Writeshop Activitiy #1

First, read the following minutes of a conversation between two people

—Mr. A and Ms. B:
Mr. A expressed the desire to be given the envelope on the table
immediately. “This is my history,” he stated. Ms. B denied the request.
Ms. B stated that his past actions were the source of her reluctance.
Mr. A argued that his past
actions had been misunderstood. Ms. B responded: “You are a big
jerk!”
The setting is an office. The characters sit on opposite sides of a long
table, and there is another woman sitting at the end of the table, along
with lots of empty chairs. There are fluorescent lights flickering.
With so few facts, the real meaning of this scene is still up for debate,
so here are some more: Mr. A and Ms. B are a couple. The other
woman is a mediator. The envelope contains photos of their lives
together. And once, years ago, Mr. A used their wedding photos as
kindling for the fireplace by accident.
Your task is this: Using these and the other facts about the couple
given in the lecture, write a paragraph describing what you see in that
room. Tell a good story, but only using the facts. No making things up!

WriteShop #2
For our next exercise, we will use a photograph taken during the
Liberation of Paris at the end of WWII that once appeared on the
cover of LIFE magazine. 

In the foreground, a French soldier runs, a riffle in his hand, past some
old-fashioned cars and a streetlamp that immediately evoke Paris in
the 1940s. Behind a car, a man on his knees takes aim at some
distant target. Crouched at his feet is another soldier, half hidden from
view. High on a window ledge of the building behind them, a civilian
man stands, looking into the distance. Below him on the street are two
other people, looking in the same direction.
If you were the journalist reporting on the streets of Paris that day,
where would you find the story in this image? Where are the narrative
arc, conflict, and character?
There are at least nine possible characters to work from: The running
soldier, the two crouching soldiers, and the three watching civilians—
they make six. The crouching soldier’s target is the seventh.
The last two are trickier: First, there is the photographer. Second, you
have yourself, looking at this image not from the streets of Paris but
from some distant vantage point. The author can always be, in
creative nonfiction, one of the characters.
Each character has a different set of motivations and stakes in the
events that are unfolding; each one offers a different narrative arc that
shapes the story.
Of course, this image captures a single moment, and without knowing
more, you cannot write an entire nonfiction story yet. You cannot
make up more details than you have, but if you wanted to, you could
research them. We will talk more about research in future lectures.
As an exercise in learning how to craft and shape storytelling,
however, looking at photographs and listening in on bits of
conversation are ways to think about what is powerful and interesting
in a situation.
Practice this same exercise now on your own. The best place to look
is an old family album because you do not need to do research, but
you are not restricted to family albums. Whatever you choose, look for
a photograph that has great dramatic tension. Try to answer all of the
questions above. You're not writing a story, but you're selecting an
image and making critical storytelling decisions. In your submission,
include a copy/scan of the photograph and your decisions e.g. who
will narrate the story; who are the characters; what's so compelling
about the image you chose that you think you could live with a story
about it for however long it takes to write that story?
Be prepared to submit your assignment and upload the photograph
you used. You will each have an opportunity to read aloud and explore
your work during workshop on Thursday.

WriteShop # 3 Recognizing Biases

What would you say about this (imaginary) piece of historical

information from the web as a source of information?
https://www.elizabethanstudies.myuni.edu
E-mail mary.oflannagn@myuni.edu
How Elizabeth Became Queen
By Mary O’Flannagan
Elizabeth I had an unusually tortuous path to the crown. She was not
yet three when her mother was beheaded at the order of her father,
Henry VIII. At Henry’s death, Elizabeth’s sickly half-brother Edward
ascended the throne (Jones, 257). Upon his death in 1553, he
bequeathed the crown to Lady Jane Grey, cutting Elizabeth out of the
succession. Edward’s will was set aside, however, and Lady Jane
Grey was executed, allowing Elizabeth’s sister Mary to ascend the
throne. As a devout Catholic, “Bloody Mary” persecuted the
Protestants and imprisoned Elizabeth in the Tower of London (Letters
of Queen Elizabeth, 17). Despite these difficulties, Elizabeth learned
to craft her words and fashion her behavior to gain favor and secure
her own
well-being. When Mary died in 1558, Elizabeth’s patience and
popularity paid off, and she became, at last, queen of England (Smith,
46; Newberry Library archives).
At a quick glance, you know this source has a bibliography. We have
the author’s e-mail address, so you could ask further questions. Both
her e-mail address and the website are .edu, meaning this information
is probably part of O’Flannagan’s academic work. None of this means
O’Flannagan is necessarily right, but it does mean she has a
professional stake in its accuracy.
How does the following piece compare to O’Flannagan’s?
http://www.queenelizthevampire.com
Family Tree Shows Queen Elizabeth Is Related to Dracula.
By the Vampires are Real Historical Society.
Most people think of Vampires as a vast threat to civilization as we
know it, if they even believe in Vampires. But Vampires are real, and
guess what—Queen Elizabeth I is related to the lineage of one of the
most famous vampires of all—Vlad the Impaler. This proves that they
are living today.
Lineage charts make it clear that, to quote, “this 15th century
murderous count has probably contributed his seeds to the royal
family tree.” Haven’t you wondered about why Queen Elizabeth wears
all those big hats in public? Her bloodline has been diluted, but she’s
obviously inherited the Vampire’s sensitivity to light. I just want to point
out that there aren’t any mirrors in
her publicity photos.
The hints that this is unreliable material are unfortunately pretty
common. The writer is anonymous and has a clear bias. There is no
bibliography and no specific citations, even though there is a
quotation. This author generalizes about sources but does not give
you reference to any of them. The website address is a regular .com,
which is not by itself a sign, but coupled with all these other hints, it
confirms that that writer does not have any professional investment in
his or her credibility.
Now it is time to put your researching skills to the test. Imagine you
were writing a book on Queen Elizabeth, as discussed in the lecture.
Look online or at the library for five primary sources and three
secondary sources on her. Then evaluate their reliability using the
rules we have discussed. Which of those sources would you feel
comfortable quoting in light of the nonfiction contract?
WriteSHop # 4 Liberation of Paris pt.2

Before the next lecture, think back to that photograph of the Liberation
of Paris and choose one of the characters. Write a sketch in which you
begin to develop the character of one of the figures in—or outside—
the frame of the story, using all the techniques you have learned so far
while also honoring the nonfiction contract. You'll likely start by
choosing the narrator of the story and then conducting research to
learn more about the context or history of the moment. Include
questions that come up for you as you research and sketch.
Remember, this is not a story -- yet -- it's a character sketch, so you'll
want to explore physical and emotional characteristis and try to
discern psychological goals and motivations. This article  (Links to an
external site.)Links to an external site.is worth reading as you sketch.
Be prepared to read your work aloud during workshop on Thursday,
and to explain the challenges you faced in completing this exercise, as
well as how you specifically met the challenge of honoring the CNF
contract.
Writeshop # 5 three sentence story

Now it is your turn to compose a great beginning for your story—

whatever story you want to write. This is a deceptively simple
exercise, with just three steps.
Step one: Write a sentence where the reader wants to read the next
sentence that is going to come after. In other words, write a sentence
that has character, conflict, and narrative arc.
Step two: Write the sentence that comes after your first one. Make
sure this one also leaves the reader wanting to read the next one.
Step three: write one more sentence after that.
Turn your assignment in here but be prepared to review and discuss
in class on Thursday.

Write Shop #6 Show Dont Tell

By now, you should have identified a project you're going to try to

research, write, and publish. Using that project and piece of writing
(and if you don't have one yet, you should see me immediately!) see if
you can identify any telling errors. Highlight the error and explain in a
sentence or two why they are telling errors. Then, rewrite the errors.
Make sure you clearly identify the versions e.g.
Version 1: Telling
 Fill this section in here.....
Version 2: Showing
Fill this section in here with your revision.
Alternatively, write a page or two of description—about anything you
want—where you practice actively showing rather than telling. Identify
the sections you feel are particularly strong showing.
Write Shop # 7 Narrative Arc

Think back to you favorite nonfiction book, or the book you've selected
to read for this course. Using 3x5 note cards, write out what you see
as the narrative structure of the story. Rearrange the cards. What
effects do changes in the arrangement of the cards have on the story,
or on your experience as a reader? Using this exercise as the basis,
compose a short (one or two page), double-spaced analysis and
response of narrative structure. Bring your analysis to class for review
and upload to the dropbox.

The organization and order of information in a non-fiction book\essay\

article is every bit as important as plot is to fiction. Immersing yourself
in the subject matter is no guarantee that the structure of a book will
reveal itself as self-evident.
So how does a writer of non-fiction move from the research, notes,
interviews, documents, and quotes into a coherent structure? And
more importantly, a structure that serves the readers of your work?
Structural editing is part of the writing process itself.
Here I suggest four techniques to help you hone and refine the
narrative structure to your non-fiction work-in-progress.
Thematic Analysis
What are the major themes in the book?
Describe how each theme is relevant. How does each theme get
played out? In which sections does each theme arise? Are there
characters whose personalities or interactions embody one of these
themes? How so?
Write reflectively about each theme. As you do, ideas for tightening
the plot will pop out at you.
Question Analysis
What subjects, topics, and issues will your book cover? What
questions will your book answer? Pretend you are writing questions
for IBM’s Watson on Jeopardy. Make a long list. Include questions you
have already answered in your research and questions you plan to
investigate further.
Sort the questions into groups that emerge from critical reflection. For
each group, write additional questions you will need to answer. Think
about what the reader needs to know and when and where in your
book they need to know it.  Sort your grouped questions into an
organizational framework.
Don’t forget to ask the big questions. So what? Who cares?
Storyboarding
Sketch the important scenes in your book. Think cinematically. If you
are artistically inclined, draw them; if not, paint with words. Brainstorm
on as many scene sketches as you can without referring to your
research. What are the most gripping moments? Where does the
action take place?
Take each scene and identify the conflict or goal, the actors involved,
their motives, the themes, and questions it will address.
Play around with the order of these scenes to find a new narrative
whole. Consider yourself the movie producer or film editor. Identify the
holes between scenes and how to connect the scenes into a coherent
narrative.
Character Analysis
Strong narrative structures are built upon characters whose motives
drive plot forward. First, identify all of the people in your story. Make
two lists: one of major or leading roles, and a second with supporting
roles. This is your cast of characters.
In your list of major players, identify your protagonist(s). With which
character(s) do you invite your reader to identify, share a point-of-
view, and eventually champion? Which character(s) play the role of
antagonist? Who (or what) offers the conflict, challenge, struggle, or
problem?
For each person in your cast of leading characters, write a character
sketch. What role does each one play in this narrative? Describe the
physical attributes, distinctive behaviors, personal qualities, and
motives. Identify in what places the character appears in the action.
Organize a file for each character in which everything you plan to
include in your book is in one place. Upon first reference to a
character in your new narrative structure, introduce the person to the
reader with full attribution. Upon second reference, add more
character description and disclosure of details. And so on; developing
character depth. As you write the character into the narrative of your
manuscript, refer to your sketch and include these details from your
sketch.
By taking the time and trouble to work out character sketches, you
gather a stronger sense of the dynamic tensions between characters
and how their problems, conflicts, and struggles drive the story
forward.
This assignment is meant to help you narrow and select the moment,
scene, essay etc that will become your writing sample. We will be
working with this piece for the next several weeks, so work through
these questions slowly and carefully.
For those of you working on a technical project, you're going to need
to have a writing sample all the same. You will have to pick and
choose which of the above questions work, given the context of your
project, but I encourage you to consider yourself -- the author -- as
one might a character, making these questions far more relevant. You
might even decide to personify other elements of your projects, but
that's up to you.
Project # 2
This course is designed to introduce you to the major literary devices
used in creative nonfiction writing. The course is intended to be a
blend of both theory and application. Clearly, you can't compose a
book, and probably not an article, during a 16-week course. But
you can organize a proposal to do so. To that end, your final project
will consist of a real nonfiction proposal and appropriate writing
sample. You can choose a medium other than the book, an article or
documentary in example, but the project must be nonfiction.
Attached, you will find the book proposal I wrote for Woman at the
Devil's Door . If you want to undertake a book project, then follow
this proposal as your guide. If you're interested in writing an article,
then read "How to Write an Article Query (Links to an external
site.)Links to an external site." and Sample (Links to an external
site.)Links to an external site.. If you wish to propose a different kind of
project, say, a documentary, you'll have to research the formatting
guidelines for that medium and draft your proposal accordingly.
Each proposal type has certain required elements. For a book, in
example, you have to include a chapter-by-chapter outline (though
yours won't be as extensive as mine). Identify the elements of your
project and draft a project proposal.
At this stage, much of what you include in your project proposal (and
thus what you are graded on) will be speculative and/or incomplete.
What I'm looking for in this draft follows:

 a clearly defined project

 a targeted point of publication with contact information
 preliminary research and attempted completion of proposal
sections

As the semester continues, your project will become clearer, your

voice stronger, and your research more targeted. All proposals require
a draft sample of writing. This is P2, so you do not have to include that
in this project. You'll be expected to revise and resubmit a
completed draft of your proposal by Week 16, which will include the
entire proposal + writing sample.

Rubric
P1 Rubric
 P1 Rubric

Criteria Ratings Pts

This criterion is linked to a

Learning OutcomeClearly Defined 30.0 pts 0.0 pts
Full Marks No Marks 30.0 pts
Project
view longer description

This criterion is linked to a

Learning OutcomeTargeted 30.0 pts 0.0 pts
Publication and Complete Contact Full Marks No Marks 30.0 pts
Info
view longer description

This criterion is linked to a

Learning OutcomeResearch and 30.0 pts 0.0 pts
Full Marks No Marks 30.0 pts
Drafting
view longer description

This criterion is linked to a

Learning OutcomeStyle, 10.0 pts 0.0 pts
Full Marks No Marks 10.0 pts
Specificity, Originality
view longer description

Total Points: 100.0

Write Shop # 8 Cliffhangers

Select any nonfiction work. Identify what you consider cliffhangers or

strong foreshadowing. Set the story up for the reader in a paragraph
and then copy and paste the cliffhanger, indenting it so it's easy to
distinguish.
Then, explore and explain why you think this cliffhanger works. Finally,
rewrite the ending cliffhanger paragraph or two in such a way that
you break the tension in the cliffhanger. Be prepared to share your
work in class on Thursday.
Writeshop # 9

Write one paragraph where the character is male, 80 years old,

British, and highly educated without actually saying any of these
things—in other words, by showing, not telling.
Two of the skills we talked about this week will be among the most
powerful in your tool kit for accomplishing this: Sentence
variation and word choice. A professor would speak in hypotactic
sentences and sophisticated language [see what I just did there?]. But
you will also need to build his emotional distress to a climax in your
paragraph.
Then, try just the opposite. Write a paragraph in the voice of a shy
teenage girl/guy who has come "out" as gay and wants to ask
someone to the prom but is worried about what friends, family and
school officials will say. This character is writing about her dilemma in
a diary. Use sentence structure and sentence variation to create
plenty of drama and end with a climax.
After you have written your paragraphs, ask someone who
is not taking this course to guess who the character in your paragraph
is. If your listener guesses correctly, you will know you have done a
great job. If not, you may want to revise. We will share our writing
during workshop Thursday.
Writeshop # 10 Revealing Characters
t's time to try your hand at writing a personal advert for yourself. Re-
imagine yourself as a character. You can use any voice you like. Just
remember that character is identity that implies action. Make this an
advertisement for a fabulous character, the kind of person someone
else wants to be in a story with. Your advertisement can use other
media elements, but should be primarily a written advertisement as
opposed to a graphical advert. You might also choose to write your
advert about one of the characters in the writing sample you're
composing for your final project. While this won't go into the proposal
itself, you may leverage the power of this exercise and the feedback
from the workshop to strengthen your portrayal of character in your
writing sample overall.
Writeshop # 11 Creating a Writer’s Blog

In this week's lecture we talked about how to read, respond, and build
an audience and basic author marketing strategies. For this
assignment, I'm asking you to research several author blogs/websites
and notice key elements: the author's photograph, the arrangement of
the site, the content on the site, interactive tools (audience), e-
commerce tools.
After studying several sites, design your own draft site and create a
simple author's website or blog using any tool or application you wish.
I recommend using Wordpress because it is easy to use. More
information on using Wordpress here (Links to an external site.)Links
to an external site.. And a tutorial on how to build a Wordpress
sitehere (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.

I'm interested in and will grade on document/page design, content

strategy/ organization, persona development and audience
consideration. Questions to consider as you design your website
include:
1. What genre do I think I will mostly work in and what kinds of design
strategy best supports or reinforces this image? Think in terms of
photo, sound, text, and color. For example, if you're a nonfiction crime
writer then yellow (to symbolize the yellow tape of crime scenes) might
be a good color choice for you. Overdone however, yellow loses its
ability to highlight, so how will you balance this?
2. How can I interact with my audience and thus build an audience
platform?
3. What samples of my work should I include, even if the work isn't
done? 
(If you know you want to include pieces, but don't yet have the
content, you can copy and paste fake content as a placeholder by
going here (Links to an external site.)Links to an external site.).
4. Do I want people to purchase samples or chapters of my work and
if so, what kind of backend payment collection process will I use?
(Note: you do not have to integrate payment processing into your draft
site but you should note that you intend to use such features if, in fact,
you do.)
5. What's the overall purpose of my site--to education, to inform, to
persuade my readers to buy, to engage? What design decisions might
be influenced by this purpose?
6. If I include a photo, what pose might I strike and how will that help
or hinder the persona I'm trying to project?
When you're finished with you draft website, please submit a Word
document with your contact details and a link to the site.
Writeshop # 12 Compelling Characters
Complete the character sketch given on the pdf
Write Shop # 13 Shaping your Voice

The Voice Doctor

There is truth in medicine cabinets. Despite the lies we tell ourselves
and others -- that we're healthy, not sane, or fit -- medicine cabinets
(chests, boxes of medicine, junk drawers -- you know what I'm talking
about) don't lie.
Medicine cabinets are full of worry, memories, encroaching death, and
the hope for new or better life. The prescription bottles, acne solutions,
frayed toothbrushes, and unused pregnancy tests, reflect our
humanity and vulnerability. Think about what's in your medicine
cabinet. Study the cabinet and what it might mean, then write a 600-
800 word short, paying particular attention to developing "voice"
(remember, you want to include character, conflict, and narrative arc
in your short too).
What's in your cabinet and what does it say about you/your subject.
Though you can write about any one's cabinet, it has to be a real
cabinet that details the story of real humans.
Writeshop #14 Dialogue

Here are two short letters. Take the historical “facts” revealed herein
and transform them into a scene with dialogue for a nonfiction book
project.
Letter one: Dear Eugene, it was such a pleasure to have met you at
the dinner party last night at Mark’s house, and thanks for giving me
your business card. And for writing your message on it. … I knew from
the moment we sat down over cocktails that you and I would end up
seeingeach other again. Did you know it too? I still remember that
moment over dinner where you looked at me and asked if I liked the
art of Cezanne. And of course I told you that it was my very favorite.
And you said that only a wide heart could appreciate his still-life
painting, and in that moment I fell in love with you. It’s a foolish thing
to say, but, yes,of course I’ll meet you! Until soon, with a kiss,
Charlotte.
Letter two [e-mail]: Hey Mark, what a party! As always the food was
great and thanks a million for the invite. Only in New York City. I
mean, is it me, or were Charlotte and Eugene engaged in some
serious romantic tension? All that art talk. Gag. But Mark, didn’t he
come there with his
girlfriend?! Did I miss something? Julia just sat there like a lump on a
log, so I assume she didn’t much care, but then you know after she
did keep winking at me, and I loved that moment in the middle of that
inane Cezanne conversation that just went on forever—I love
Cezanne, no, I love him more, only the gentle spirits can appreciate
Cezanne, look at those blue apples. I’ll never forget Charlotte saying
that: look at those blue apples. Hah hah. I don’t think it was about
apples somehow. But I loved that moment where Julia just looked at
Eugene and said “Art is stupid.” And the table went silent. Hey, like I
said, a truly memorable dinner party!