Fiction Project Due date: the finished version is due in your chapbook at the end of the term. Points possible: 15 Length: roughly 7-15 pages

Evaluation Criteria for All Options

Length: roughly 7-15 pages.

15-pt. scale:

A = 14-15
B = 12-13
C = 10-11
D = 8-9

A = outstanding. Meets all of the stated criteria and instructions exceptionally well. Excels in inventiveness, originality, and energy, realitve to work produced generally in 323. Well-edited and proofed, and shows careful revision and improvement over the writing process. Probably publishable with a bit more work.

B = very good. Meets all of the stated criteria and instructions, or meets several of them exceptionally well, despite a weak performance with others.. May be especially striking in spots, despite noticeable flaws. Very competent, but may lack originality or inventiveness, relative to work produced generally in 323. Shows revision and improvement over the writing process. Good attention to style and mechanics. Clear attention to assignment.

C = fair. Meets some of the stated criteria, or meets all of them only partially. Uninspired but minimally competent; or very inspired but lacking competence in key areas.. May show some inattention to, or misunderstanding of, instructions. No evidence of revision and improvement. Weak proofreading and editing.

D = poor. Meets few of the criteria. May not not heed or understand instructions. May be sloppy, unproofed, unedited, and/or very perfunctory and uninspired.. An ineffective story, saved by at least minimal attention to at least one facet of the story.

F = unacceptable. Story either fails to meet any of the stated criteria, or demonstrates severe oversights or weaknesses in significant areas.

ASSIGNMENT Life is not what one lived, but what one remembers and how one remembers it—in order to recount it. —Gabriel Garcia Marquez Many well-established writers have observed that "profound" writing with universal appeal is often attained only when a writer attends honestly to the simplest, nearest, and most particular details of his or her everyday life. Develop a short story drawn from some event in your life, past or current, and possibly set in your own hometown. This event does not have to be spectacular or sensational, and it should not be one which you necessarily or altogether understand.  Take care not to go after something too large in scope or duration.  A single brief encounter or exchange between two people can suffice. Use a simple, chronological plotline. You may use flashbacks and other techniques, but if this is your first experience writing a story, keep it simple. Make this a character-driven story, and try to make vivid the details of place—whether a farm near Hawley or a house in the suburbs of Minneapolis—and to give the lives of people there definition. Your characters should be at least loosely based on actual people you've known, and the narrator's voice very close to your own, everyday speaking voice.  (I.e., write the way you would talk to someone in the local market at home, or to any close acquaintance.)  Finally, take care to avoid sentimentality and stereotypes.  Try writing this story using the 3rd person point of view, either limited or omniscient. If you decide to use 1st person, be sure you understand that the narrator is a character in the story, and that he/she is fictional, not strictly biographical. You may and should, for this assignment, draw on your personal autobiography in creating this character, but this person will not, strictly speaking, be you. Stories from our class library which may be useful: "Sonny's Blues," "Cathedral," "How to Tell a True War Story," "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?" You might also look up some of the stories of Sherwood Anderson, for instance, as classic examples of an unusual and very unsentimental perspective on rural life, or try Sinclair Lewis, John Steinbeck, William Faulkner, or Flannery O'Connor.  See also any number of contemporary writers, such as  Kate Braverman, Kathleen Norris, Joy Williams, Richard Ford, and Thomas McGuane. Purpose: to practice finding or making stories out of your experiences with honesty and lack of sentimentality. To practice using vivid, specific, sensory detail, developing believable characters and dialogue, and structuring a well-paced plot. To practice character-based stories. To understand how narrators function in fiction.

Keep It Simple...but if you feel confident, you may consider the following options:

Option #2: Those People

Option #3: Those People (II)

Write a story from the point of view of someone who is culturally, racially, sexually, or otherwise very different from yourself. A young Muslim girl or boy? A 40-year old sugar-cane worker in Cuba? A 97-year old, blind cleptomaniac? (Ok, it doesn't have to be quite that extreme...Actually, you might create a character who has just one important—and believable—difference from yourself.)

An alternative would be to write a story from the point of view of someone who is socially marginalized, without a voice, relegated to the edges of the culture or community. Someone that we just don't really "see."

Purpose: to understand literary art as an excursion into uncomfortable and unknown subject matter.

Option #4: Flash Fiction The short-short story, only 250-300 words. If you select this option, you'll need to complete at least 5 stories. Click here for info, guidelines, and stories in the microfiction or flash fiction mode. Purpose: to practice brevity; to experiment with form; to learn the full value and resonance of every word in a story.

Option #5: Formula Fiction

The following project is not intended to encourage writing by formula, but to maybe help you recognize stock literary patterns in the marketplace, as well as your own tendencies toward standardized writing.  This type of fiction can also be fun, and a number of "serious" writers throughout the years (William Faulkner, Dorothy Sayers, Thomas McGrath) have played with it a bit.

• Using "Reading Fiction" as a guide for this project, write up a list of instructions (a "tip sheet") for some kind of popular formula story that you've observed in novels, TV shows, or movies.  How is the plot always patterned in this sort of story?  Who are the usual, predictable characters?  What are the stock scenes and how is the style consistent?  To get started, you might consider a Harlequin Romance or science fiction novel, the Die Hard film series, or perhaps a TV soap opera or situation comedy.  Be sure to list thorough instructions for all of the story's major elements: plot, characterization, setting, themes, and style, and try to make your tip sheet as detailed as the one handed out in class.
  
• Now try writing a story based on the formula you've analyzed, taking care to follow the instructions you outlined in your tip sheet. (Note: this exercise very easily turns into parody—which is fine, though you should first try it with complete seriousness.) Be sure to develop the scenes completely with adequate detail (do more than merely outline or sketch the story), keeping an eye on your own instructions and watching for further examples of this formula out beyond the classroom.  Try to write something that a publisher would actually buy.

(As a follow-up idea to this project, you might rewrite the scenes you completed above, but this time with an eye to innovation: try to alter the standardized patterns enough to refresh the story and re-challenge, re-engage your reader.  You might introduce some odd, unexpected character, or maybe you could execute a turn in the plot that would never normally happen in the particular formula story you are working with.  Feel free, finally, to improvise as much as you wish, rewriting the story entirely if you so choose.)

Purpose: to help you recognize marketplace formulas and (hopefully) avoid or appropriate them for really creative purposes.

Option #6: Minimalism

Write a short story in a "minimalist" style, ala Raymond Carver, Richard Ford, Anne Beattie—or the father of them all, Ernest Hemingway.  This style relies heavily on simple, declarative sentences, its protagonist is likely anti-heroic and possibly simple-minded, the writing is very concrete (little abstract reflection or exposition), and the overall approach is laconic, compressed, indirect, and understated.  Use what Heminingway calls the "technique of omission," in which leaving many things UNSAID gives what IS SAID special force.  Examine the Carver story we discussed in class for help, and perhaps read/reread some Hemingway as well.

Purpose: to practice brevity; to learn the full value and resonance of every word in fiction; to begin recognizing and working with irony (understatement).

Option #7: The Anti-Heroic Protagonist

Keeping in mind the protagonist of Ray Carver's "Cathedral,"  write a short story in which the central character is somehow less educated and world-wise than yourself, and perhaps to varying degrees corrupt in some way.  This character should not be so flawed as to be completely unsympathetic or evil, but should be a less-than-admirable individual who is possibly not even aware of his or her failings:   narrow-mindedness, dishonesty, egocentrism, gullibility—whatever.  (The reader might be able to see these weaknesses, even though the character himself cannot.)  What, do you suppose, are the benefits for the writer of creating such a character?  What are the effects on the reader?

To develop this sort of ironic and anti-heroic protagonist believably, you might take a look at the character- development tips in your Harmonious Confusion packet.

Purpose: to understand literary art as an excursion into uncomfortable and unknown subject matter; to challenge your understanding of "character" and "hero"; to understand literary art as an ethical examination of the self.

Option 8: Magical Realism

"I admit that two-and-two-makes-four is an excellent thing, but if all things are to be praised, I should say that two-and-two-makes-five is also a delightful thing." —Fyodor Dostoevsky

DO NOT ATTEMPT THIS WITHOUT READING ACTUAL SAMPLES AND EXPLORING THE GENRE. IT IS NOT THE SAME AS FANTASY OR SCIENCE FICTION.

In "magical realism,"  the setting for a story is realistic, but elements of the fantastic, irrational, or hyperbolic are suddenly or steadily introduced:  a horse in an otherwise realistic setting begins to talk; an average, everyday South American village receives a visit from a man with wings; the corpse of a beautiful, eight-foot man washes up on a beach; a vegetable garden on the edge of a quiet town becomes fantastically wild, etc.  You might find scenes that tease credulity, or that exaggerate selected images almost comically—without forgoing a realistic base altogether.  I.e., stories in this genre are NOT set in an entirely imaginary landscape or world. The effect is a sort of warping or defamiliarizing of everyday reality, or a reality which mixes everyday rationality with dream logic. 

Compose such a story. 

Note: It's especially important that you investigate sample work in this mode, in order to do this option well. Magical realism is not the same as fantasy or science fiction. Check out this very good web site on magical realism, and look up some stories by Alberto Rios (his book Pig Cookies is wonderful), Angela Carter, Tadeusz Konwicki, Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabelle Allende, and others).

Movies to check out: Like Water for Chocolate, Big Fish, Being John Malkovich.

Click here for a good piece which defines Magical Realism.

Purpose: to learn about and practice a "fanciful" form which is unlike the formula sci-fi and fantasy you may be used to.

Option #9: Plot Devices

SOMETHING TO TRY ONLY IF YOU ALREADY HAVE EXPERIENCE WRITING CHRONOLOGICAL PLOTS.

Write a short story in which you practice at least three plot devices in a more-or-less chronological narrative:  framing, flashbacks, false leads, deliberate showing and speeding of pace,  etc. 

Or try the following:

a) a story with a nonchronological plot (a montage, for instance, or a story made up entirely of flashbacks);

b)  a story with multiple or intersecting plots (this might be too long and involved for the time you have, but you could at least get a start on it);

c)  a story with no plot, or virtually no plot, at all.  Note:  for this option to be successful, there necessarily must be some extra reliance on something other than plot to give the story interest:  character, setting, point of view, imagery, dialogue, etc. 

Purpose: to learn about plot possibilities; to practice a variety of plotting skills; to learn about the ways in which perception is shaped by narrative strategy.

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