FICTION WORKSHOP 3

FICTION WORKSHOP 3

Reviewer:_____________________ Reviewed:_____________________

1) For the first step of today's workshop, exchange hard-copies of your rough draft with someone in your assigned workshop group and read their story from beginning to end.

2) Once you read your partner's entire story, write two paragraphs concerning the characterization of the central characters. The first paragraph should detail the external characterization. Does the writer offer limited but salient traits for the audience to visualize the main characters? What visually differentiates them? How do they sound (i.e. speak)? Does the writer employ dialect? If so, what problems could arise from this choice? Additionally, what textures, smells, and tastes describe these characters? If the writer does not use any of these senses to develop the main characters, what can you suggest? The second paragraph should detail the internal characterization of the main characters. Does the writer provide insights into the psyche, desires etc. of the main characters through the creation or development of thoughts, memories, dreams, and imaginings? If so, do these moments occur at appropriate times throughout the story? Are they presented with subtlety, or do they read as heavy-handed? Likewise, as Kercheval writes, such thoughts function best within the framework of a story when they reveal something about the characters that the characters themselves are reluctant to reveal. Given this claim, do the thoughts of the main character in your peer's story operate in such a manner?

3) How does the writer employ or engage minor characters? Do they serve a specific purpose, in that they work to move the plot forward or reveal a particular characteristic about the one of the main characters? If the story contains minor characters that are superfluous to the narrative or development of the main characters, how could they be altered or re-introduced so that they properly accomplish this task? If the story you are reading does not contain minor characters, suggest ways in which your peer could write them into the story. Write at least two paragraphs the deal with this issues.

NOTE: When writing your responses to your peer's short stories, make sure you incorporate specific concepts and terminology from Kercheval's Building Fiction. Likewise, when offering revisions to your partner's conflict and scenes, refer to particular examples from the selections we've read in Best American Short Stories during this genre cycle as models of justification for why you've made certain suggestions

FICTION WORKSHOP 2

FICTION WORKSHOP 2

Reviewer:_____________________ Reviewed:_____________________

1) For the first step of today's workshop, exchange hard-copies of your rough draft with someone in your assigned workshop group and read their story from beginning to end.

2) Once you read your partner's entire story, create two Freytag Pyramids: one that traces the external conflict and one that traces the internal conflict. To this extent, in addition to clearly stating what the conflict (external and internal) is, you'll need to diagnose the crisis point (i.e. the moment the central character makes a decision), the falling action, and the resolution. If you're having a difficult time coming up with these aspects for your peer's story, this may be a solid indication that the story you're reading does not contain these elements.

3) If, then, the story you're reading does not contain these elements, write two paragraphs outlining particular modifications to both the main character's internal development and the narrative external development that will make it possible for these elements to occur within the story. If the story you're reading does contain these elements, write two paragraphs outlining particular modification to both the main character's internal development and the narrative's external development that will intensify, heighten, or make more engaging the the conflict that has been created.

4) Are there specific scenes within the story, or does the piece you're reading contain mostly plot summary? If what you're reading is mostly summary, write two paragraphs that offer suggestions as to where scenes can be developed and how. For example, where would the story benefit from dialogue, character description (both internal and external), and descriptions of the settings that offer reader's sensory information. If the story you're reading contains scenes, how could the elements of dialogue, character description, and descriptions of setting be further developed or re-written to make the story more memorable? Write two paragraphs explaining where and how that can be done.

NOTE: When writing your responses to your peer's short stories, make sure you incorporate specific concepts and terminology from Kercheval's Building Fiction. Likewise, when offering revisions to your partner's conflict and scenes, refer to particular examples from the selections we've read in Best American Short Stories during this genre cycle as models of justification for why you've made certain suggestions

FICTION WORKSHOP 1

FICTION WORKSHOP 1

Reviewer:_____________________ Reviewed:_____________________

1) For the first step of today's workshop, exchange hard-copies of your rough draft with someone in your assigned workshop group and read their story from beginning to end.

2) Once you read your partner's entire story, diagnose the Point of View (POV). Is it third-person limited omniscient, first-person peripheral, second-person, etc. Afterward, list any portions of the story wherein the POV may be inaccurate. For example, if the story is told in third-person limited omniscient, does the narration ever fall into third-person omniscient? Or, if the story is told in first-person, does the speaker ever have access to scenes and thoughts that are not his/her own? Furthermore, does the narrative struggle to maintain that POV? By this, I mean, must characters in the story (or the story itself) engage in overly contrived or unreasonable acts so they have access to particular scenes of knowledge? Kercheval, for instance, uses the example of the grandmother putting her ear up to the door of a closed room so as to overhear a conversation as an example of strain narrative (and a clue as to why that POV may be the incorrect choice).

3) Write at least two paragraphs on how the choice of POV shapes the conflict of the story. These paragraphs should also address sections of the story where the external and internal conflicts can be re-arranged or augmented from that POV so as to offer a clearer or more full understanding of those conflicts. Perhaps, for example, we, as readers, do not have enough access to the POV-character's thoughts so as to provide us with knowledge of that character's internal motivations and desires that propel the narrative forward.

4) Select one POV that your partner has not written his or her story in. Write at least two parargraphs addressing how this alternate POV would change the overall framework of the story. What would this new POV offer that the current POV does not? How and why would this POV be more beneficial than the current POV in a particular context?

NOTE: When writing your responses to your peer's short stories, make sure you incorporate specific concepts and terminology from Kercheval's Building Fiction. Likewise, when offering revisions to your partner's POV, refer to particular examples from the selections we've read in Best American Short Stories during this genre cycle as models of justification for why you've made certain suggestions