presentation, exercises and next week's assignments. SFCC, Jan. 30 Intro to Fiction Spring 2020

1. Today!
 Roll Call!
 Discussion about writing
 Writing exercise
 Read out loud writers we brought to class (we’ll continue
next week)
 Discussion about sensory details and other craft elements
from “Seeing is Believing”
 Discussion of “Without Inspection” by Edwidge Danticat
 Sensory detail writing exercise
 Review next week’s assignments

2. Dear Julia,
 Don’t forget to ask about end-of-semester reading event!

3. The writing life: “Forget inspiration.
Habit is more dependable.”—
Octavia Butler
 Fear
 Habits and conditioning; what works for you
 “Why I Write”
 Journals
 Freewriting
 Fact versus truth: “Words are not experience” (p. 11)
 Prompts and exercises (in class and on your own)
 Prepare the conscious mind with the habit of work (p. 16)

4. Let’s do one of the exercises: 5
minutes
 P. 21, Exercise #7: Pick one of the prompts and free write a
page. Don’t think too hard. Just write:
 After supper he would always…
 In my favorite photo…
 But why did she have to…?
 I took one look and…
 That little space made me feel…
 Then the door opened and…

5. Reading as a writer
 Read “the way a young architect looks at a building, or a
medical student watches an operation, both devotedly
hoping to learn from a master.” (Garner, p. 18)
 Read by focusing on craft, the choices, methods, ad
techniques of the author
 Analyze individual moments
 Analyze for theme: What is this story about about?

6. “What you read is as important as
what you write.” —Margaret
Atwood
 John Gardner, “write the kind of story you know and like
best.”
 This becomes more attainable when you know something
about the writing you like
 How are the stories told?
 How do they use language?
 How do they speak to what you care about?
 Let’s hear some. Read two to three paragraphs out loud and
share why you’re drawn to it.

7. #1 Rule Most Likely to
Hear in a Creative
Writing Classes
Hint:
Show, don’t ____Truth: You need to do
both

8. Chapter 2, Seeing is Believing,
Showing and Telling
 Fiction tries to create the emotional impact of actual
experience.
 Unlike other forms of art, it does so by using words to
create: feelings, ideas and images.
 Various writing techniques help accomplish this.

9. Sensory Details
 Writing is more effective when it’s specific.
 Concrete details appeal to one of the five senses.
 A detail is significant if it conveys an idea or a judgement or
both
 Sensory means simply that: appealing to one of the senses:
sight, sound, smell, taste, touch
 Mann example, p. 23, lacking example, p. 26

10. Using details to show emotion
 Just as characteristics should be rendered with detail, so
should emotion.
 Avoid labeling emotions in writing; rather, try to describe
them with sensory details.
 P. 33, Tom Perrotta, “The Easy Way”
 “I stood perfectly still and let the news expand inside of me,
like a bubble in my chest that wouldn’t rise or pop. I waited
for anger or grief to fil the space it opened, but all I felt just
then was an unsteadiness in my legs, a faulty connection
with the ground.”

11. Specifics to aid plot & theme
 Concrete details also play a role in foreshadowing the plot
and underlining the theme of a story.
 Chekov’s famous statement that a pistol shown in the first
act should be fired in the third. Use concrete physical
objects as plot devices.
 Details also can be used to reinforce the theme of a story.
Imagery and metaphor evokes larger ideas.

12. Filtering
 This concept can be hard to grasp, and in a way becomes a
little more relevant when we start thinking more about
point of view.
 But, for now, p. 34, consider the ways in which the writing
cited takes the reader further away from the character’s
consciousness.
 Cutting away filters=more vivid writing

13. Active Voice
 Active voice keeps the prose lively—passive voice is
monotonous, and should only be used purposefully:
 The guard beat the prisoner (active)
 The prisoner was beaten by the guard (passive, but with
purpose)
 Active verbs have the same impact in prose as concrete
details: they show rather than tell.
 She ate a cookie vs. She wolfed down a cookie.

14. Rhythm
 A good rule of thumb is to vary the length of your
sentences to create energy and texture in prose.
 But rhythm can also be used to reinforce the emotion by
creating a tempo that works with what is happening in the
story.
 Long sentences can slow down time, for example.

15. Show v. Tell Exercise
 15 minutes:
 Pick an emotion and write it down at the top of the page
 Now, pick a setting. Describe the setting from the point of
view of a character subsumed with the emotion you chose.
Don’t tell what the emotion is. Try to convey it through
description
 Quick note on in-class writing: Use the time! Always. Keep
writing.
 We’ll read these out loud without revealing the emotion
and see if others pick up on it

16. “Without Inspection” by
Edwidge Danticat
 Questions we will ask for every story, including the ones we
workshop
 1. What happens in the story (to make sure we’re on the
same page)
 2. What is it about about? (theme)
 Identify examples of sensory details
 Identify significant details
 Other observations?

17. Next week’s
assignments
 Chapter 3, “Building Character:
Characterization Part 1” in Writing Fiction.
 Read “Bullet in the Brain” by Tobias Wolff.
 Read "Cat People" by Kristen Roupenian
 Come to class prepared to share your
observations from both stories as they
relate to the craft reading on
characterization.
 We will also have an in-class writing
assignment from WF. We will also
continue hearing excerpts from other
writers you brought to class last week.