An update from our fifty-fourth Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, February 4 This week, we discussed another fundamental building block of writing: characterization. Characterization is how a character is revealed through language, or the “‘dramatic’ methods writers use to imply the qualities of characters,” Conner explained. Indirect characterization is a way of describing a character according to what he or she does, and this is where we turned our focus today. We read three examples in literature, including Cathy’s first appearance in John Steinbeck’s East of Eden, in which her manner of chewing meat with her front teeth is described and no mention of her physical appearance is made. Because most people begin with physical descriptions, it is more interesting to begin with behavioral descriptions when introducing a character, Conner advised. As a mini-challenge, Conner then gave students three adjectives—creepy, arrogant, and shy—and one minute to write one sentence for each in which they used indirect characterization to reveal a character who embodied that adjective. The Challenge: Write a “meet” scene (in which one character meets another character), focusing on the details that each character notices about the other. Think about action rather than how they look! The Participants: Anushka, Amaya, Samarina, Yueling, Emma, Katelyn, Ava, Aarush, Lindsay, Genevieve, Lucy, Jacey, Catherine, Stella
how stories work
How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #52: Micro Fiction
An update from our fifty-second Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, January 21, plus some of the output published below In our first workshop of the new year, we were so happy to see many familiar faces, as well as many new ones. Conner began the workshop by reading three examples of micro fiction—“Sticks” by George Saunders, “Give It Up” by Franz Kafka, and “You Know, Quiet” by David Gaffney. Then, Conner asked students to outline characteristics of micro fiction based on these examples. Students concluded that some key features of microfiction are that the brevity of the pieces forces readers to “think about the title, and the “iceberg technique” is used, meaning much context is left unwritten. Conner advised students to move fast, start in the middle, introduce few characters, and choose words carefully, using few to no adjectives. As a mini-challenge, Conner then gave students one minute to write a prompt based on the examples of micro fiction they had read. The Challenge: Using one of the prompts from our mini-challenge, write a piece of micro fiction. The Participants: Lindsay, Anushka, Amaya, Genevieve, Seva, Lucy, Catherine, Yueling, Stella, Ava, Srujana, Lina, Emma, Arjun Where’s My Coffee? Arjun Nair, 11 I didn’t get my coffee this morning. They said they were out of milk, so I walked right in and checked for myself. This made me mad all day, and I even ripped some important documents up. Later today, I was fired. I tried to explain to my boss that there was no coffee, but he didn’t want to hear it. I took his coffee mug with me as I walked out the door.
How Stories Work—Writing Workshop #51: The Ghazal
An update from our fifty-first Writing Workshop with Conner Bassett A summary of the workshop held on Saturday, November 26 Somewhat of a theme for this fall session, this week we focused on another example of form poetry: the ghazal. In a ghazal, we learned, the poem is written in an unlimited amount of couplets; each couplet is grammatically complete—there is no enjambment; each couplet ends on the same word or phrase; and, in the penultimate or ultimate couplet there will be a proper name, and often the poet refers to themselves. We read five ghazals: “Derecho Ghazal” by Luisa A. Igloria “That’s My Heart Right There” by Willie Perdomo “Rain” by Kazim Ali “It Is with Words as It Is with People” by Anthony Madrid “Wight” by Stanley Plumly The Challenge: Write your own ghazal. The Participants: Benedetta, Alice, Allie, Emma, Anushka, Aditi, Arjun, Ella, Madeline, Russell, Savi, Tate, Penelope
