Thoughts on "The Frog Prince"

No prompt this time; find an aspect of the story that grabs your attention and describe in 1-2 paragraphs.

Thoughts on "The Ice Man" and "The Relive Box"

Post 1-2 paragraphs reactions on any part of the readings you find intriguing. 

Thoughts on Alice Munro's "Gravel"

Choose one aspect of craft (character, point of view, dialogue, scene--or something else, like setting or plot) and comment on how you found Alice Munro using it in the story.  Reference at least one specific scene or line.

Tom Kealey's "From Bremerton" and "Thieves I've Known"

This blog post is in two parts:  1) discuss one aspect of either of the stories that intrigued you, and 2) ask two questions you would be curious about hearing from him.  One of these can be about his writing process, but the other should be related to the stories themselves.

James Salter's "Bangkok"

Prompt:  Choose one line of dialogue you found particularly intriguging, and explain how it reveals something about one or both of the characters and/or their relationship.

Thoughts on "The Semplica-Girl Diaries" and "Sonny's Blues"

Question:  Choose the point-of-view character from one of these stories.  What are the limitations of his perspective, and how do those limitations contribute to the tension in the story?

Point of View

Read the entry on Point of View in the back of the reader.

Read the entry in the back of the course reader on point of view.  Write a 1 paragraph scene describing a character from the 3rd-person limited point of view.  Post on the blog by 5 p.m. Friday.  

Then, choose your partner's scene and rewrite it in 1st person.  Keep in mind that the location shouldn’t change with the different points of view, but the description of the scene will.  

NOTE: Post this as a comment on your partner’s post by class time on Monday.

Thoughts on "The Hull Case" and "Gorse is Not People"

Q:  How does the choice of POV affect the telling of these stories?

Thoughts on "The Short, Happy Life of Francies Macomber" and "Brownies."

Q: What is the most memorable scene out of these two stories for you, and what makes it so memorable?

Assignment 2: a closer look at a memorable character

Instructions:  Find a character in a story that you’ve read before that you found compelling.  This can be a main character, an antagonist, or even a secondary character.  If it’s a short story, try to track it down and reread it.  If it’s a novel, you can look at the way the character is introduced, or how he or she is portrayed in a  crucial scene.  Write a 2-3 paragraph analysis on the blog (comment under this post) on what makes that character compelling. You don’t have to provide a description of the story—just enough to get an idea of the character in the context of the story.

Responses to "Bullet in the Brain" and "Birdsong"

Prompt:  Which character was the most compelling out of the two stories, and why?  What makes for a compelling character?

Thoughts on Annie Proulx's "The Blood Bay" and Jhumpa Lahiri's "A Temporary Matter"

Prompt:  

"What made you want to turn the page in one or the other of these two stories?”  

Feel free to focus on only one story, or on both.  Also, feel free to explore something else that caught your attention in the stories, if the people before you have covered what main points you want to address.  Your blog post can expand on someone else’s blog post as well; I’d like the blog to be its own mini-conversation before our class meets.

No need to write exhaustively.  1-2 paragraphs, written as a comment to this blog post.

Welcome!

Welcome to English 90, Spring 2014.  We're going to engage as deeply as we can into these stories from the point of view of writers.  We'll free up our creativity, take risks, and have fun writing this term.

Your blog posts should be posted before class, and should be 1-2 paragraphs long.  Prompts will be given, but feel free to muse on another aspect of the stories that caught your attention.  You don't have to address each story, but can focus your comment on only one of the stories if you'd like.

On the right-hand side, you'll see a schedule of readings.  I'll keep this updated as the class progresses so you can see what's coming up.

Most readings will be in the reader; the ones that aren't will be distributed in class.

Looking forward to reading your posts!