(no subject)
My Point of View class has turned out to be a success, I think. My one friend sits right next to me and sometimes huffs or puffs when she doesn't like something. She is very refined and would be horrified to think this was the case, but I hear her there. She has HIGH standards and is the person I most fear disappointing. She so often looks like she's getting nothing out of discussion -- and yet I feel there's enough there for someone to get something. We talked for a long time about narrative distance, how diction and time and content are all shaped by the narrator's distance from the material -- and they in turn create distance -- the difference between "The house stood at the top of the hill between two elm trees," and "Acorns. Falling all around you. In your hair, under your feet, snapping you on the head." A rich discussion with far more passages to choose from than we could possibly discuss. So I went home thinking, WELL. They had to learn something from THAT.
And now! Now I have eight folks signed up for my beginning fiction class. They are all new to me (and new to fiction, most likely) so LORD KNOWS WHAT I WILL DO WITH THEM. I will almost certainly have to wine and dine them the entire first class, as no one will have anything to turn in. So. I need to think in terms of stimulus. What gets a beginning writer going?
To be honest, I have no idea.
Tap into deep memory? Focus on conflict? Give them photos and let them freewrite? Good God, I have no idea! I have all my fiction textbooks out here on the bed, piled high. I give them desperate glances now and then. The rest of the time I just stare at the cat, who is sleeping the sleep of the greatly wounded. Poor kitty. We have been messing with her schedule, trying to break her of the nasty four a.m. antics that get us up every morning. Mostly we've just confused and unsettled her. What happened to trust? her little face says. I thought we had a good thing going!
Cats are near impossible to comfort.
And now! Now I have eight folks signed up for my beginning fiction class. They are all new to me (and new to fiction, most likely) so LORD KNOWS WHAT I WILL DO WITH THEM. I will almost certainly have to wine and dine them the entire first class, as no one will have anything to turn in. So. I need to think in terms of stimulus. What gets a beginning writer going?
To be honest, I have no idea.
Tap into deep memory? Focus on conflict? Give them photos and let them freewrite? Good God, I have no idea! I have all my fiction textbooks out here on the bed, piled high. I give them desperate glances now and then. The rest of the time I just stare at the cat, who is sleeping the sleep of the greatly wounded. Poor kitty. We have been messing with her schedule, trying to break her of the nasty four a.m. antics that get us up every morning. Mostly we've just confused and unsettled her. What happened to trust? her little face says. I thought we had a good thing going!
Cats are near impossible to comfort.