Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Until Gwen

UNTIL GWEN--Dennis Lehane

Agenda:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=_lXthgpRBoM

Click on this link and read (saving paper):

 

adlibris.com/se/images/UntilGwen.pdf

What does this picture say about the story?
http://www.conceptart.org/forums/showthread.php?t=76576

An interview with Dennis Lehane

theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2004/05/hookers-guns-and-money/3125/


Until Gwen Response
What about "Until Gwen" sticks out the most to you? You could focus on a scene, an image, a character, the style, the point of view, a theme--anything really. Write a perfect paragraph of 5-7 sentences in response.


Also: 


"Until Gwen"
Use the title "Until Gwen" in a sentence about the main character of this story: "Until Gwen, he ______. During Gwen, he ______. After Gwen, he ______." Do the same with the main character's father: "Until Gwen, his father ______. During Gwen, his father ______. After Gwen, his father ______." Describe the lasting impact Gwen had on these two men. Are there similarities?

At the story's end, the main character has all the means to completely re-invent himself. Financially he is secure. On paper he has no past. He is able to completely start somewhere new where no one knows him. If you could write an epilogue to this story, one year later, where would he be?

https://prezi.com/r1sge_1scfof/until-gwen/


https://prezi.com/crdywghclmvp/until-gwen/ 

http://emilysimplicity.blogspot.com/2011/12/until-gwen-by-dennis-lehane.html 
Post your comments!


Current Contests: Scholastic

Sokol--a poem and/or story
Gannon--1-3 poems

Writing in the Second Person

What is the Second Person

An example
from


Let us talk about writing, just me and you. Pull up a chair and make yourself comfortable. Pour a cup of joe, or whatever your favorite poison is. Settle in and we'll get down to the nitty gritty. I can go on for hours about this writing business, but I won't take up too much of your time today. Writing is one my favorite subjects. I'm thinking it might be yours too. Why do I think it might be yours? Well, you're here aren't you? That's a pretty good indication. I could be wrong though, and I'm more than willing to admit that. But let's talk a bit if you don't mind.

See this paragraph above? That's one way to use the second person properly, when directly addressing someone. I'm addressing you, the reader and possible writer, directly. The paragraph is written with a specific audience in mind, not a general one. I blame my first college professor for my pet peeve about the misuse of the second person. He pounded it into my freshmen skull many years ago that "you" had no place in any essay except for extraordinary circumstances. When I had him again for nearly every other English class, that lesson was simply emphasized in other writings. Other professors touched on it in literature, but he really sent it home.

I mostly blame advertisement for the misuse of the second person in new writing. I don't know how many times I have driven my family to distraction because I've absentmindedly disagreed with an advertisement. Listen to those things sometime - advertisements. Most of them are trying to target a specific market, but the way the commercials are written is so broad. The net thrown tries to catch as many people as possible. The public at large is included in the message. "You" is inclusive. The message is worded so everyone hearing it is led to believe they need that product or service by the simple use of that one little word. It's no wonder beginning writers use it in their writing; they're exposed to it constantly.

Another reason some beginning writers use the second person incorrectly is because they are "telling the tale." Most people learn to talk before they learn to write, and more people are better at telling stories than writing them. When beginning writers start to write the stories in their heads, often things become lost in the translation. Oral telling is different than the written word, and some writers don't make the distinction between what's said and what's written. When storytellers have an audience in front of them, they can say "It's so black that you can't see your hand in front of your face..." or "...the wind's so cold it'll cut right through ya." Storytellers talk directly to their audience. Even if the audience doesn't "feel" the cold, the use of the second person can bring them deeper into the story.

It can be done; Half Asleep in Frog Pajamas by Tim Robbins is a fictional novel written in second person, and there are several short stories which use the second person well, but they are rare. Also, the "choose your own adventure" genre of fiction has often been written in second person. Now that the Internet is so well established, interactive stories and many role playing forums are perfect homes for fictional stories that incorporate the second person.

In non-fiction writing, the use of the second person is commonplace. As in this opening sentence from Take Control of Your Sales by Sonya Carmichael Jones, "Regardless of your writing genre, marketing is the primary means by which your book sales are generated." This article addresses a specific audience, the book writer who wants to sell books. By inserting "you" into the article, the author attempts to draw the writer in and make the article personal. Such casual writing is routine nowadays. However, the above sentence could just have easily been written, "Regardless of genre, marketing is the primary means by which book sales are generated." Both are correct, it's simply a matter of preference.

If used properly, use of the second person can draw the reader into a piece like no other word. Such as this statement: "If you're one of the millions of people in the United States who has ever..." It is written directly to a specific audience. It attempts to hook that audience immediately. Hopefully, anyone who falls into the category of the article will read the rest of article with interest. Those who do not fall under the umbrella of whatever the article covers will most likely not read it. However, since they are not the intended audience, the use of the second person has fulfilled a purpose as well.

Using the second person is the easy way, but it can alienate half the readers in the blink of an eye. Consider an article written about some extreme sport where the author has written "... and you feel the rush of wind screaming through your hair. This is why you dig freefall, the rush..." Well, there went all of his sensitive bald readers and anyone who's never felt freefall, or those who don't "dig" it.

Using the second person can be a very powerful tool in an author's toolkit. But if it's used incorrectly it can gum up the works good and proper. Generally, try not to use the second person in an essay or a fictional story that is not aimed at a specific audience. There are always exceptions of course. What would this wonderful language be without exceptions? In my opinion, there are ways to get around using the second person - notice how I have not used it since the first paragraph except in quotations? A writer simply has to be creative. It's more fun that way. Is there a better way to enhance writing skills than finding more creative ways to say things? I can't think of one.

Well, I enjoyed this time with you. I hope you did too. Thanks for coming by and listening to me voice my opinion. It was a blast. I've got to get on to other things, but I hope you'll stop by again soon.

Take care.
from
www.writing.com/main/view_item/item_id/1200131-That-Second-Person

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

The Enchanted (cont.)/ Choreography presentations

AGENDA:

Finish reading book for Tuesday, Nov. 29

Think, pair, share and POST:

5. What draws the lady and the priest to one another? Why do you think each chose the career they pursued? How do their callings sustain them emotionally? Are they good at what they do --- even if the priest is himself fallen from grace?
6. What has being locked inside done to the narrator --- and for him? What about some of the other prisoners he watches? Do you believe in rehabilitation? Do you think our prison system today encourages rehabilitation? Is there something else we can do besides imprison those who commit crimes?
7. One of the Ten Commandments is “thou shalt not kill.” Isn’t executing someone --- even someone who committed a heinous crime such as taking another’s life --- going against morality? Why is the death penalty still used in the United States compared to most other modern democracies?
8. Do you believe that we are products of our circumstances? How much can free will mitigate terrible damage that inflicted in a person’s youth, when he or she is most vulnerable and impressionable? Why do people do such terrible things to each other and to innocent children? “There is too much pain in the world, that’s the problem,” the lady tells the priest. What causes so much of the world’s pain and can we, both individually and as a society, do to help alleviate this suffering? How much responsibility do we carry for our fellow men and women?
Presentation of Found POEMS CHOREOGRAPHY
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Friday, November 18, 2016

The Enchanted

AGENDA:

Think, Pair, Share:
Discuss and respond to these 4 discussion questions with a blog  comment that refers to text evidence.  Cite page numbers and quote from text.:

1. The novel opens with the line, “This is an enchanted place. Others don’t see it but I do.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word “enchant” as ”to attract and hold the attention of (someone) by being interesting, pretty, etc.; to put a magic spell on (someone or something).” Why does the narrator call this place enchanted? What beauty does he find in his surroundings that others do not? What does this tell us about the narrator?
2. Talk about the main characters: the narrator, the lady, the priest, and York, the prisoner on death row at the center of the story. How are these characters’ lives and their fates intrinsically connected? What do we learn about the lady and the priest from the narrator?
3. Why does York want to die and why does the lady want to save him? Is he worth saving? How does she go about gathering evidence to understand his case, knowledge that might prevent his execution? What propels her choice at the novel’s end?
4. Think about York. What were your first impressions about him when he’s introduced? As you discovered more about his story, did your outlook towards him change? How does the experience of investigating York’s past affect the lady and her outlook towards York? How does it shape how she sees her own life?

Check out The White Dawn:
https://www.amazon.com/White-Dawn-Eskimo-Saga/dp/015696256X

The lady, an investigator who excels at uncovering information to save her clients from execution. . . The fallen priest, beaten down by his guilt over a terrible sin and its tragic consequences. . . The warden, a kind man within a cruel system. . . The mute prisoner, sensing what others cannot in what he calls "this enchanted place" . . .The enchanted place is an ancient stone prison. Two outsiders walk here: a woman known only as the lady, and a fallen priest. The lady comes to the prison when she has a job to do. She's skilled at finding the secrets that get men off death row. This gift threatens her career--and complicates her life--when she takes on the case of York, a killer whose date of execution looms. York is different from the lady's former clients: he wants to die. Going against the condemned man's wishes, the lady begins her work. What she uncovers about York's birth and upbringing rings chillingly familiar. In York's shocking and shameful childhood, the lady sees the shadows of her own.The lady is watched by a death row inmate who finds escape in the books he reads from the prison library and by reimagining the world he inhabits--a world of majestic golden horses that stampede underground and of tiny men who hammer away inside stone walls. He is not named, nor do we know his crime. But he listens. He listens to York's story. He sees the lady fall in love with the priest and wonders how such warmth is possible in these crumbling corridors. As tensions in "this enchanted place" build, he sees the corruption and the danger. And he waits as the hour of his own destiny approaches.The Enchanted is a magical novel about redemption, the poetry that can exist within the unfathomable, and the human capacity to transcend and survive even the most nightmarish reality. Beautiful and unexpected, this is a memorable story.

Monday, November 14, 2016

Characterization


fiction writing exercises
Step out of your shoes with these fiction writing exercises.
I recently shared a writing exercise that encouraged you to get into a character’s head. Today’s exercise asks you to go a step further and explore characters and ideas that are your polar opposites.
One of the most exciting and challenging aspects of being a writer is creating characters. It is an opportunity to step outside of your own reality and take on a completely different persona.
Unless you’re an actor, an undercover agent, or just plain crazy, you don’t get many chances in life to do that.
Writing also lets us explore ideas and share our thoughts, opinions, and feelings on a wide range of topics. To Kill a Mockingbird addressed racism, The Da Vinci Codecritically explored religious doctrine, and The Hunger Games examined troublesome aspects of our society, particularly glam culture, class systems, war, and violence among teenagers.
As a fiction writer, there will be times when you need to get into the head of a character who is your polar opposite. You’ll need to have a deep comprehension of ideologies that are not aligned with your own. If you can’t do that, then your story will lack believability.
Today’s fiction writing exercises give you practice in stepping out of your shoes so you can walk in someone else’s.

Realistic Characters

For characters to truly resonate with readers, they must be vibrant and stir the audience’s emotions. Readers have to become attached to the characters, feel sympathy, compassion, even love (or hate) for them. It’s not easy to fabricate people (or other beings) that don’t really exist, have never existed, yet make them seem real. But it can be done.


So how do writers achieve this great feat?
Much credence has been given to the old adage write what you know. Base a character on a friend or family member or yourself. But what fun is that? If you’re an accountant by day, do you really want to play an accountant in your fantasy world too? Probably not. And when you create a character, that’s pretty much what you’re doing, playing a role. You have to get into the character’s mind, live the life, absorb the environment in which the character lives. You have to be your character, even if you have absolutely nothing in common with that character.

Fiction Writing Exercises

Each fiction writing exercise below encourages you to get into a mindset that opposes your own way of thinking or existing. Try one exercise or try them all–just make sure to have fun.
Exercise #1: Write a personal essay from the perspective of someone who is your polar opposite.
If you grew up in the big city, write as a country dweller. If you grew up on a farm or lived in a small town all your life, write about an army brat who was raised living in dozens of towns, going to different schools each year. Are you a stay-at-home, married parent? Write as a swinging single making it big in the big apple. If you’re a successful businessperson, write as a prison inmate who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks.
You can also write as your ideological opposite. If you’re Buddhist, write from the perspective of a Christian. If you’re Christian, write from the perspective of an atheist. Are you a political junkie? Write from the viewpoint of the political party you oppose.
For the essay, focus on something you have never experienced or that you disagree with. If you are from the city and you’re writing about the country, write a descriptive essay about a farm setting. If you’re a liberal writing as a conservative, choose an issue and write an essay arguing for the conservative position on that issue.
The idea is to get outside your comfort zone, and explore a different way of life or mode of thinking than the one you know. You can then use this exercise to develop a character who is wildly different from you.
Excercise #2: Write a scene with two characters who are opposites.
Create two characters: one who is just like you (write yourself into the scene if you want) and one who is not like you at all. Write a scene that explores their differences. Here are some suggestions:
  • An old-fashioned rancher and a highly successful, modern urban businesswoman are seated next to each other on a plane.
  • A Democratic state politician and a Republican lobbyist get stuck in an elevator together.
  • Someone who is devoutly religious gets into a deep conversation with an atheist at a party.
There is only one rule here: Both characters must be sympathetic. In other words, you cannot make the character who is your opposite into any kind of villain or antagonist, and neither character will change his or her views or lifestyle by the end of the scene. Your goal is to gain understanding, not make a statement.
Exercise #3: Live your dreams and realize your nightmares. 
A lot of people are terrified of public speaking. They may or may not have the desire to get up and talk to a crowd, but it doesn’t matter because their fear inhibits them from doing so. And we all have dreams–some are goals that we can or will pursue but other dreams are far-off fantasies that we know will never come to fruition.
For this exercise, you’ll write a short story or scene in first person. In the scene, you’ll do something that you’ve never done–something you may never do in reality but can certainly tackle in a piece of fiction.
Here are some examples:
  • Greatest fear: Either write a scene where you overcome your greatest fear and face the thing that terrifies you or write as a character who does not have this fear and therefore faces it with ease. For example, if you have a fear of flying, write as an airplane pilot.
  • Dreams and goals: Have you ever wanted to travel somewhere but haven’t gotten around to it? Do you hope to someday find the love of your life or become a star in your career field? Are you working toward your dreams and goals? Write as a character who is living the life you hope to live someday.
  • Fantasy: Did you ever want to be a rock star? An astronaut? A wizard? Write as a character who is living out your greatest fantasies.
The idea here is to do something in writing that you’ve never done in real life. It can be something you may still someday achieve or it could be something impossible or unlikely.

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Character Exercise

1. Character Exercise: Sketching a Protagonist and an Antagonist



We often think of them as the bad guy and the good guy or the hero and the villain, but those terms are becoming outdated as modern storytelling increasingly embraces protagonists who are highly flawed and antagonists who aren’t a hundred percent evil.
The Exercise: Sketch two characters who are in conflict with each other.
Do not identify a protagonist or antagonist, just create two characters. Both characters should have the potential to be good or evil. Start with physical descriptions, then get inside the characters’ heads to establish their inner landscapes, and finally, work up a bit of backstory for each of them. Remember, these two characters have a fundamental conflict with each other. What is it? The core of this exercise is identifying that conflict.

Scholastic contest entries!

Rene Denfeld

Rene Denfeld is the bestselling author of the novel THE ENCHANTED

* Winner of the prestigious French Prix award.  * #1 Book of the Year, the Oregonian. * Finalist for the 2014 Flaherty First Novel Prize  * Texas Lariat List  * Top #5 Books of the Year, Powell’s Books. * Indie Next Pick * Amazon Book of the Month * ALA Notable Book Award for Excellence in Fiction *Goodread’s Readers Choice finalist best novel * Foyles Best of 2014 * Harper Collins Canada #1 Fan Choice * Waterstones Book Club Pick *Longlist for the 2015 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction * IMPAC longlist International Dublin Literary Award.
A poetic examination of the causes of violence and our over-crowded prison system, The Enchanted  has garnered outstanding acclaim, with rave reviews and accolades.  The Enchanted has been praised by the likes of Erin Morgenstern, Katherine Dunn, and Donald Ray Pollock, who says, “Rene Denfeld is a genius. In The Enchanted she has imagined one of the grimmest settings in the world—a dank and filthy death row in a corrupt prison—and given us one of the most beautiful, heartrending, and riveting novels I have ever read.”
Rene has written for publications including The New York Times and is the author of three non-fiction books. The Enchanted was inspired by her work as a death penalty investigator. Rene works with men and women facing execution in addition to indigent defense. The Enchanted has been chosen for community and university reads, sparking conversations on prison reform, mass incarceration, crime and the causes of violence. The child of a difficult history herself, Rene is an accomplished speaker who loves connecting with communities.

Monday, November 7, 2016

The Enchanted discussion Questions

Discussion Questions

The Enchanted

1. The novel opens with the line, “This is an enchanted place. Others don’t see it but I do.” The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines the word “enchant” as ”to attract and hold the attention of (someone) by being interesting, pretty, etc.; to put a magic spell on (someone or something).” Why does the narrator call this place enchanted? What beauty does he find in his surroundings that others do not? What does this tell us about the narrator?
2. Talk about the main characters: the narrator, the lady, the priest, and York, the prisoner on death row at the center of the story. How are these characters’ lives and their fates intrinsically connected? What do we learn about the lady and the priest from the narrator?
3. Why does York want to die and why does the lady want to save him? Is he worth saving? How does she go about gathering evidence to understand his case, knowledge that might prevent his execution? What propels her choice at the novel’s end?
4. Think about York. What were your first impressions about him when he’s introduced? As you discovered more about his story, did your outlook towards him change? How does the experience of investigating York’s past affect the lady and her outlook towards York? How does it shape how she sees her own life?
5. What draws the lady and the priest to one another? Why do you think each chose the career they pursued? How do their callings sustain them emotionally? Are they good at what they do --- even if the priest is himself fallen from grace?
6. What has being locked inside done to the narrator --- and for him? What about some of the other prisoners he watches? Do you believe in rehabilitation? Do you think our prison system today encourages rehabilitation? Is there something else we can do besides imprison those who commit crimes?
7. One of the Ten Commandments is “thou shalt not kill.” Isn’t executing someone --- even someone who committed a heinous crime such as taking another’s life --- going against morality? Why is the death penalty still used in the United States compared to most other modern democracies?
8. Do you believe that we are products of our circumstances? How much can free will mitigate terrible damage that inflicted in a person’s youth, when he or she is most vulnerable and impressionable? Why do people do such terrible things to each other and to innocent children? “There is too much pain in the world, that’s the problem,” the lady tells the priest. What causes so much of the world’s pain and can we, both individually and as a society, do to help alleviate this suffering? How much responsibility do we carry for our fellow men and women?
9. What do you think is the worst punishment that the prisoners in the novel face being locked away? “It is meaning that drives most people forward into time and it is meaning that reminds them of the past, so they know where they are in the universe. But what about men like me? For us time doesn’t exist.” Think about time in your life and in the narrator’s. How do you respond to him? What can give a life that is not measured by the events of time real meaning? How is such a life measured? Think about not being able to touch someone or see the sky. How would that affect you for a day? A week? A year? A lifetime?
10. What happens to people when they are incarcerated? How can we make the prison system more humane? Should it be humane or do convicts, regardless of the level of their crimes, “deserve what they get?” As a society, do we see prison more as punishment or as retribution? How can we save people from having failed lives? Is it possible to save someone?
11. Do you think that death offers release for men like York and the narrator? Did they find peace?
12. Like the lady, Rene Denfeld is a fact investigator in death penalty cases. How do you think her work shaped the story? Did reading THE ENCHANTED alter your view of prison?
13. Rene Denfeld touches on many issues and themes: Mental illness, justice, time, kindness, remorse, forgiveness, the need for love and connection, life and death itself. Choose one or two and trace them through the novel, using examples from the novel to enrich your analysis.
14. Why did you choose to read this novel? Did the novel surprise you in any way? Explain why or why not. What did you take away from reading THE ENCHANTED?

Election Day/HINT FICTION/100 Word Story

http://academyofamericanpoets.cmail20.com/t/ViewEmail/y/FE3C833D5A0456FC/FF0EB04BBFA2CA21A2432AF2E34A2A5F

Fiction:

Craft of Fiction

AGENDA:



hint fiction:

http://www.robertswartwood.com/hint-fiction/

Check out the contest winners.

Write 3 hint fictions.  SHARE.


100 word Stories:

Check out web site.
http://www.100wordstory.org/

Write a 100 word story.