ENG 152 Creative Writing- Writing with Attention, Spring 2004
Beginning In The Middle Assignment
April 19th
So, some of the things we will look at will be how to anchor your stories in a particular time and place, how to generate details about a character, writing from the voice of the opposite gender, what does 'basing description in the body' mean, etc....
Creative writing often seems to the non-writer or beginning writer, a mysterious process... that one possess copious amounts of 'talent', 'creativity', 'dedication', 'insight', etc... to be successful. Some of this is true and it always helps to have some of these things. However, as I emphasized the other day, most writers learn to rely on the craft side of writing, and the craft side are those 'tricks' I mentioned to you.
Some people, as I also mentioned the first couple days, feel that writing should be 'inspired', or they feel they can only write when the mood is upon them, that they should be able to just give their mind free vent at all times. What one ends with then, it a great deal of self-indulgence.
When asked about how does one generate the right 'mood' or 'state' to be able to write in, Joyce Carol Oates stated, "One must be pitiless about this matter of 'mood'." In a sense, the writing can create the *mood....
Which I have experienced... when the writing grips you, the "mood" comes with it, it sneaks up on you. So, you don't wait blythly about waiting for 'the mood' to grip you. You make the mood.
Also, Flannery O'Connor said, "If you start with a real personality, a real character, then something is bound to happen; and you don't have to know what before you begin. In fact, it may be better if you don't know what before you begin. You ought to be able to discover something from your stories. If you don't, probably nobody else will."
So that is one reason I had you guys start with trying to come up with a character. It often doesn't matter where a story begins, description of a place, dialogue, a summary. What does make a difference at times, is that the story begin 'in the middle of things', meaning that the story begin with things already set-up. This causes the reader to become curious to know more before he even realizes it.
In your journal, write ten opening lines. Make three of them about the 'character' you came up with the other day, three of them speaking from 1st person voice, and four of your own making however you wish. The emphasis is on beginning in the middle of things.
Beginnings depend on what the story is about and the effect you want to create.
As we noted before, you could start with description of a setting, a bit of conversation, a narrator setting the tone, etc... it doesn't really matter how you begin. What does matter is getting your reader into the sort of place you want them in. What you need to decide is what you want to emphasize. Do you want the reader to retain a lasting impression of the environment? Then maybe you describe the environment in visual detail, filtering the impressions through a character's eyes. Do you want the reader's attention to be focused on what motivates one character? Then what you open with might be a situation with the character's interior voice explaining or examining why it is doing something.
Instructor- Pauline Escudero Shafer
Office Hours- 10:15-11 am and By arrangement M-F
Phone- 206-587-2036
Email- PEscudero@sccd.ctc.edu
One of the things we will be concerned with this quarter as I emphasized last week is
focusing on the specific, on detail rather than the vague and abstract.
How to get at specifics will be one of the things you'll learn, but also then how to assess your writing for what it needs to be the best you can produce at that time.