Avoid Cliches!

Avoid cliches in your writing.  Here are a few examples of cliches--you should avoid using all of them!

• As quick as lightning
• It was a dark and stormy night
• It was love at first sight
• Everything happens for a reason
• Tall, dark, and handsome
• Life is like a box of chocolates
• Sports metaphors: Winning isn't everything--it's the only thing
• We were born ready
• Opposites attract 
• Things come and go
• It was all a dream
• Please, Mr. Wieffering is my father...call me Freddy.
• Ugly bridesmaids dresses
• tall drink of water
• rain in a scary story
• The word "beautiful"
• Stock characters like the nerd; popular girl/guy; ordinary, nondescript average man, blond, blue-eyed beauty, cheerleader, Disney movies

Class Poetry

School is sometimes good
Lunch time is the best time, yeah
School is out by two.


The cold makes me sad
Winter chases away light,
But you bring back warmth
Like the sun melting the snow
You are like flowers in bloom.

Poetry due dates

• Thursday, March 5: 3 poet's philosophy papers due (2 pages each = 6 pages)
• Don't forget the Works Cited pages
  
• Thursday, March 5: Peer Editing
• Thursday, March 12: Own Philosophy of Poetry due
• Don't forget the Works Cited page
  
• Thursday, March 12: Peer Editing
• Tuesday, March 17: Own poetry due
• Tuesday, March 17: Peer Editing
• Tuesday, March 24: Final Poetry Project Due
• Don't forget to include the poems you love!
  
• Tuesday, March 24-Wednesday, March 25: Poetry Presentations
• Thursday, March 26: Writing Notebooks Due
  

Upcoming Due Dates

• Writing notebooks: Friday, February 13th--added assignment: From today, read excerpt from Susan Allen Toth's Leaning into the Wind and write a personal story retelling a past experience where the weather is a character in the story.
• First Completed Draft of Memoir: Tuesday, February 17th
• Final Draft of Memoir: Friday, February 20th

Memoir Due dates

For the memoir you are reading on your own, you need to write four journals/posts while you are reading and then one last journal as a reflection on the entire book (a total of 5 journals). Each journal should be at least one page long.

Think about the writer's craft. You may want to write about:

• literary devices the author uses
• style elements
• affect the writing has on you
• favorite passages and explain why they are your favorite passages

Due dates:

• 1st post due Friday, February 6th.
• 2nd post due Wednesday, February 11th.
• 3rd post due Tuesday, February 17th.
• 4th post due Thursday, February 19th.
• Final reflection on entire book due Tuesday, February 24th.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

In the computer lab:
Two blog posts are due
Make sure you have access to the class wiki: creativewritingquest.wikispaces.com
Set up your aggregator: either google reader or netvibes.com
Add sitemeter: sitemeter.com

• Go to sitemeter.com
• Sign up for free
• Once you have an account, go to manager
• Click on html
• Copy html
• Go to your blog's layout page
  
• Add a gadget
• Click on add html
• Paste the sitemeter html
• Save the gadget
• Save the layout
  

Add a picture to your blog

2 February 2009

Class Activities:

• Sign up for memoir
• Make sure Ms. Peifer knows what your blog address is
• Writing prompt
• Read Alice Walker's "My Mother's Blue Bowl"
• Write a reaction in your reading reaction notebook on the writer's craft.
  

Writing Prompt:

• Choose a physical characteristic to write about: your hand, your hair, your foot, your freckles, your laugh, your height, etc. What are the emotional implications of that physical characteristic?

Wednesday, January 29

Read Tim O'Brien's short story "How to Tell a True War Story."  Then, in your reading reaction notebook, write the following journal:

What do yo think about how O'Brien writes about truth?  He is specifically addressing war stories, but can this be applied to stories in general?  What do you like/dislike about the story?

Reading Reaction Journal 1

After reading the excerpt from The Names: A Memoir by N. Scott Momaday, comment on two of your favorite phrases. Explain why you liked these phrases. Why are they affective? What do they highlight?

Writing Journal 1: Childhood in the Park

Write about a specific memory that you have from your children--a day you spent in a park, camping, or any other moment outside. Describe the weather and the environment. How did you feel? What specific details do you remember about your day in the park?

• Use sensory details
• Show (don't tell)!
• You may need to fill in some of the details
  

Course Description

Creative Writing is an intensive course designed to challenge skilled student writers to broaden their skill by working in various literary genres. Students will study and analyze a variety of writers, and employ literary techniques to create original poetry, fiction, and nonfiction. Students will also analyze their own creative writing process.

Course Overview:
You must keep a writing notebook throughout this course as well as a reading response notebook. One is for your own writing; the other is for the analysis of other people’s writing. There will be many assignments in this course so you must be organized and disciplined in your work habits.

1. Week One-Five: Poetry

Readings: Selections from:
“If I Could Tell You” W. H. Auden
“Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” Dylan Thomas
“Sestina” Elizabeth Bishop
“Blackberry Picking” Seamus Heaney
“It’s a Woman’s World” Eavan Boland
“anyone lived in a pretty how town” e. e. cummings
various essays on poetry

2. Week Six-Ten: Memoir

Readings: Selections from:
“My Mother’s Blue Bowl” Alice Walker
excerpt from The Names: A Memoir N. Scott Momaday
excerpt from Leaning Into the Wind: A Memoir of Midwest Weather Susan Allen Toth
excerpt from Colors of the Mountain Da Chen
excerpt from Dreams from My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance Barack Obama
excerpt from The Color of Water: A Black Man’s Tribute to His White Mother James McBride
Various essays on memoirs

3. Week Eleven-Fifteen: Fiction

Readings: Selections from:
“The Overcoat” Nikolai Gogol
“The Story of an Hour” Kate Chopin
“A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner
“Roman Fever” Edith Wharton
“Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest Hemingway
“The Catbird Seat” James Thurber
“The Hunger Artist” Franz Kafka
various essays on fiction

4. Week Sixteen-Eighteen: Final Project