Alfred Noyes wrote this famous poem when he was twenty-four years old; it took him about two days to finish the final draft.  It is set in 18th Century England and focuses on a young robber who is in love with the local landlord's daughter.

He was inspired by his own setting (he was staying in a cottage in a desolate Scottish heath) in order to create the spooky, dreary setting of his poem.

After reading and studying "The Highwayman" today, write your own poem in which you pay homage to a particular type of man.  See the examples on previous blogs for ideas.


Post your poem for Monday!

Your Brain Fills in the Gaps

Sometimes writing teachers suggest that you shouldn't provide too much detail because your reader likes to provide some of it herself. Think of the times you were offended by a movie version of a book because "It's not the way I pictured it."

When we read a novel or a story, we are in essence collaborating, because we embellish, in our minds, what the author has provided.

It is also understood that our brains, ever creative, will immediately work to fill in details that are missing.  Have you ever:

--Seen someone and started to imagine a backstory for him or her?

--Been given part of a story and found yourself writing the rest?

--Been told one thing, like, "Gretchen had a sad life," and started to imagine what that entailed?

Let's test the ideas above by giving your brain something VERY LIMITED to work with. Then you will write a paragraph providing the rest of the detail--the who, what, why, when, where and how.

Here we go:

TWO PEOPLE ARE LEAVING A BUILDING.

Creative Writing Class!

Meet Sabrina Woods

Sabrina Woods

--She has strawberry-blonde hair

--She wears the same pair of socks every day

--She has almond-brown eyes with specks of green

--She is twelve

--She plays soccer

--She has a black cat named Roger

--She is best friends with her teacher, Mr. Pickles

--She enjoys finger painting on walls

--She has a green thumb

--She is terrified of elevators

--She has two older brothers


First paragraph of Sabrina's story:

     Sabrina Woods hesitated at the elevator; she needed to get out of the store, but she didn't want to take this intimidating form of conveyance . . .

Most Memorable Characters

These are the characters that our class finds memorable.

MISS HAVISHAM, Great Expectations

One memorable detail: her crumbling wedding attire and frozen clock.

VOLDEMORT, Harry Potter series

Sinister, attempted to kill a child, interesting backstory

JAY GATSBY, The Great Gatsby

Mysterious, wears a ring, throws extravagant parties

PRESIDENT SNOW, The Hunger Games

Symbol is a rose; he starts the games and rules the districts

ATTICUS FINCH, To Kill a Mockingbird

Smart, Moral, Good father figure.

LUNA LOVEGOOD, Harry Potter

Radish earrings, copies of The Quibbler, "Loony Lovegood." Gentle, honest, direct. Expressed uncomfortable truths.

SAM I AM, Green Eggs and Ham

Didn't want to eat the gross breakfast. Stubborn.

WOODCUTTER, Red Riding Hood

Emerges from nowhere, saves the day.

JUNIE B JONES, series

B stands for Beatrice. Calls her teacher Mrs. Ridiculously funny. Has a dog named Rufus.

ELOISE, Eloise series

Lives in a hotel; has a nanny; "Nanny has a mole."  Orders room service. Pampered. Funny.

MADELEINE, series

Lives in an orphanage; lives in Paris; raised by a nun; red hair; hat; smallest girl

CORDUROY: series

Missing a button; nobody wanted him; seen as defective, but the girl loves him.

Creative Writing Scholarship Opportunity

Please consider sending your material to the LUMINARTS contest. https://luminarts.org/creative-writing-opportunities

The deadline is Friday, but it's a great opportunity to make some college money.

Today's task:

Ask at least five of these questions of your partner. Then ask at least ten of them of your CHARACTER. Post the results.

http://thewritepractice.com/proust-questionnaire/

ATTENTION!

Please post your sonnet and your odes by Monday.

Have a nice weekend!

Happy Birthday, William Shakespeare!

Today, in honor of this great playwright and poet, we will examine the sonnet form.

After studying the Shakespearean sonnet and its rhyme/rhythm scheme, try composing your own!

Generally, the Shakespearean sonnet is a love poem.

Be sure to celebrate Shakespeare's birthday this Sunday!!

What's your favorite Shakesperean play? And your favorite line?

The Junk Drawer

The junk drawer can tell us a great deal about the person who owns it. Detail ten items in the junk drawer of your character (this can be a new character or one you've written about before) and explain briefly how each item got in the drawer.

When you are finished with this, explain why ONE of the items bothers your character and WHY.  Maybe it's a library book that she didn't return. Maybe it's a murder weapon that she hid there.  :)  

Tomorrow we will discuss the one object that bothers your character the most, and this will lead to a particular character story.

Women's Spaces

Here's in interesting article from She Writes, a women's writing magazine. Note the way it takes our idea of writing spaces, or Virginia Woolf's notion of "A Room of One's Own," and expands it into a modern-day examination of gender, writing and equality.

Universe Poems

Now that you've considered point of view and perspective via the Powers of Ten video, take the word association notes you made and create a free-verse poem. If you wish, you can Google images from the Hubble telescope to remind you of some of your ideas.

Your poem can go in any direction, but if you could link it loosely to the idea of the universe, that might add profundity.

Consider also this quote, originally attributed to Carl Sagan, suggesting we are all made up of stars. This version was written by Vincent Cronin:

"Our bodies contain three grams of iron, three grams of bright, silver-white magnesium, and smaller amounts of manganese and copper. Proportionate to size, they are among the weightiest atoms in our bodies, and they come from the same source, a long-ago star. There are pieces of star within us all."

Perhaps this, too, might inspire your poems!!

Story Workshop: Show, Don't Tell

The first batch of stories were full of creative topics and ideas!

There's one basic writing rule that you will all want to apply in revision, however:

SHOW, DON'T TELL. 

So what exactly does that mean? Simply this: when we hurry through our writing, we have a tendency to lock the reader out of the experience by simply TELLING them what happened--as though we are summarizing our own story. What we need to do to make it better is to let them inside the story's world so that they can experience everything--the sights, sounds, smells, and dialogue. This is SHOWING them the fictional world we created.

Here's an example:

TELLING

Tom told Stella he was going to surprise her after the dance and that they needed to take a ride. She got into his pick-up truck and they drove in silence for a while, holding hands. She asked him what was going on and he said she'd find out. Finally they turned down a little side road and she asked him where they were going. He pointed up at the sky, and she saw the stars.

So--interrogate this writing. Do you care about either of the characters? If not, why not? Do you care about what they're doing and why? Do you feel involved in the story? You shouldn't, because this narrative is just TELLING you what happened. Readers don't want to be told. What is the point of reading if we can't DISCOVER? Do you want to be TOLD that they're saying things to each other, or do you want to hear what they're saying?

SHOWING

Stella walked out of the dance on Tom's arm. She had never loved him more than she did tonight, even though they had been dating almost a year. His reddish hair was messy and his face was flushed from dancing and laughter, but she thought he looked very handsome. She squeezed his hand more tightly as they moved out the double doors. 

The parking lot was weirdly silent after the chaotic pounding rhythms they had danced to in the gym. All she heard now were some distant traffic sounds and a buzzing from one of the streetlights. "I had fun," she said. "Thanks for inviting me."

He peeked over his shoulder to make sure no chaperones were watching, then stole a kiss. His mouth was warm, his breath peppermint-scented. "Who else would I invite? You're my Stella."  He hugged her against his side and they made their way toward his truck.

"I hate to go home," she said. "This has been so much fun."

Tom's eyes crinkled the way they always did when he had a secret. She stopped. "What? What are you up to?" The wind rustled the skirt of her long cornflower blue dress; it had made her feel like a princess all night long. She remembered her mom's face when they had looked at it in the store. The price tag had made her frown, but then Stella had come out of the fitting room and her mother's eyes widened. Oh honey, that's the one!

"We can't go straight home. We have one more thing to do. Climb in the royal pick-up, M'lady."

Stella laughed. "Thank you, M'lord." With his help she climbed into the passenger seat, tucking her gauzy skirt around her and setting her little blue purse on the floor. The cab was cold, but Tom's heater usually warmed up quickly. The upholstery smelled like Mr. Dalton's cigarettes, but it was familiar and beloved. She leaned against the headrest and closed her eyes.

She opened them when Tom got in and started the engine, sending her one sweet smile. "It won't take long, but it will be worth it," he said.  She reached over and smoothed down some of his mussy hair.

"Okay. Drive on. I can't wait to see what our little detour is all about."

They drove for a while in silence, holding hands and watching the ribbon of road unfurl as they drove out of the town, with its bright lights and garish billboards. Tom drove until they could see cornfields, and then he stopped at a tiny gravel road. He put on his blinker and the pick-up crunched over the stones. They were flanked by high cornstalks on both sides, looming over them in an almost claustrophobic way.

Then suddenly the road opened up, the corn was gone, and they were in a wide field. Tom pulled onto some grass and turned off his lights. 

Stella turned to him, surprised. "You drove all the way out here just to kiss me?"

He shook his head. "Nope. To give you a present."

She stared at him, uncertain.

"You told me what your name means. Star. Stella for Star. And you've been my bright star for a whole year."

"That's sweet."

"Yeah. So as a present, I'm giving you the stars."

He jumped out of the pick-up and came around to her side. "Come on down. Okay. Now look up."

It was so dark she could barely see him standing in front of her, but when she threw her head back she gasped with wonder--she saw a million bright diamonds against a black velvet sky. 

"You can't see them like this in town. But here--you get a real view of God's sky. I wanted to give it to you," he said.

Now interrogate this text. Do you care more about these characters? Do you have opinions about them? If so, why?  What prevented you from having them before?  

What can you see, hear and smell in this story? 

How is Stella's viewpoint made clear?

Now let's workshop some of your scenes of showing vs telling. The class can give valuable suggestions about how to open up the text for your reader.

Over the Break

Don't forget that over the break you are:

1. Creating your Writing Space slideshow

2. Working on your short story!!

3. Filling in any missing work (missing poems are currently recorded as zeroes). Contact me when you put something on your blog so I know to go back and read it.

Have a great break!!

Poems and the Palimpsest

pal·imp·sest

ˈpaləm(p)ˌsest/

noun

1. a manuscript or piece of writing material on which the original writing has been effaced to make room for later writing but of which traces remain.

   • something reused or altered but still bearing visible traces of its earlier form.

     "Sutton Place is a palimpsest of the taste of successive owners"

   
   

A palimpsest ia highly poetic notion because it juxtaposes the past and the present, making the poet contemplate time and change.

Write a poem entitled "Palimpsest" and post it on your blog.

Check for all missing work and post it tonight!!

Here is our little friend reciting "Litany," a Billy Collins poem.

Collins said that his poem was inspired by the first two lines of someone else's poem, and he suggests that this is an "act of courtesy" to the other poet.

So we will be courteous to Billy Collins, by creating homage poems in the basic style of his. In the process, we will focus on analogy, metaphor, imagery, and word choice (diction).

Post your responses on the blog.

Fun with Storyteller!

We played a writing game called Storyteller on Friday! One result is below--look for other hilarious stories on the blogs of Kate, Ola, Emily, Ashlen and Helena.

THE UNLIKELY ADVENTURE

The little girl had never seen so many sparkling lights. Her parents had brought her downtown to see the Macy's Christmas windows. They were on a night stroll through the city when every person on State Street stopped and froze.

A T-Rex was attaching Navy Pier!

The little girl screamed, not out of fright, but out of excitement, as this was hands down the sickest thing to happen in her five years of life.

Her parents screamed at her to get in the car; they started driving as fast and far away as they could, until the T-Rex was standing right over their car. The little girl, Carrie, was convinced it was all a joke, even though her mother had fainted and her father was leaning out his window, vomiting in fear.

She had high hopes of saving the day, so she stepped out of her car and started to pet the T-Rex, but her snatched her into the air and waved are around by her fragile arm. The T-Rex was getting hungry, and ate the little girl's arm.

The little girl said, "Ow."

Suddenly her eyes opened, and she was surprised to find her 300 pound dog, Pepper, sleeping on her arm.  She was confused, because she thought her arm had been eaten. After about ten minutes, she realized she must have been dreaming.

"Pepper, I thought you was a dinosaur," she said affectionately, patting his giant smelly head.

Pepper burped, and they both went back to sleep.

Understanding FLOW

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi--there's a name for you--coined the term "flow" to describe the ultimate engagement in a task.This is something that, as creative writers, we want to contemplate. After we look at the links below, consider for yourself: have you ever experienced "flow?" If so, in what context? Is this a state of mind that would be an ultimate goal?

Discuss!

Elements of Flow

Definition of Flow (wikipedia)

Csikszentmihalyi on TED

In what environments, or in what circumstances, are you best able to achieve FLOW?