning as do people in the story, “My Country and the Way to America.” Escape under terrible circumstances from war and its consequences is, unfortunately, something that is a universal characteristic of all wars.
