Writer's Journal
02/17/20
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(1) Write your own version of thirteen ways of looking at something, inspired by Wallace Stevens' poem "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird"; (2) Listen to Baz Luhrman's "Everybody's Free (to Wear Sunscreen)" and write your own freewrite on the life advice you could dispense; (3) Start with the prompt "You taught me" and freewrite.
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02/12/20
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(1) "Tom's Diner" by Suzanne Vega: freewrite to the cadence and rhythm of this song... (2) Start with the prompt "I remember" and continue with what comes to mind; (3) start with the prompt "As a child I walked", and continue on.
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12/11/19
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Focus on elements of the absurd and the surreal, and this, or this and do the following freewrites: (1) Absurd freewrite see instructions here; (2) Surrealist freewrite: Imagine yourself in a waking daydream describe where you are and what you're doing - you can be anything, have any power, make it a totally random stream-of-consciousness;
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12/06/19
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Using "Pine" by Zane Andrew, "The Cabin" by Phil Town, and "Snow White Adopted" by J.D. Edwin as models, focus on elements of magical realism and do the following freewrites: (1) Using the information garnered over homework about an anniversary, use it to freewrite a story - what character would find that anniversary significant, adding in one mystical element to weave through (2) Follow the instructions on this exercise. See also "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World" By Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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12/04/19
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Gothic genre part deux: (1) folklore or mythology explaining the how or why something is or came to be; (2) brainstorm a list of titles of anything (books, movies, songs etc) freewrite but not with this title as your lead, instead find a way to weave it into your freewrite at some point, once or more than once;
HoMeWorK Using Brad Herzog's article "The Art of Anniversaries" ; think of a list of things and research one or a combo of some you could use for a similar feature - this day in history, anniversary of an album, someone's death, a book, a fictional character, a toy, a logo, etc...and then look up info on this. bring this info to next class. |
12/02/19
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Using "The Dead Boy at your Window" by Bruce Holland Rogers as a model for Gothic elements. Then we did a pastel emotion abstract creation, which we then freewrote a story to.
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10/22/19
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Free Verse - it's finally here, time for open form poetry! WOOP! No rules. Content creates the form. Even a single word can be a line. You have total free reign. You're aiming for 30 lines.
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10/18/19
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Villanelle is a 19 line fixed form poem which has a song-like quality to the pattern of repetition used. It has often been used to treat topics such as obsession, being an outsider, and pastoral or country life / nature.
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10/16/19
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Roundel is a poetic form that circles around a subject and echoes the main point in a refrain.
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10/10/19
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Sonnet - Decide between Shakespearean (English) or Petrarchan (Italian) - and draft a whole sonnet (14 lines in iambic pentameter)
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10/08/19
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Beginning to shape one exercise into several forms. Today it's this:
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10/03/19
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Continuing to explore different types of poems before we look at forms. Today it's these:
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10/01/19
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Poetic Forms handout; freewrites will explore these different forms. Today we're doing these:
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09/18/19
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Experiment with point of view exercise:
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09/13/19
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09/11/19
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09/09/19
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09/05/19
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09/17/18 - watch Elizabeth Gilbert's talk "Your Elusive Creative Genius"