03.04.11: UPDATE

READING: Building Fiction, pages 44-61; Best American Short Stories (2008), pages 36-50.

WRITING: For our previous writing assignment, you wrote 9 new openings to your short story: 3 "Into the Pot," 3 "Calm Before," and 3 "Statement to the Jury." Now we will further re-structure those openings based upon our reading of 3-person Point of Views. To this extent, you will need to re-write 1 of each type of opening 3 times (so, you'll have a total of 9 new openings). Below is a matrix of openings you'll be required to compose:

"Into the Pot" / 3rd-Person Omniscient	"Into the Pot" / 3rd-Person Objective	"Into the Pot" / 3rd-Person Limited Omniscient
"Calm Before" / 3rd-Person Omniscient	"Calm Before" / 3rd-Person Objective	"Calm Before" / 3rd-Person Limited Omniscient
"Statement to Jury" / 3rd-Person Omniscient	"Statement to Jury" / 3rd-Person Objective	"Statement to Jury" / 3rd-Person Limited Omniscient

As a reminder, your openings can be as short as a well-crafted paragraph (or as long as a page), so don't stress out too much about writing ridiculously long introductions, or making them "perfect." We're in the drafting phase, so its just matter of getting as many diverse openings written as possible.

03.02.11: UPDATE

READING: For next class session, please read Rebecca Makkai's "The Worst You Ever Feel," beginning on page 145 in Best American Short Stories (2008), as well as pages 23-43 in Building Fiction.

WRITING: As mentioned in class, you will need to complete the composite prompt that conflates exercises 4 and 5 on page 21. To this extent, you will need to write 9 new openings for the story you wrote for last class session: 3 "Into the Pot" versions, 3 "Calm Before the Story" versions, and 3 "Opening Statement to the Jury" versions. These opening need to be at least one full-paragraph in length and should be markedly different from one another; this will mean that, necessarily, you will have to re-imagine the narrative you've already constructed.

02.28.11: UPDATE

READING: For the next class session, please read pages 12-21 in Building Fiction and the first page of every story in Best American Short Stories (2008). Moreover, come prepared to talk about how the openings of these stories relate to the craft, technique, and aesthetic possibilities Kercheval discusses in BF.

WRITING: Write a double-spaced, 2-3 page short story (i.e. flash or snap fiction piece) and bring it to Wednesday's class session. As with the openings we read in BASS (2008), be prepared to discuss how your opening relates to openings in fiction as outlined by Kercheval.