Welcome back! I hope your break has been restful and awesome. Now, you've selected and read collections of short stories over break. Having done this, you'll want to think about how you reacted to what you've read. One of the aspects of being an excellent writer is reading critically. This entails reading more than just the words on the surface of the page. Critical reading requires really interacting with the text; asking questions, having likes/dislikes, being able to provide evidence for reasons, etc.
During 3rd period, you're to write a blog post reviewing the short story collections you've read over break. What do I mean when I say "review"? Provide a brief summary of what your collection contains and consider some of the following questions: Who's the author? What type of stories did s/he write? What did you like? Why did you like it? What did you not like? Why? What were the strengths/weaknesses of the collection? Whenever reviewing a text, be sure to provide evidence from that text to support any claims you might make (but no spoilers!). Check out the NY Times list of book reviews for some examples. Another resource to look at is the Purdue OWL; I've used this site throughout college and continue to use it still. It's super helpful and breaks complex stuff down into much simpler terms. Get to it!
Over the past few weeks, we've been looking at and practicing a variety of different creative short pieces of fiction. You've done hint fiction (25 words or less) and micro fiction (200 words or less). It's easy to think that writing shorter pieces is easier than writing longer ones. That's not always the case, especially when you're trying to grab the reader's attention and only have limited space to do so. Today, during 4th period you're going to practice the 500 word short story. You guessed it, it's a short story that contains 500 words or less. Around the country/world these 500 word stories are collected in various contests for a range of ages, competing for awards, scholarships, and literary recognition.
With writing short fiction of 500 words or less, it requires the sort of scrutiny you've practiced with the other shorter forms of fiction. You should look seriously into keeping what you need in the story and removing anything that's unneeded. However, you're the one who makes these decisions. Here are some videos with helpful advice: every word has to count, read other authors, and write something you'd like to read!
Here's an example of a rather powerful 500 word short story. Now, in your own writing, you're allowed to do some creative exploring. If you're having trouble thinking of something, use some of the advice from earlier to give you a starting point. A helpful starting place I'd recommend would be the short story collections you've read over break. Use a theme, aspect, or style from the author/stories you've read to inspire your own creativity. Finally, write, write, WRITE! I'll be wandering around keeping an eye on things. I'm here to help, obvi, so let me know.
HOMEWORK:
If you've not finished your 500 word short story, save your progress and continue to work on it. Post it to your blog by next class. I also have video release permission forms that need to be taken home and signed by a parent/legal guardian. This is for my own requirements at U of R as well as from New York State. Please bring these back signed (or refused) by next class. Thanks!
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