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=ASFA CW FICTION WORKSHOP=

Welcome to the wikispace home of the ASFA Creative Writing Department's Fall 2006 Fiction Workshop. Here you will find writing prompts, class assignments, as well as links of interest to writers. Members of the workshop will also be able to enter on-line critiques of their classmates' story drafts.

REMAINING CRITIQUE SCHEDULE

 * **Friday, Dec. 1:** Ashley and Stacy (wiki posts due Thursday by 8:00 p.m.)
 * **Wednesday, Dec. 6:** Natalie and Hannah (wiki posts due Tuesday by 8:00 p.m.)

JURY CRITERIA

 * Due date:** No later than Sunday, Dec. 10 by 8:00 p.m. (Those who have yet to be critiqued, please see me for your other options.)
 * **Beginning:** Image + Action + Open-ended Question. Does this story grab my attention immediately?
 * **Ending:** "Ring the bell." Does the story feel complete? Does it linger in my consciousness after I put it down?
 * **Details:** Nouns + Verbs. Does the story leave me with memorable sensory images that mean something to the story?
 * **Plot:** Does the story create a cause-and-effect that leads to an important change, a "problem solved...with consequences"?
 * **Character = DESIRE.** Are the main characters three dimensional, plausible, memorable, and clearly motivated?
 * **Setting:** Context (Character[s] + Time + Place). Can I enter into a fully rendered, well-defined world?
 * **Voice:** Writerly choices (vocabulary, sentences, diction, POV...). Does the story "sound" like it comes from a unique mind?
 * **So what?** Does this story provoke new thought, new perspective in the reader?
 * **Revision:** Has the story evolved over time? Have you synthesized the feedback you've received to the betterment of the piece?

Each of the above criteria will be worth 10 points and will be evaluated on the following scale:
 * 10 = Yes, this aspect of the story is of publishable quality.
 * 9 = Yes, this is one of the story's strengths.
 * 8 = Yes, but there is room for improvement in this area.
 * 7 = Not as much as it could--substantial revision is still needed in this area.
 * 6 = No, this aspect of the story is in need of major revision.

The following criterion will be evaluated thusly:
 * **Polish:** Is the story free of grammatical and typographical errors? You will be granted .1 "errors of polish" per page. For example, if your story is 15 pages long, you will be allowed two "missteps" and still receive full credit (10 points) for this criterion. From there, I will deduct 1 point per error, up to a total of 10 points. On the other hand, if your story is completely clean--free of all grammatical and typographical errors--you will receive one extra credit point.

CRITIQUE INSTRUCTIONS
First off, props to Clay for posting the initial wiki-prompt. Clay's on fire these days.

Second, I'm going to lean on you guys some more to make critique happen today. Stacy, as elder stateswoman and critiquer extraordinaire, can lead the session. When I get back next week, I'll sit down with Elaine and Amber to debrief about how critique went and to give them my responses to their respective critique drafts.

Have a good long weekend, everybody.

WEEK FOURTEEN: NOV 6-10
"There ain't no answer. There ain't going to be any answer. There never has been an answer. That's the answer." --[|Gertrude Stein]

__Monday__
 * Independent Work
 * I've e-mailed Elaine and Amber's stories to everybody. Hard copies are in your cubicles.
 * Read Nathaniel Bellows's "First Four Measures" in __BASS '05__. We'll talk about it on Wednesday.

__Tuesday__
 * Conferences: Amanda and Rachel'e

__Wednesday__
 * Even **__MORE__** Fun (?) with Sentences!
 * Discuss "First Four Measures."
 * Wiki-tique Posts due by 8:00 p.m.

__Thursday__
 * Critique: Elaine and Amber.

__Friday__
 * **NO SCHOOL-VETERAN'S DAY**
 * Conference Drafts: Ramsey and Clay.
 * Critique Drafts: Amanda and Rachel'e.

WEEK THIRTEEN: OCT 30-NOV 3
__Monday__
 * Independent Work
 * I've e-mailed Abby's story to everybody. Please **__don't__** print it out on the class printer. You'll have a hard copy tomorrow of both Abby's story and Danielle's story.
 * Read the next story in __BASS '05__--the one after "Eight Pieces for the Left Hand." We'll talk about it on Wednesday.
 * Amber: Your story wasn't attached to the e-mail you sent, alas. Cut-and-paste it into the body of a new e-mail and resend it. (Ask Clay to help you--he sits right next to you and, chances are, he's up to no good anyway. This will give him something gainful to do. [Ha!])

__Tuesday__
 * Conferences: Elaine and Amber

__Wednesday__
 * Fun (?) with Sentences!
 * Discuss __BASS '05__.
 * Wiki-tique Posts due by 8:00 p.m.

__Thursday__
 * Critique: Abby and Danielle

__Friday__
 * Independent Work
 * Conference Drafts: Amanda and Rachel'e
 * Critique Drafts: Elaine and Amber

WEEK TWELVE: OCT 23-27 (Holy Moly! We're 67% of the way through!)
"The tragedy of life is not death, but what we let die inside us while we live." --[|Norman Cousins]

__Monday__
 * Olde Skool Critique: Rules of the Road.
 * Independent Work.
 * Read "Eight Pieces for the Left Hand" by J. Robert Lennon in __BASS'05__.
 * Read [|this].
 * Read critique stories.

__Tuesday__
 * Conferences: Lydia and Abby

__Wednesday__
 * Fun with Sentences!
 * Discuss "Eight Pieces for the Left Hand."

__Thursday__
 * Critique: Peter and Lydia!

__Friday__
 * Specialty Schedule.
 * Fall Birthday Party: Sign up for potluck dishes ASAP!
 * Author Talk: [|Leah Nielsen].
 * Reading at 7 p.m. in the Lecture Hall--Attendance REQUIRED!

WEEK ELEVEN: OCT 16-20
"I realize that it is not my role to transform either the world or man: I have neither sufficient virtue nor insight for that. But it may be to serve, in my place, those few values without which even a transformed world would not be worth living in, and man, even if "new," would not deserve to be respected." --Albert Camus

__Monday__
 * Wind in the Willows

__Tuesday__
 * Conferences: Peter and Lydia
 * Independent Work

__Wednesday__
 * Independent Work

__Thursday__
 * Fall Break

__Friday__
 * Fall Break
 * Conference Drafts Due: Danielle and Abby
 * Critique Drafts Due: Peter and Lydia

WEEK TEN: OCT 9-13
"The pause--that impressive silence, that eloquent silence, that geometrically progressive silence, which often achieves a desired effect where no combination of words, howsoever felicitious, could accomplish it." --[|Mark Twain]

__Monday__
 * Indendent Writing: A refresher--this is time for you to write. You must be writing. That's the only requirement. Please no legalistic parsing, either: You must be writing __for__ __this__ __class__.
 * Please note the conference/critique schedule below, as our menu options have changed.
 * Independent Reading: Keep going with your Independent Reading book if you haven't finished it already. Remember that you should read a book of fiction and a book of nonfiction. Go ahead an select another book this week, even if you haven't finished the first one.

__Tuesday__
 * Independent Writing.
 * Read Thomas McGuane's "Old Friends" in __BASS__.

__Wednesday__
 * Independent Writing.
 * Discuss "Old Friends."

__Thursday__
 * Independent Writing/Reading.
 * What makes good sentences?

__Friday__
 * Independent Writing/Reading: Tell us about what you're reading!
 * Conference Drafts: Peter and Lydia

WEEK NINE: OCT 2-6
__Monday__

Here's is next semester's conference/critique schedule:


 * **__NAME__** || **__CONF. DRAFT__** || **__CRIT. DRAFT__** ||
 * **Peter | Lydia** || Fri. Oct. 13 || Fri. Oct. 20 ||
 * **Danielle | Abby** || Fri. Oct. 20 || Fri. Oct. 27 ||
 * **Elaine | Amber** || Fri. Oct. 27 || Fri. Nov. 3 ||
 * **Amanda | Rachel'e** || Fri. Nov. 3 || Fri. Nov. 10 ||
 * **Clay | Ramsey | Natalie | Hannah** || Fri. Nov. 10 || Fri. Nov. 17 ||
 * **Ashley | Stacy** || Fri. Nov. 17 || Mon. Nov. 27 ||


 * __Jury Stories due Fri. Dec. 8__**

And here's how we're going to work Invitations. I'm not going to give you prompts anymore, though we are going to maintain our 30-minute writing period Monday through Wednesday. You don't have to turn Invitations in each week; I'm going to assume you're working on your next story.

Your third story can be a substantial revision of one of your first stories--not just cleaning up some punctuation and tinkering with a sentence here and there. Or it can be an entirely new draft. Your jury story will be a revision of one of the three critique drafts you've turned in this semester.

__Tuesday__
 * Independent Writing
 * Independent Work--Critique stories, study for Midterm

__Wednesday__
 * Midterm

__Thursday__
 * Critique: X - Danielle | Lydia || Y - Abby | Peter
 * **__Turn in your Writer's NB's TODAY!__**

__Friday__ NO-SCHOOL-FOR-YOU!

MIDTERM REVIEW
__Test Date__ Next Wednesday, October 4

__A Note on the Composition of the Test__ It will be multiple choice, matching, and essay. The multiple choice and matching will cover material we've read and discussed in class. You will be given three of the essay questions below, from which you will choose two to complete. Here you will be expected to show an understanding of the key concepts in class discussions and the selections from our class readings.

__Reading Material__
 * "The Smile on Happy Chang's Face" by Tom Perrotta.
 * "Until Gwen" by Dennis Lehane.
 * "A Taste of Dust" by Lynne Sharon "Agnes" Schwartz.
 * [|"Victoria"] by Hilding Johnson.
 * "Don't Do This" by Jerome Stern (from __Making Shapely Fiction__).

__Terms and Concepts__
 * The Basic Elements of Story: Beginning, Ending, Plot, Details, Character, Setting, Voice, and "So what?"
 * Freitag's Triangle: Ground Situation, Inciting Incident, Rising Action, Climax, Resolution.
 * Surprise, Revelation, Epiphany.
 * Cause-and-Effect.
 * Linear Narrative vs. Nonlinear Narrative.
 * Empathy vs. Sympathy.

__Possible Essay Questions__
 * Pick one of the stories we've read this semester and discuss they ways in which it violates one of Stern's "don't do's." In what ways is the story successful anyway?
 * Compare the ways in which "Victoria" and "A Taste of Dust" use setting to create character and to increase narrative tension. Use these two stories to offer your own theory on the role of setting in fiction and how it can affect a wide range of a story's components.
 * Compare the climaxes of "The Smile on Happy Chang's Face" and "Until Gwen." Which do you prefer and why? Offer your own theory of how climax should work in a story, using these two stories as reference points.
 * Pick a story with a linear narrative and one with a nonlinear narrative and compare how each builds narrative tension. Think about cause-and-effect, chronology, and the differences between suprise, revelation, and epiphany.
 * Mystery Question: Go to the discussion tab and submit a possible essay question based on the material we've covered so far. I'll pick one to be an option on the test.

WEEK EIGHT: SEP 25-29
"Beauty is a form of genius--is higher, indeed, than genius, as it needs no explanation. It is of the great facts in the world like sunlight, or springtime, or the reflection in dark water of that silver shell we call the moon." --[|Oscar Wilde]

__Monday__
 * Midterm Review.
 * Writer's Notebook Entry #5: Read [|this]. Pick one of the items listed, click all the links, think about it. Respond.
 * Independent Reading. Aim to finish your first book by next week, if you haven't finished it already.
 * Post Midterm Mystery Questions--as many as you want, but at least one by the end of the day.

__Tuesday__
 * Conferences: Lydia, Danielle, Peter, and Abby
 * Prepare for Critique.
 * Prepare for Midterm.
 * Independent Reading.

__Wednesday__
 * Midterm review session.
 * Prepare for Critique.
 * Prepare for Midterm.
 * Independent Reading.

__Thursday__
 * Critique: X - Amanda | Elaine || Y - Rachel'e | Amber

__Friday__
 * Critique Wrap-Up
 * Critique Drafts due by 5:00 pm: Lydia, Danielle, Peter, and Abby

WEEK SEVEN: SEP 18-23
"Rationality will not save us." --[|Robert McNamara]

__Monday__
 * Invitation #1: Start an entirely new story--new characters, new ground situation, new plot, new everything--using the last line of your first critique draft...[OR] Rewrite the first few pages of your first critique draft by changing the perspective significantly--write it in first person from the point of view of a minor character, for instance, or change the setting entirely. Make ol' [|Ezra Pound] proud: "Make it new"...[OR] Re-do one of the Invitations you've already done this semester. Start from scratch. Change your approach significantly...[OR] Follow the muse...
 * Conferences: Rachel'e and Elaine.
 * Independent Reading.
 * Writer's Notebook Entry #5: Read [|this]. Think about it. Respond.

__Tuesday__


 * Invitation #2: Continue (or start) Invitation #1 from yesterday...[OR] Billy Nguyen is 52 years old. He lives in America, in a trailer park. His only possessions are the Complete Works of Shakespeare, an exceedingly sharp pen knife, and a photograph of his mother. Write about him...[OR] Follow the muse...
 * Conferences: Amanda and Amber.
 * Read Lynne Sharon Schwartz's "A Taste of Dust" on p. 35 in __BASS '05__.
 * Writer's Notebook Entry #6: Schwartz writes in her author's note that she intends the story to turn in the final paragraph. "That turn still surprises me," she writes, "and I hope it surprises readers too." So, does it surprise you? In a "Boo!" sort of way? Some other sort of way? What about the role of surprise in stories--do you like it? As a reader? As a writer? What's the difference between "surprise" and "revelation" or "epiphany"?

__Wednesday__
 * Invitation #3: Remember Billy Nguyen? Write in the voice of his mother...[OR] Write a story in which your narrator is an angsty young traveling salesman who lives with his parents and wakes up one day to find that he has turned into a cockroach. [Hey, that's a doggone good idea for a story! Wonder why nobody's ever thought of that.] Set it [|here]. [In order to expand the image to regular size, move the little arrow over the image and click on the orange part in the little box that pops up. Two words: 360, baby!] Place it in the time period associated with [|this]cultural iconography (i.e., some time during [|this] decade)... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Discuss "A Taste of Dust."
 * FYI: Your midterm test will be on Oct. 4 (two weeks from today). Any of the reading assignments on this wiki are fair game, as is anything we discussed in class, with special attention to the Basic Elements of Story (including Freitag's Triangle). The test will include multiple choice and essay questions--the latter I will provide to you in advance.

__Thursday__
 * Critique: X - Ashley | Ramsey || Y - Natalie | Clay

__Friday__
 * Critique Wrap-up.
 * Conference Drafts: Danielle | Lydia || Abby | Peter.
 * Critique Drafts: Amanda | Elaine || Rachel'e | Amber.

WEEK SIX: SEP 11-15
"These are my new shoes. They're good shoes. They won't make you rich like me, they won't make you rebound like me, they definitely won't make you handsome like me. They'll only make you have shoes like me. That's it." --Charles Barkley

__Monday__
 * Invitation #1: Write a story in one sentence. You must use at least 100 words...[OR] Write a first sentence that contains a piece of chocolate that your narrator would never eat in a million years...[OR] Follow the muse...
 * Conferences: Clay and Natalie.
 * Independent Reading.
 * Writer's Notebook Entry #4: Extemporaneous thoughts, questions, suggestions, complaints to your author regarding the book you're reading.

__Tuesday__
 * Invitation #2: Write a story with an incidental character named Azar...[OR] Start a story with "This was long before..." [OR] Write an open letter to Big Bird from the perspective of a child who has just taken something that was not his...[OR] Follow the muse...
 * Conferences: Ashley and Ramsey
 * Read "Until Gwen" by Dennis Lehane, p. 19 in __BASS '05__. We'll talk about it tomorrow.

__Wednesday__




 * Invitation #3: Focus on one of the images above to guide your writing...[OR] Incorporate as many of the images above as you can into one story...[OR] Start thusly: "Yes, I bloody could have done it, couldn't I? But I didn't. Or doesn't that matter to you?..."...[OR] Follow the muse...
 * Discuss "Until Gwen."

__Thursday__


 * Critique: Group X - Lydia | Stacy || Group Y - Peter | Hannah.

__Friday__
 * Critique Wrap-Up.
 * Conference Drafts: Amanda | Elaine || Rachel'e | Amber.
 * Critique Drafts: Ashley | Ramsey || Natalie | Clay.

WEEK FIVE: SEP 4-8 (The Week of No Invitations!)
"Rome is what happens when buildings last too long." --[|Andy Warhol]

__Monday__ LABOR DAY

__Tuesday__
 * Critique Wrap-Up.
 * Conferences: Lydia and Peter.
 * Read "The Smile on Happy Chang's Face" in __BASS 2005__.

__Wednesday__ Thursday
 * Conferences: Stacy and Hannah.
 * Discuss "The Smile on Happy Chang's Face."
 * Critique: Group X - Elaine | Danielle || Group Y - Amber | Abby.

__Friday__
 * Critique Wrap-Up.
 * Conference Drafts: Ashley | Ramsey || Natalie | Clay.
 * Critique Drafts: Lydia | Stacy || Peter | Hannah.

WEEK FOUR: AUG 28-SEP 1
"People always fear change. People feared electricity when it was invented, didn't they? People feared coal, they feared gas-powered engines...There will always be ignorance, and ignorance leads to fear." --[|Bill Gates]

__Monday__
 * Invitation #1: A character has a dime and a penny in her hand. What does she do with them?...[OR] Write a fairy tale. Set it in the real world...[OR] Follow the muse...
 * Conferences: Elaine and Danielle. Check your e-mail for instructions. Basically, I want you to read my comments and then reply in e-mail with your questions, comments, and ideas for revision.
 * Independent Reading.
 * Writer's Notebook Entry #3: What have you learned so far from the author of your independent reading book? About writing? About life?

__Tuesday__
 * Invitation #2: Set a story on another planet. It is a love story. There shall be no physical violence... [OR] Set a story on another planet. It is a children's story. There shall be no physical violence... [OR] Tell a ghost story. There shall be no physical violence... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Conferences: Elaine, Danielle, and--time permitting--Abby.
 * Writer's Notebook: Read Katrina Kenison's Foreword and Michael Chabon's Introduction to __The Best American Short Stories (2005)__. What is--to use Chabon's words--your "operating definition" of entertainment (be sure to take a look at his on p. xiv)? Do you subscribe, for instance, to a hierarchy with "literary" fiction at the top and the so-called "genre" fictions (sci-fi, fantasy, horror, suspense, detective, et al) underneath it? Why do the genres sell and, as a general rule, literary fiction doesn't? Is "selling" something you're interested in? As always, think about why you feel the way you do about these questions and any others they spur you to ask.

__Wednesday__
 * Invitation #3: Do one of the invitations you haven't done this semester...[OR] Follow the muse...
 * Conference: Amber.
 * Independent Work.

__Thursday__


 * C-wiki-tique! Group X - Ramsey || Amanda ||| Group Y - Clay || Rachel'e

__Friday__
 * Be healthy and well! ("Y-M-C-A! It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A-ay...")
 * Conference Drafts: Lydia || Stacy || Peter || Hannah. E-mail conference drafts in a MS Word attachment to my ASFA account: tjbeitelman@asfa.k12.al.us. The subject line should be "[Your First & Last Name]: Conference Story #[1 or 2, as the case may be]".
 * Critique Drafts: Elaine || Danielle || Amber || Abby. E-mail critique drafts in a MS Word attachment to my ASFA account: tjbeitelman@asfa.k12.al.us. The subject line should be "[Your First & Last Name]: Critique Story #1".
 * Invitations are due today as well, but you can hold on to your Writer's Notebooks.
 * Be prepared for C-wiki-tique Wrap-up on Tuesday!

WEEK THREE: AUG 21-25
"You have to let go of your conscious self and act on instinct." --[|Obi-wan Kenobi]

__Monday__
 * Invitation #1: Write about the place you most want to visit in the world, even if you've never been there... [OR] Write a sentence including the following: [|Thich Nhat Hanh], [|Silly Putty], and a [|tangerine]... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Conferences: Ramsey and Amanda
 * Independent Reading.
 * Writer's Notebook Entry #3: Google your author. Read everything you find. Make a list--"Notes to Self," as it were--of all the questions or observations you glean from what you find.

__Tuesday__
 * Invitation #2: This [[image:buddy1.jpg]] is your main character. You may not mention baseball in any way, shape, or form...[OR] If you were this woman [[image:148px-Carol_burnett.jpg width="111" height="143"]] what would be your deepest, darkest fear?... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Conferences: Clay and Rachel'e
 * Read [|this story]. Be prepared to comment on it and Hilding Johnson's [|"Victoria"] tomorrow during class.

__Wednesday__
 * Invitation #3: Start with a fragment. Follow with a sentence that starts with "And..." Follow that with a sentence that has four commas in it. Keep going... [OR] Write a story about a birth... [OR] Set a story in the flattest place you've ever been... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Finish up the Basic Elements of Storytelling: Beginning, Ending, Plot, Details (that mean something), Character, Setting, Voice, and--most important--"So what?"
 * Mock Critique: "Timmy" by Kelly Richards.

__Thursday__
 * C-wiki-tique! Group X - Stacy || Ashley ||| Group Y - Hannah || Natalie

__Friday__
 * Bread for you. Share with the nice substitute. There's cream cheese in the CW office fridge. It's still good. I swear.
 * C-wiki-tique Wrap-up:
 * Get in your groups (spread out--one group can go in the Lecture Hall). The idea is to have a conversation where you touch on areas the writers want to touch on.
 * Writers, this isn't about "confronting" people ("I can't believe you didn't understand that the saguaro was really a space alien!"), nor should you seek to express your intentions for the story just for the sake of expressing your intentions ("You see, Toast is both a Christ figure and also based loosely on a young Jay Leno, back when he was exclusively doing stand-up comedy. As such, he represents both the sacred and the profane in the modern world. It says so right there on page 9.") The story should suffice on its own. If readers didn't "get it," that's valuable information for you to know. Now, if it's vital to you that your "point" comes across, let your group know that and ask for their help in figuring out how the story can better express your intentions. (P.S. Intention is overrated.)
 * Even more valuable is learning what readers __did__ get (a process we started yesterday morning) and deciding how you feel about that. Your interactions should be centered around understanding exactly how people read your story and why they read it that way. Trying to convince them of anything--that they're right, that they're wrong, that your story is worse or better than they thought it was--is a waste of your valuable time.
 * The main point in these wrap-ups is to create a dialogue (a multi-logue, really) where writers can get clarity about overall responses, where readers can further clarify their reading experiences, and where writers can start to strategize about revision.
 * Give each story about fifteen minutes or so, because a bunch of folks have stuff due by 5 p.m. today and I want them to have substantial class time to work on it.
 * Conference Drafts: Abby || Danielle || Elaine || Amber. E-mail conference drafts in a MS Word attachment to my ASFA account: tjbeitelman@asfa.k12.al.us. The subject line should be "[Your First & Last Name]: Conference Story #1".
 * Critique Drafts: Ramsey || Amanda || Clay || Rachel'e. E-mail conference drafts in a MS Word attachment to my ASFA account: tjbeitelman@asfa.k12.al.us. The subject line should be "[Your First & Last Name]: Critique Story #1".
 * Invitations are due today as well, but you can hold on to your Writer's Notebooks.

WEEK TWO: AUG 14-18
"I believe that the very purpose of our life is to seek happiness. That is clear. Whether one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this religion or that religion, we all are seeking something better in life. So, I think the very motion of our life is towards happiness." --[|Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th and current Dalai Lama]

__Monday__
 * Invitation #1: Put the Dalai Lama (see above) in Tuscaloosa or The Summit or Linn Park. Put him in blue jeans, a black t-shirt, and sunglasses. What does he see?...[OR] Open a dictionary to any page and use the fourth word from the top in the second column to inform or spark your writing...[OR] Follow the muse...
 * Select your first Independent Reading book. Remember you should read at least one book of fiction and one book of nonfiction over the course of the semester. Books may __not__ leave the room.
 * Writer's Notebook Entry #1: Write a letter to the author of the book you selected. Tell him or her why you chose to read his/her book. Give a sense of how the first twenty or thirty pages are going. What do you expect to happen next? What do you expect to happen by the end of the book? Ask questions. Write as if you're actually going to send the letter.

__Tuesday__
 * Invitation #2: Incorporate the [|music] you are hearing right now (Interactivity! Step into the 21st century, my friends! It's kind of eerie, isn't it? The wiki knows all...) into an Invitation... [OR] Start an Invitation with the following: "Elvis ate three..." [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Conferences: Hannah & Natalie.
 * Read the excerpt from Jerome Stern's __Making Shapely Fiction__.
 * Writer's Notebook Entry #2: Make a list of all the "Don't dos" that you've done in writing stories. Were they successful stories anyway? Why or why not? Which of Stern's suggestions is most helpful to you in particular? Which is the most annoying? Why?

__Wednesday__
 * Invitation #3: Write about a character based on your meanest relative... [OR] Write a first sentence that includes LeBron James... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Go to StoryQuarterly on-line and read "Victoria" by Hilding Johnson. (Wiki's acting funny with links. Here's the URL: http://www.storyquarterly.com/prose/johnsonh23.htm.
 * Think about it in context of Stern's "Don't dos." We'll talk about the story and Stern tomorrow.

__Thursday__
 * Invitation #4: Pick one of the objects on the table and use it to spark an Invitation... [OR] Choose one of the previous Invitations (this week or last)... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * How to Critique.

__Friday__
 * Break bread.
 * Independent Work.
 * Conference Drafts: Ramsey || Amanda || Clay || Rachel'e. E-mail conference drafts in a MS Word attachment to my ASFA account: tjbeitelman@asfa.k12.al.us. The subject line should be "[Your First & Last Name]: Conference Story #1".
 * Critique Drafts: Stacy || Ashley || Hannah || Natalie. E-mail critique drafts in a MS Word attachment to my ASFA account: tjbeitelman@asfa.k12.al.us. The subject line should be "[Your First & Last Name]: Critique Story #1".
 * Submit Writer's Notebooks and this week's Invitations. E-mail Invitations in a MS Word attachment to tjbeitelman@asfa.k12.us. The subject line should be "[Your First & Last Name]: Week 2 Fiction Invitations".

THE LINGUISTIC ORIGIN OF "WIKI"

"Dickon curved his wide smiling mouth.

"It's as wick as you or me," he said; and Mary remembered that Martha had told her that "wick" meant "alive" or "lively."

"I'm glad it's wick!" she cried out in her whisper. "I want them all to be wick. Let us go round the garden and count how many wick ones there are."

She quite panted with eagerness, and Dickon was as eager as she was. They went from tree to tree and from bush to bush. Dickon carried his knife in his hand and showed her things which she thought wonderful."

--from //[|The Secret Garden]// by Frances Hodgson Burnett

WEEK ONE: AUG 7-11
"The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure." --[|Joseph Campbell]

__Monday__
 * Lecture Hall Breakfast Extravaganza.
 * Pick Cubicles.

__Tuesday__
 * Invitation #1: Describe your mother's face in intricate detail... [OR] Free associate with one or more of the following words: BEES || BOILS || TIN... [OR] Follow the [|muse]... Keep in mind that if it's your week to submit a __Conference Draft__, you may use Invitation time to work on that.
 * Discuss Syllabus.
 * Anonymous Question Time.
 * Get Wikified.
 * FYI: Small Critique Groups are as follows...


 * GROUP X || GROUP Y ||
 * Stacy Oliver || Hannah Aizenman ||
 * Ashley Jones || Natalie Reinhart ||
 * Ramsey Archibald || Clay Greene ||
 * Amanda Moore || Rachel'e Hatter ||
 * Elaine Crutchley || Amber Smith ||
 * Danielle Hurd || Abby Melton ||
 * Lydia Bailey || Peter Gray ||

__Wednesday__



__Thursday__
 * Invitation #2: What would these two folks have to say to each other? Put them somewhere together. One is trying to tell the other something important... [OR] What is [|this woman's] name? What is her story? Write in her voice... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Invitation #3: Write a three-word sentence with a verb and two nouns in it. Keep writing wherever it takes you... [OR] Write something to, for, or about Idi Amin... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Read "Bill" from [|Brad Watson]'s __Last Days of the Dog-Men__. Underline your three favorite sentences in "Bill."
 * Discuss the basic elements of storytelling: Beginning, Ending, Plot, Details (that mean something), Character, Setting, Voice, and--most important--"So what?"

__Friday__
 * Invitation #4: Write something about a character named Chastity Reach...[OR] Pick one of this week's previous prompts...[OR] Follow the muse...
 * Roundtable: Break bread and talk about the first week.
 * Conference Drafts due by 5 p.m. today: Stacy Oliver, Ashley Jones, Hannah Aizenman, Natalie Reinhart. E-mail conference drafts in a MS Word attachment to my ASFA account: tjbeitelman@asfa.k12.al.us. The subject line should be "[Your First & Last Name]: Conference Story #1".
 * Invitations due from everybody. E-mail Invitations in a single MS Word attachment to tjbeitelman@asfa.k12.us. The subject line should be "[Your First & Last Name]: Week 1 Fiction Invitations".