Robert Frost: Poetry Writing: Day 2

Today, please read the introductory information about Robert Frost, then read the poems.

You will notice that Frost favors the themes of nature and death. But there's love and life in there as well. What makes Frost important, is that he writes about common, ordinary things (remember earlier this year--when I suggested you write about ordinary things and we read Ralph Fletcher's book of poetry, taking a walk outside to 'inspire' you?)

Frost uses poetic technique just like all other poets. He uses the sonnet form (a 14 line love poem), ode/hymn (praising a subject), he uses metaphor and similies to create imagery, he uses sound devices (alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, rhyme, etc.) to create sound imagery, and uses symbols (pay close attention to his titles!), tone, and diction to suggest human meaning and the events of our lives. He uses stanza forms, meter and pattern to create rhythm, and all that stuff we've been talking about since the beginning of this course. His work, in other words, is CRAFTED.

It all starts with a willingness to write about something we, as writers, notice about our lives. So today in the lab, stop self-editing yourself and being distracted, and write some poems:

After reading, go to the lab and write a poem.

Choose either Dickenson or Frost as a "mentor" and try a hymn about death, or a sonnet about nature, use em-dashes, or couplets, or any other idea listed in the bullet list below (see previous post), etc.

Create and complete a draft. Put it in your portfolio for safe keeping. We'll come back to it!

When you finish early (yes, you!) write another poem draft. Or do the reading you avoided at the beginning of this post. Read, write. Write, read. Repeat.

HOMEWORK: None.

Poetry: Week 1 (Spotlight on Emily Dickenson & Robert Frost)

Today's readings include the introductions for each poet, and the poems on the following pages: 463-475 (Dickenson) and 534-554 (Frost).

Some of this we will read together as a class, some in small groups or pairs, and some alone.

Key ideas/literary techniques referenced:

• Prose versus Poetry or verse
• Iambic tetrameter
• Iambic trimeter
• Iambic pentameter
• Hymn
• Ode
• Sonnet (both Shakespearean & Petrarchan) 
• Diction
• Tone
• Symbol
• Metaphor/simile
• Imagery
• Elliptical syntax
• Connotation versus denotation
• Grammar in poetry: particularly the em-dash, but also capitalization, sentence length, enjambment, etc.

LAB: Now it's your turn. After reading/examining these poets, go to the lab and write a poem. Choose either Dickenson or Frost as a "mentor" and try a hymn about death, or a sonnet about nature, use em-dashes, or couplets, or any other idea listed in the bullet list above, etc. 

Create and complete a draft. Put it in your portfolio for safe keeping. We'll come back to it!

Hemingway Project Rubric

Project Rubric:

9-10: story is imaginative, clever, well written, grammatically sound (almost completely free of proofreading, mechanical or spelling errors), story uses effective dialogue and effective description, story has an interesting theme, character is effectively characterized through all drafts, enhanced by clever and creative use of flashback and stream of consciousness. Story is turned in on time and is of excellent length, appropriate and effective for this story and its plot. Work is properly formatted as fiction. Story has a clever and creative title. Dialogue, paragraphing, and sentence structure is punctuated correctly with care and craft that makes the sentence variety interesting and effective. 

8: story is mostly well written, with some gaps or weaknesses, but nothing that makes reading the story laborious or difficult. Story is mostly grammatically sound (some errors) but nothing that gets in the way of comprehension. Story has some dialogue and description, but work is not as compelling as scores of 9-10. Character is developed by stream of consciousness and flashback sequences in some way. Story is turned in on time and is of adequate length for this project. The final draft is properly formatted as fiction. Story has an appropriate title. Dialogue, paragraphing, and sentence structure is overall adequately presented.

7: story is completed, turned in on time, but lacks the imagination and creativity of scores of 8-10. Some moments of storytelling, but story may need more plot development, conflict, character development, or attention to detail and specifics. Story might have dialogue or description, but this is relatively uninteresting, repetitive, unnecessary, or weakly presented by the author. Character lacks development. Flashback and stream of consciousness scenes are too limited or ineffective. Story may be late (missed deadline), and is on the shorter less developed in length. Work may have formatting errors. Story has a title. Dialogue, paragraphing, and sentence structure may have several errors.

5-6: story is as 7 above, but may be very late, or there are so many grammar and development or writing problems that makes comprehension difficult for a typical reader. Work is carelessly or hastily done. Student spent more time off-task in the lab than working on this project. Story lacks a title. Student still does not understand how to punctuate dialogue, use paragraphing, and create adequate sentences, often lacking punctuation or capitalization in the draft.

0: story or project not turned in.

Hemingway Project Due!

Your Hemingway Project (drafts 1-4) are due today at the end of class!

If you haven't completed Draft Four (or three or two or one...) please do so now.

Draft Four: Sentence length

1. Keep your sentences short and declarative in your non-flashback section of the story. Remember dialogue sounds more realistic when you speak in short sentences or fragments.

2. In your flashback scenes, find moments where you digress and create long, complex sentences. Use em dashes to indicate digressions. Use semi colons ; to connect related clauses (but don't over use these). Use commas to make a simple sentence into a complex one. Use an ellipsis … to indicate trailing off. Use repetition of phrase to expand a comment (chiasmus, anaphora, and anadiplosis).

Ex: “They knew who had shot their fathers, their relatives, their brothers, their friends…”;

• Semicolons
• Em-dashes
• Ellipsis

Use conjunctions to add phrases to your independent clauses (and, or, but, etc.)

3. Try to find a rhythm in your writing. Most paragraphs start out with short sentences. This allows for a certain length of speed. Then as your sentences get longer and more complex, you can slow or speed the eye of the reader. Usually, you want important information to be delivered slowly. The use of repetition helps create a meter and rhythm for your sentence structure.

IMPORTANT: 

Before you turn in your draft:

• Proofread your writing!
• Correct grammar/punctuation, etc.
• Punctuating Sentences
• Punctuating Dialogue
• Paragraphing
• Give your story a TITLE
• Collect all drafts and put them in order: 4th on top, 3rd under that, 2nd after that, 1st after that! Your drafts should have proper MLA headings and indicate what draft # they are.

Note: Grades will be reduced if you make mistakes with your punctuation, dialogue, or paragraphing! Be warned--and learn to format your work correctly and professionally!

If you finish before the bell (it rings at 2:09, by the way), please entertain yourself by reading and writing some poetry--as our next unit will go back to poetry.

Here's a sample poem & writing prompt, if you need one:

Ode to Love by Jennifer Militello

Place its toothpicked pit in water, watch the grist
of its insides grow. Witness its populous bloom,

honeycombed with rough. Its cobblestones grip
the heart in its mitt, a closed fist thickened

and gritty as silt. The swamp of the plumb beat
adamant as weeds. The dish of which is salted

by complexities or cries. It is a house in which
we cannot live, the quiver on the arrow

we cannot launch. It grows late over Nevada
as we watch. Strikes its gullies: we grow burnt

as a moth. Mimics a sleep of archives and
the small lies all forget. Mimics all laughter

broken by the time it leaves the mouth.
With its moving parts, its chimes, its gleam,

it muddies our archways, lying low, gives off
noise and steam; its mechanics clear the fence.

It must be wooed. Must be quieted. Hush. It must
be soothed. Has a snag. Has a bleed. A drape.

Flaps awkwardly, at its edges, a heron. At
its center, a wide bottom perfect with fish.

Copyright © 2015 by Jennifer Militello.

PROMPT: Pick an emotion (in Militello's example she has picked "Love") and write an ODE to it--a poem of praise. You can see that she seems to be inspired by recipes or instructions. You can incorporate this kind of idea in your poem as well, if you'd like.

Remember that poetry heavily relies on IMAGERY: so use metaphors, similes, symbols, allusion, and personification somewhere in your poem to create visual imagery. Use alliteration, assonance, consonance, onomatopoeia, and rhyme for SOUND imagery. Count your syllables and create metrical patterns, etc.

Be creative and risky. If you finish one draft, pick another emotion and write about that one! Keep writing!

HOMEWORK: Complete your Hemingway extra credit novel, if you are reading one. 

Hemingway Project Drafts 3 & 4

Hope you enjoyed the play, if you went. Today, continue working on your draft three of your Hemingway Project. Remember to keep all drafts and label them! Your story should be much longer than it started!

Use the lab today to write:

Draft Three: Stream of Consciousness

1. Examine your flashbacks. Find moments where your character can include digressions, get stuck on topics, trail off, etc. You are trying to replicate or reproduce how the character’s mind works.
2. Write these flashbacks using stream of consciousness.

Done? Go on to Draft Four!

Draft Four: Sentence length

1. Keep your sentences short and declarative in your non-flashback section of the story. Remember dialogue sounds more realistic when you speak in short sentences or fragments.

2. In your flashback scenes, find moments where you digress and create long, complex sentences. Use em dashes to indicate digressions. Use semi colons ; to connect related clauses (but don't over use these). Use commas to make a simple sentence into a complex one. Use an ellipsis … to indicate trailing off. Use repetition of phrase to expand a comment.

Ex: “They knew who had shot their fathers, their relatives, their brothers, their friends…”;

Use conjunctions to add phrases to your independent clauses (and, or, but, etc.)

3. Try to find a rhythm in your writing. Most paragraphs start out with short sentences. This allows for a certain length of speed. Then as your sentences get longer and more complex, you can slow or speed the eye of the reader. Usually, you want important information to be delivered slowly. The use of repetition helps create a meter and rhythm for your sentence structure.

HOMEWORK: Complete your Hemingway, extra credit novel, if you are reading one. We will be completing our Hemingway Project next class, so prepare for that!

Drafts 2 & 3 of the Hemingway Short Story Project

Stream of consciousness: a narrative device or technique a writer uses to develop character (characterization). The writer does this by presenting the THOUGHTS of a character as they would occur in the mind. It is similar to an internal monologue that a character has about his/her situation in the narrative of the story. The character is speaking to him/herself in stream of consciousness. This technique is unique to fiction or poetry. It is similar to the voice over (VO) in film or the soliloquy in plays. It is useful to:

• Provide characterization or develop character
• Explains the attitude or POV of the character's mind or thought process

Let's learn about stream of consciousness with this short lecture/pod-cast video.

Draft Three: Stream of Consciousness

1. Examine your flashbacks. Find moments where your character can include digressions, get stuck on topics, trail off, etc. You are trying to replicate or reproduce how the character’s mind works.2. Write these flashbacks or part of these flashbacks using stream of consciousness.

Still confused? Check here and here.

HOMEWORK: Extra credit: Keep reading Hemingway's novels. Go see the play Richard II at 142 Atlantic Ave (MuCCC) this weekend or next week.

Flashbacks in Fiction: Hemingway Project: Part Deux

Flashback: a narrative technique useful in plotting. Usually stories are written in chronological time (i.e., a story is told from the beginning to the end). A flashback, however, allows the writer to insert a scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point (present). Flashbacks are used to:

• Provide important background or story details
• Develop details about a character (characterization)
• It helps to develop setting
• It can be used to create suspense

Let's see how it works. Let's read the first few pages of Hemingway's "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and examine how this works or is crafted. Then, continue reading with a partner (yes, you and someone else).

Take 10-15 minutes today in class to work with a partner. Find examples of FLASHBACK in the story "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" and IDENTIFY how these flashbacks:

• Provide important background or story details
• Develop character
• Develop setting
• Create suspense

Record your names on an index card and identify the page # in which you found an example of flashback. Turn this in as credit today by the end of time in room 238.

Then, to the lab!

LAB TASK:

Please label your story draft: (You will want to show all four drafts of your work for this project)
Draft Two: Flashback

1. After you complete the basic story (see post below for details), write a second draft including the following:

NOTE: You should not ADD to your dialogue scene. That draft has sailed like a boat across the sea. Leave it alone. Find moments IN the dialogue to interrupt and expand the story!

a. Find moments in your dialogue/story for your character to refer or comment about his/her past. Select these moments and for each one, develop the inner dialogue of your protagonist.
b. This “flashback” should reveal personal opinions, reflect on the situation or comment made, and/or connect ideas and people with your character’s past. Your character’s past should be detailed with much verisimilitude.
c. You may cover years or many days or a great length of time for your flashbacks. You may also change scenery or setting.

2. Separate your flashbacks from your dialogue or first draft by italicizing them.

Complete your draft #2 today in the lab. Effectively, your story should be LONGER by at least 2-3 pages.

For assistance:

• Making Characters Come Alive
• Using flashbacks
• Punctuating sentences
• Punctuating dialogue (for the thousandth time!)

HOMEWORK: None. If you are not caught up, please do so. Next class, we will cover draft #3 of this project. If you are reading Hemingway, continue to do so.

Hemingway Project; Draft #1

Ernest Hemingway is one of the most influential and important writers of the 20th century. Let's learn a little about him today.

Lab Task: Begin writing a narrative scene where you only provide the dialogue (i.e., you do not need to describe a lot of the setting, but indicate the setting through the dialogue of your characters). For an example of what I'm talking about, take a look at the first section of the story: "The Snows of Kilimanjaro".

Here are the rules:

• Your dialogue should be between at least two characters. You may have more than two characters in the scene. 
• To start, if you need help, think about WHERE your characters are (pick a specific setting), WHO (who is here in this setting--your "characters"), and WHAT (what are the characters physically doing--also often the conflict, plot, and theme). 
• Genre is completely up to you.

Try to write at least a page (double-spaced) or as much as you can during the rest of 7th-8th period today. If you need a break, stop and read one of the short stories in the packet. Then go back to it. 

Avoid unnecessary distractions!

When you have completed your first draft, continue writing. You may write poetry, fiction, non-fiction, scripts, etc. Choose a genre and get writing!

I will be collecting your 1st drafts of the Hemingway Project at the end of class today. We will be using these drafts for our second draft assignment next class!

Get going!

HOMEWORK: Read the packet of Hemingway Short Stories.
Extra Credit: Read Hemingway's first novel: The Sun Also Rises and/or The Old Man & The Sea. More info on this if needed.

Genre Collection Test; Genre Story Project Due!

After our test today, please turn in your books. After you complete the test, please retire to the lab and continue to prepare and polish your first draft of the genre story project.

BEFORE YOU TURN IN YOUR WORK:

• Check your grammar/spelling/punctuation
• Make sure you have given your story a title
• Make sure you have an MLA formatted heading
• Polish and craft your writing. Go back and read your work--add specific details where you are vague, cut or edit unnecessary or redundant words, cut or edit unnecessary dialogue, etc.

Advice videos from students' questions (watch and learn!):

• Basics of Plotting/Sequencing
• Plotting & Plot Elements
• Putting Imagery in a Story
• Choosing POV & Tense
• Making Characters Come Alive
• Using flashbacks

The genre story project draft is due at the end of class. It is better to turn in an unfinished draft, than not to turn in a draft at all.

HOMEWORK: None. If you did not complete your first draft to your satisfaction, please continue working on it. Craft your writing. 

Endings; Prep for the Test; Draft Due Soon!

Please gather in your groups this afternoon and check in with your reading group. Have you finished reading the book? Talk about the CRAFT of the WRITING of the stories you have read with your group.

When you conclude your discussion, please use the time in the lab to complete your first draft of your story. You should have continued to work on this story during break, but if you did (or did not) please use the time in the lab to consider how you ended your story.

• The story project is DUE THURSDAY, April 9.

As you revise and prepare your story project, consider how you ended your stories. If you are unsatisfied with your endings, look below for some advice regarding new endings:

Endings can be:

Circular: The beginning and the end reflect upon one another, often using the same situation, setting, characterization, or even repeating the same line or idea presented in the opening. This provides a sense of parallelism in your story structure. It is best used when suggesting that the past and future of a character/story is similar.

Matching vs. Nonmatching: similar to a circular ending, the first image is transformed, and is repeated at the end. This is most like the pattern in music: theme and variation. The first image of the story foreshadows or suggests the last image. Sometimes this is obvious, other times the image is subtle.

Surprise ending: Often an ironic ending, or an ending that surprises the reader. The American writer O.Henry was a master of this kind of ending. It is often found in horror/suspense or mystery fiction. The "surprise" needs to be planned by the writer, who should include details that prepare the reader for the surprise, instead of "shocking" the reader, who usually resents this strategy.

Summary ending: A summary of the outcome of the story – this kind of story wraps the plot up very tightly, suggesting the future for the characters. No loose ends. This sort of ending has fallen out of favor lately, so use it at your own peril.

Open ending: used largely in contemporary fiction, the story doesn’t end nice and neatly (like the summary ending). Instead, it leaves an important question posed to the reader, so that the reader must interpret the ending. Caution: this can sometimes confuse a reader. It is best used for subtle effect.

Ending with an image/idea: ending a story with an important detailed image or idea that reflects the theme of the story can "stain" the idea or image in the mind of the reader.

Try one of these endings for your story!

HOMEWORK: Be prepared with notes on your reading collection for the test Thursday. Be prepared to turn in your first draft of your short story Thursday as well.