ASFA Fiction Workshop - Fall 2008

Background for Folder Fodder

2008-11-03T10:22:00.001-08:00

Read this article.

Now. Write a fictional letter in the persona of John McCain or Barack Obama. Address the letter to his opponent in the current presidential election. Set it ten years in the future. Whomever you choose has lost the election. Have him express a revealing, private anecdote about his childhood. The closing salutation should be "With warm personal regards and admiration, ..."

Mary Robison

2008-09-28T19:29:00.000-07:00

A little info on Mary Robison, whose story "Pretty Ice" we'll discuss at some point. (Probably this Friday? Maybe next week?) Robison has been called a "minimalist." We'll talk about that concept when we talk about the story.

Programming Note

2008-09-19T07:27:00.000-07:00

On the column to the right, you will find the conference and critique schedule for the remainder of the semester. I've adjusted things a little: we'll critique two stories a week and I'll conference with two of you each week. That means two-thirds of you will have some form of draft due on Friday mornings.

Here's how the week will look:

Monday -- Conferences/Receive critique drafts
Tuesday -- Talk about published story
Wednesday -- Critique
Thursday -- Critique
Friday -- Receive reading assignment/Conference & Critique drafts due

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Shirley Jackson

2008-09-19T07:23:00.000-07:00

The next famous American short story we'll read is "The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson. You may have come across it before; you may come across it in the future. That's because it's famous. But I already said that. We'll talk about it on Tuesday. I want to think about it in terms of Plot and in terms of so-called Realism. Should be a hoot.

James Baldwin

2008-09-07T19:07:00.000-07:00

Here's a little bit about James Baldwin. He's, like, a famous writer and stuff. And his "Sonny's Blues" is one of his particularly famous stories. Read it and we'll talk about it on Wednesday and/or Thursday. Think of it in terms of our essential elements of fiction. Jot notes in the margin. We'll go through each element and see what you've observed. Sounds like fun, yes?

Story Idea #2: Images

2008-09-07T19:00:00.000-07:00

Write a page or so on each of the images below. Don't worry about all the elements of story just yet. Simply describe what you see for a while and see if that leads anywhere. When you've done that for each image, pick the one that seems the most promising and make a full-fledged story out of it. Of course, print out all you write and turn it in. I'll start keeping a file of all the stuff you do this semester.

2008-09-07T18:33:00.000-07:00

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Strategies for Revision

2008-09-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

Revision gets a bad name. Most people think of it in terms of copyediting: "correcting" grammar, spelling, and other surface-level issues.

Fiction writers understand that writing is revision, and revision is writing. Revision is re-seeing. Taking a new look from a new perspective.

That's what you're doing with the "show-and-tell" story. That's why I want you to actually print out the new versions (at least some of them).

Here's how I suggest you proceed from here on out:

1. Read what you've got in your latest version. Just read it, without taking pen(cil) to paper. The whole thing.

2. Think about the areas you've worked on so far. Have you addressed them to your satisfaction. Are there things you missed? Note them in the margins.

3. Pick your next area of focus. Make notes in the margin, cross things out, add things.

4. Go and make those changes on the electronic copy. Allow yourself to add and riff, but only focus on that area. Even if you see something that's driving you crazy in another area -- you can address that next.

5. Return to the most recent printed version, this time focusing on a new area. Again: make notes in the margins, cross things out, add things.

6. Make the changes to the electronic copy.

7. At this point, print it out again.

8. Lather, rinse, repeat. Focus on two distinct areas, then print out and "re-see."

9. A word of advice: save "Voice" and "Intention" until the end. Even if you've already addressed them, you're going to do it at the end again anyway.

10. At the "end" you're going to have to revisit all the areas anew. Have any of your changes required changes in other areas? If not, you may not be re-seeing things as dramatically as you could.

You're going to turn in your latest version (wherever you stand on it) at the end of class tomorrow.

The Elements of Fiction

2008-08-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

So that we can share a vocabulary for talking about stories, here are a few essential elements of fiction:

Intention: On some level, we all finish reading a story and ask ourselves -- and the author -- "So what?" Good stories leave you feeling like you can answer that question, like you know why you just read them. Sometimes there's a specific, tangible reason and you can summarize it in a sentence or two. My favorite stories tend to be those that leave me with just an intuitive sense of why I read them. I "feel" why they're important. And they seem to be about a lot of things while maintaining a certain simplicity and accessibility.

Beginning: All stories start somewhere. Most good ones, in my experience, start with a vibrant sensory image, a compelling action, and they leave me with an open-ended question. Beginnings are supposed to spur you to keep reading, and the combination of those three things (image + action + open question) will almost always do just that.

Ending: And all stories end. Or at least all stories stop. Stories that truly end -- and end well -- have the quality of resonance. When a sound resonates, it echoes for a while after the note has been struck. Think of a bell. There's the initial ding and then there's the sound that issues forth. Sometimes that sound can last a long time after the ding. It's sort of the same with the end of a story. The story comes to a close -- the "ding" -- but a good story lingers with a reader long after she's put it down. Often it helps you to make new connections to other elements of the story, and if you're really lucky as a reader, it helps you make new connections to what it means to be human.

Details: In a way, this is the starting point. No matter what, great stories (great writing of all kinds) appeal to the five senses. The absolute best way to do that, hands down, is to use a predominance of interesting nouns and verbs. Adjectives and adverbs tend to be abstract (difficult to touch and taste and hear and smell and see), while nouns and verbs are concrete. You access them through and with your body.

Plot/Organization: All good stories are well-organized and most good stories have some sort of plot. Plot means that every cause has an effect. Somebody does something and that causes another thing to happen. Which causes another thing to happen, and so on. Stories are well-plotted when those causal sequences lead to a significant change in the essential elements of the story. Usually that change occurs in the main character.

Character: And that -- change -- is the crucial way to understand character. Characters change. At the very least, they have the clear opportunity to change and, for whatever reason, turn it down. Either way, this change (or lost opportunity for change) leads to real consequences for the character, positive and/or negative.

Setting: Setting is sneaky. It's really a support mechanism for two of the other elements, Details and Character. Knowing where in the world the story takes place -- and rendering it in an interesting way -- does more than half of the work in creating believable characters and giving a reader lush sensory details.

Voice: Voice is the most difficult to define element. It's also arguably the most important one, especially if you're going to follow Tenet #4: Make it interesting. Voice is about the idiosyncratic choices you make as a writer. The vocabulary you use. The details you choose to describe. The characters you choose to populate the story and the aspects of them you choose to focus on. Also your thematic preoccupations and obsessions. It is, by definition, subjective. It is how you get "you" on the page.

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Bread Loaf Blog #5: What Day Is It, Exactly?

2008-08-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

If you're anything like me, you're mentally exhausted. I've had a great conference up here--learning all about the readin' and the writin' and the thinkin'--but I'm also at a bit of an overload.

Just wanted to remind you of where you stand and what's due (I know some of you aren't even there right now, so there's only so much help this will be...).

And don't forget to vote about the apples!

Bread Loaf Blog #4: Robert Frost's Apples

2008-08-19T11:39:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this post and cast your vote for one of the most important issues of our time!

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Bread Loaf Blog #3: What's Your Story About?

2008-08-19T11:30:00.001-07:00

That's a trick question, of course.

Interestingly enough, the editor of Brad Watson's short story collection, The Last Days of the Dog-Men, gave a talk here a couple of days ago. She was talking about how difficult it is to get a short story collection published these days because they don't sell as well as novels do. The way she sometimes gets around that problem is by presenting a collection of stories as somehow linked. And, of course, Watson's collection features dogs prominently in all of the stories. What was cool, though, was this little tidbit: Brad Watson didn't even recognize that all the stories he submitted to her featured dogs so prominently.

You guys have just read one story from that collection, but if you'd read them all, you'd be astounded that he didn't intend all along for this to be a collection where dogs were the thread tying all the stories together.

Moral of the story? Intention is overrated. What your story is about and what you think your story is about are often two different things.

And that's totally okay.

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Bread Loaf Blog #2: Edward P. Jones

2008-08-15T08:10:00.000-07:00

Also yesterday: I went to a reading by Edward P. Jones and was instantly smitten with his work. Ran out of the reading immediately and bought his newest book from the bookstore here. It's a book of stories called All Aunt Hagar's Children, all set in Jones's hometown of Washington, D.C. I grew up in the D.C. suburbs, so that had something to do with my instant connection with him. But also the quiet grace of his voice -- both in the "real" world and on the page. He's an interesting dude. Check out this interview for more about him and his work.

Bread Loaf Blog #1: What Fiction Is

2008-08-15T07:55:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, I had my first workshop meeting at this conference. Like you guys, I'm in a fiction workshop, so it's fun to turn the tables a little bit and be in the position of the student. My teacher is a writer named Robert Boswell. So far he seems to be extremely smart and insightful and very well-read. Even better, he is also approachable -- he doesn't throw any of those attributes in your face.

At any rate, here a few nuggets of Robert Boswell's wisdom from the first day:

Tension drives a story. A good story either exceeds or upends a readers expectations.
The end of a good story feels simultaneously surprising and inevitable.
Details grow out of necessity.

Think about the stories I gave you to read (Bass and Watson). Do they adhere to the wise nuggets above?

Hope you're doing well in my absence! Have a great weekend...

What You're Supposed to Be Doing

2008-08-12T07:14:00.001-07:00

A quick summary of your assignments while I'm away:

Write your show-and-tell story. It will be due by the end of class on Monday, Aug 25. You will have some time to work on it in class that day, but don't wait until then to start on it.
Read the stories by Bass and Watson. We'll talk about them on Monday, Aug 25.
Start thinking about a favorite book you want to bring into class and share with us. You'll bring it in and we'll talk about our favorite books on Thursday, Aug 28.

What I Think About You

2008-08-08T10:00:00.000-07:00

For better or for worse, depending on your perspective, I don't make a distinction between the creative writing classes I teach during specialty period and the ones I teach during the rest of the day. More important, I don't make a distinction between the creative writing students in said classes. You are ASFA Creative Writers. Period.

That means you can expect me to take your work seriously and to engage you as a fellow writer.

That means I expect that you will do the same: take your work seriously and engage yourself as a fellow writer.

I also expect you to do the same with me and with your peers in the class.

A Typical Week

2008-08-08T09:46:00.000-07:00

As this is a workshop, our main concern is writing and critiquing work-in-progress. We will, of course, supplement that work by considering published stories and talking about the craft of fiction writing in general.

Here's how a typical week will go:

Monday
Individual Conferences / Receive Weekly Critique Packet & Reading Assignment

Tuesday
Individual Conferences / Discuss Assigned Reading

Wednesday
Critique

Thursday
Critique

Friday
Conference & Critique Drafts Due

Submit drafts to my ASFA e-mail account -- tjbeitelman(at)asfa.k12.al.us -- using your own ASFA e-mail account.

A few other notes:

Stephen King says the only -- only -- way to learn how to write is to write a lot and read widely. I don't know about "only," but I take his point.

You will have what I call "studio time" throughout the week, depending on that day's activities. Here are the three appropriate uses of "studio time," roughly in order:

1. Work on your next conference or critique draft.

2. Read something I've assigned.

3. Write/Read for yourself. The creative, mindful (as opposed to "destructive, mindless") kind of writing/reading. Those are admittedly subjective terms, so if you are unsure of what I mean, just ask. I'm probably going to err on your side, though, because I basically agree with Stephen King: the most important work you do as a student of writing is the stuff that's self-directed.

The most common goof-off excuse is that you'll do your creative writing work at another (presumably better) time and place. Okay. I know feng shui's important. But your ASFA creative writing assignments are really only a gateway to your writing life. That whole vast world is yours to make alone, and this (here, now) is such a golden opportunity to get started. See the last sentence in the paragraph above.

An Important Early Programming Note

2008-08-08T09:30:00.000-07:00

With that said, the first two weeks are going to be anything but typical: I'm going to Vermont, and at least a few of you will be retreating at various times.

From Aug 13 through Aug 24, I'll be attending the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. Eleven days of workshops, craft lectures, and readings by a range of well-known writers in all genres. Indeed, timing could be better and I apologize for the disruption, but this is a unique opportunity for me. I'm looking forward to getting back on the other side of the workshop table, so to speak. I'm prepared to be humbled and inspired. And, yeah, I hold out hope for a little validation. All necessary fuel for any lifelong student of writing. I'll let you know how it goes. Maybe zap a couple of blog posts up here re: the fresh-baked Bread Loavian goodness.

So what does all that mean for you? Means I'm basically out of your hair until Aug 25, and you'll have plenty of time to read, write, and think in the interim.

TCOB?

2008-08-07T10:15:00.000-07:00

Take a look at this post on the Nonfiction workshop blog. Applies here as well. It's actually the single biggest factor in your success this semester.

Your Mission (Part I): Read

2008-08-06T10:34:00.000-07:00

Read the Week One packet, which includes "The Legend of Pig-Eye" by Rick Bass and "Seeing Eye" by Brad Watson. Be prepared to talk about both stories when I get back. Think in particular about sensory details, and anything you particularly liked or didn't like. Also think about connections you can make between the two stories.

Your Mission (Part II): Write

2008-08-06T10:26:00.000-07:00

Using at least two items from show-and-tell, write a story that has a beginning, middle, and an end. Aim for between 3 - 5 pages (double-spaced, 12-point Times New Roman). Remember the elements of fiction that we talked about in class. You'll turn this in by the end of class on Monday, Aug 25.

Your Mission (Part III): Think

2008-08-06T10:22:00.000-07:00

A three-parter:

1. What makes a story good? Make a list of all the things you like about stories. Think about some of your favorite stories. What do they have in common?

2. What do stories do? I'm going to leave that open-ended and let you interpret the question using your own terms and experiences.

3. On Thursday, Aug 28, bring in a beloved book of fiction. Be prepared to read a short passage you particularly loved and to tell us what you loved about it (and the book).