What better way to end a creative writing course than with a discussion on endings? I pulled together some tips from various sources, and we talked about the kinds of endings we like best. We also read aloud a story with an ending I find incredibly powerful — "Gentleman's Agreement" by Mark Richard. Well, I …
Finding Your Voice
When I started planning for last week's class, I had no idea how I was going to help my students "find their voice." I'm not even sure I've found my own. But as I began researching and assembling a lesson plan, I realized I already had the resources that would help all of us. Early …
Suspense
So, last night we continued the conversation on plot with a lesson on suspense. I took a tip from Bret Anthony Johnston and began the lesson by reading The Monster at the End of This Book -- a great example of suspense. Then we talked about ways to add suspense to "Cinderella," since that's the …
Plot
I've been dreading the class on plot ever since I signed up to teach. The word itself is just so full and round and all-encompassing. It makes me think of clot, which makes me think of blood, which makes me think of survival. Plot truly is the lifeblood of a story, and in the past …
Setting and Description
This week's class met at the library since the community center was closed (it was the day after Christmas) but my students wanted to meet anyway, which was fine by me. Only four of them showed up, but that's also fine by me. I gave them a handout about setting — what the elements are, …
Dialogue
So far in my class we've talked about characterization and point of view, and last night we tackled dialogue. I wasn't sure how interested my students would be in this subject, but they ended up having a lot of questions — ranging in topic from punctuation to whether it's more effective to use dialogue or …
Point of View
After last week's disappointments, I really struggled with planning this week's lesson on point of view. I wasn't sure how much detail would be too much for the class. Should I just introduce first-, second-, and third-person narration? Or should I also get into third-person objective, limited, and omniscient narration? The third-person specifics seemed like …
Learning
Some writers believe writing can't be taught. Others claim anyone can learn to be a writer, that it’s all about discipline and perseverance. Personally, I subscribe to Galileo’s theory, which seems to combine the two ways of thinking: “You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself.” This theory …
Foray into teaching
I taught my first creative writing class this week! It was the first session of a free ten-week course at my local community center. So far I only have six students (and only four of them could come this time), but we're hoping to grow as we go. I'm happy to say that the group …
