Catch up...to Move on

Sometimes a writer without a deadline can be a dangerous (or at least unproductive) thing...We are approaching mid-3rd quarter and will be ready to move on to a new theme this coming Monday, so I want to have everything we've done so far wrapped up.  Please use your grade check to see if there is any work you are missingand tie up any loose ends by the end of the block tomorrow, Friday, 30 January. (Notice the grade check does include the two New Posts on your blog assigned today that are also due by the end of the block tomorrow as well as your journal--these have not been counted against you even though there is a 0% there--no scores have been entered at all...same with the 3 color-inspired pieces you did earlier this week that I'll be looking at and scoring today).  If you do work you had a zero for, mark it on your grade check and give it back to me so I know to look for it.  

When we move on Monday to DREAMS and writing, I won't be counting points for stuff from the previous themes of objects and color anymore, whether you've been absent or just out of the loop somehow.   

Also:  I need to collect your JOURNAL tomorrow for a mid-quarter check.  After 4 weeks at 5 pages a week, you should have at least 20 full pages (10 points per page=200 points). Any extras you have can be counted toward the next check.  Some entries on time is better than nothing at all or all of it late.  Please turn in your journal before you leave class on Friday, 30 January.  Thanks!

COLOR story

In a New Post (of at least 300 words, with at least one image and a creative title) on your blog by the end of class on Friday, write a short story (fiction or non-fiction narrative) that begins with a sentence that includes the word BLUE.

Start each of the paragraphs (at least 4 total for your story) following with  a sentence using a different COLOR word.  

Use the COLOR word only once in each paragraph, but suggest the color in as many ways as possible. 

For example:

The world had turned GREY. Nothing but mud and asphalt surrounded the unpainted house, little more than a box made of concrete blocks. Charlie, dressed in faded work pants, rubber boots, and a thick wool sweater, steadied himself with a hand on the top rail of a weathered cedar fence. Behind him, nothing but ash-coloured sky, bare trees, and plumes of smoke belching from the factory in the distance. A lone sparrow rested on a branch, one beady eye watching.

Your future is so bright...

...you've gotta wear shades. Have you heard that song before? Perhaps our guest speaker from The Art Institutes inspired you to pursue a creative career...maybe in writing or maybe in filmmaking or something else. There are, of course, lots of other schools that offer creative writing programs and there are several different directions you might take to work as a writer.

No matter what you see yourself doing down the road, take some time to do a New Post on your own blog by the end of class on Thursday and respond to the following questions:

• discuss 2 interesting ideas from the presentation Wednesday
• ask 1 question about something discussed
• write about where you'd like to be in 1 year, 5 years, 10 years and 50 years (this might include careers or work, accomplishments, family and friends, homes, possessions, emotions, etc.)
• include at least one image that shows what you see in your future
• include the word "future" somehow in the title of your post
• if you'd like to put a link in your post the way I have with the words in red (maybe to the college you're interested in or something else) I can show you how--you just highlight the word you want to be linked, click on the icon with the little green circle and chainlinks on the toolbar then copy and paste the url/web address of the page you're linking to...I usually change the text color of that word, too, just to be consistent

When you've finished your own new post, read several of your classmates' and make a comment.

color{time}

I hope you enjoyed our various activities last week using COLOR as our inspiration.  I was pleased with your effort and impressed by your productivity.  I hope you came up with some things you are proud of.

In a New Post on your blog Tuesday, please post at least 3 color-inspired pieces you wrote last week.  If you'd like to split them into 3 separate posts, that's okay, too.  Try to include at least 1 piece that is longer.  And definitely include some images.  If you need me to show you how to do that, I'd be happy to. You could write about something you included in your silhouette.  You should also have several different pieces created in response to the paint sample cards we worked with.  If you'd like to write something new or add to something you started in your journal, that would also work. 

If you finish, you could revisit your object-inspired piece and add to or accentuate it.  You could also tour some of your classmates' blogs and see what they're working on.  If you choose to leave a comment, let's stay positive and supportive rather than critical at this point.  

We'll be moving on to a new unit of study centered on dreams and dreaming next...

Be sure you have turned in your color/dream silhouette drawing with at least 10 words and 5 images to Mrs. Fraser  for points. Thanks!

Share + Comment

You all worked so hard on your object pieces--I'd like for you to take some time today to see what your classmates have come up with.  I've divided the class into groups of four or five--see the lists at the end of this post.  Please find the blogs of the other members of your group (check the sidebar of the class blog) and complete the following:

1.  Read your classmate's Object Piece and leave a comment with 3 specific, supportive and complimentary remarks regarding the piece and how it was written.   Nothing critical or suggesting changes at this point...

Go beyond a short, generic comment and get specific. As in:  "You really got me with that twist at the end--I would have never guessed it was her sister stalking her all along.  Creepy!"  Or:  "Your use of dialogue was effective and pulled me into the story.  I never thought a conversation between a little boy and his baseball could sound so natural."  Don't cop out and put a rushed, generic comment like, "It was good" or "Nice job."   

If, by chance, someone in your group has not posted an object piece yet, move on to step 2 on that blog and check back later in the block or focus on the other group members' stories.

2.  Then browse the rest of that classmate's blog and leave a positive, specific comment on his or her I am... Poem.

3.  Move on to the blogs of the other people in your group.

4.  If you have time and would like to read and/or comment on other class members' stories, you can cruise through the blogs on the sidebar of our class blog and see what others have been up to.  Leave comments if you have time.

5.   In a New Post on your own blog, write up a brief summary of the pieces of each of your classmates in your group and name at least one detail or technique you really liked.  

We'll be moving on to a new theme this week (COLOR!), so today is the day to offer this feedback and post what you've read to your blog.  

Groups of 4 (and 5):

Madalyn
Christian
Alora
Callie

Cora
Rachel
Collin
Madison

Jane
Emmi
Beatrice
Boo

Leslie
Lindsey
Keishay
Garrick
Court

Emily P.
Laura
Ashlie
Thomas
Ally


Thank you!  Hope you enjoyed your long weekend and I look forward to reading your pieces myself...

{objects} of inspiration

"One very important aspect of motivation is the willingness to stop and to look at things that no one else has bothered to look at.  This simple process of focusing on things that are normally taken for granted is
a powerful source of creativity..." ~Edward de Bono

Please post a new piece of writing today on your blog inspired by our look at found objects.  Please spend time to come up with at least 500 words (you can type on Word for a word count then copy and paste).  Also, add at least one image today (click on the icon on the tool row that looks like a photo--I can show you how, just ask).  Be creative and take this assignment in whichever direction you choose:  fiction, narrative, poetry...You may come up with a finished product today or maybe just a good start on something you revisit and finish up on Tuesday when we'll be back in the lab--this piece will be due at the end of class that day.

Some options:

• use one of the objects in the photo above that we passed around during class Wednesday (expand on one of the ideas you jotted down in your journal)
• use one of the objects you found on our walk around campus and the park (you could even steal someone else's object, like Leslie's mysterious bone or Rachel's cash register drawer or something someone you were walking with spotted)
• go back to one of the objects you shared with everyone those first days of class or something someone else shared
• write about something you thought of when we looked at the articles about important objects from history via the V & A Museum, the 101 Things that made America from the Smithsonian, the website auctioning off thrift store items along with writing about them...
• or something from our discussion of doctor turned poet William Carlos Williams and his short poems about the red wheelbarrow and the plums in the icebox...
• P.S. Here's a link to more information about the 3D printing technology we talked about--scroll to the video at the bottom--this whole idea both fascinates and baffles me and the gun "printed" out makes me think of lots of things to write about)
• I also thought this collection of business cards from famous people was interesting and might provide some inspiration
• you can make a story up or you can write a story that is true
• you could be inspired by a combination of these objects
• the object itself may or may not end up in your writing

I've commented on your "I am..." poems and given credit for those in the gradebook.  I'm still missing a handful of blogs functionally linked on the sidebar of this class blog.  If you don't see yours there and/or operating properly, please check in with me.  

When you finish your piece (due at the end of class on Tuesday, 20 January), you can continue to customize your blog page with gadgets in the sidebar, an interesting background, updated profile info, etc.  Be sure you've figured out how to add images--they are an important aspect of your blog and will accentuate your writing.  I can also show you how to put in links like I did (all the red words above).  It's really easy.

Thanks for making class so pleasant so far...enjoy your 3 day weekend!

Stealing {authentically}

It's been a real pleasure getting to know you all this past week.  I hope you are enjoying our class.  I have been quite impressed with your creativity and willingness to try new things here from the very start, and I look forward to seeing all that you come up with throughout the semester. 

I wanted to give you a preview of some of the other ideas I'd like us to consider and be inspired by over the next 14 weeks, all in keeping with Jarmusch's idea that it's more than okay to use everything around you to get ideas, that it's not where you get the idea but where take it. 

I'm organizing in terms of "themes" (rather than genres) and have a variety of activities connected to each to get you started on pieces of your own making.  Here's what I'm thinking (perhaps in this order or with some adjustments):

Writing inspired by:

• Objects
• Color
• Dreams
• Art
• Books
• Music
• Food
• Childhood
• Photos
• Films
• Gifts



Leave me a comment here if you have an idea or something you'd like for us to study or try.

Thanks again for being such wonderful people to end the school day with...

XO Mrs. Fraser

Make it yours

Thanks for creating a blog today.  I hope you will continue to add to and refine your layout to make the page reflect your style as we go.  

I'd like to try the project above in class on Monday to personalize your spiral writing journals. If you have magazines, comic books, posters, etc. you'd like to cut up, please bring them.  I have lots of magazines in the classroom you can use, too.

Be sure you have filled at least 5 pages in your journal this week!  Have a great weekend!

I am...Mrs. Fraser

I am...

a daughter, the oldest of 3, raised on small town sports, a life in the country and the desire to be a good girl.

a sister, the first to do most things, lucky enough to have been born with 2 built-in best friends.

a granddaughter, missing the days spent in the country with my Nanny and Papaw and my 9 cousins, riding horses bareback, picking vegetables from the garden, sitting around the old dining room table for meals and domino games, going shopping in a Ford Crown Victoria piloted by my lead-footed grandmother and keeping in touch through letters with my family far away.

a Drury girl, where I learned about Alice Walker, the secrets of Pi Beta Phi, how to live with roommates, and that the world is much bigger than Cassville, Mo.

a wife to Ryan, my friend and partner since I was 19, a man who knows I don't like to talk when I first wake up, who loves me even though I don't like to cook, and who every day makes me feel like the smartest, prettiest, funniest girl he's ever known.

a mother to Macauley, a sixth grader who's been reading since before kindergarten but can't tie his own shoes, a little boy discovering this world faster than I can show it to him, already living his own life and letting me in on only pieces of it, amusing me and frustrating me and making me better every single day.

I am...

sweet tea and chocolate milk, chips and guacamole.

puffy, comfy white couches, ironstone pitchers and platters, chippy white furniture, burlap and linen, mismatched silverware and old photos, flea market finds and treasures that make me smile.

a tattered teddy bear bought with my birthday money in Eureka Springs when I was 8.

tightly folded notes passed between teenage boys and girls in class and church.

photos and scrapbooks and a project always in the works.

big, thick books and glossy magazines.

sleeping late on weekends, especially when it rains, in a soft bed with lots of covers and feather pillows.

I am...

dark blue eyes and my dad's olive skin, black-framed glasses when I read or watch TV.

leggings and Pikos, lots of black, jeans and flipflops, blonde hair in a messy ponytail, Uggs and a cardigan.

in the fourth decade of my life, closer to 50 than I am to 20 now, whether I feel like it or not.

not 16 anymore.

older and wiser, more experienced.

Let's do this!

Blogs are an interactive, visual way to share our writing, and I'm excited for you to create your own. I am providing some written instructions on the yellow handout, but I think you'll really just learn as you go. What I've set up here is a central class blog where I will post assignments and sometimes my own writing. You can usually check here for directions or what you need to get started, so please take the time to read the information I post. When you create your blogs, I will add each of them to a "blog roll" on the right hand side--from here you can hop on and see what everyone else is up to, and I'll be looking for you to make supportive and appropriate comments on your classmates' blogs beginning in the near future. This whole process of creating a blog might be a new one for most of you, and I appreciate your willingness to jump in and try something unfamiliar. You'll just have to spend a little time playing around with your layout, and I hope you feel free to add your own personal touches and make your page your own. You can start with the basic setup and let it evolve from there.

Some things to know/keep in mind:

• A post is a new entry you create from scratch with your own thoughts and ideas. A comment is an idea or thought you attach to someone else's post.
• While your blog is meant to be a place for you to express yourself and for others to communicate with you, we aren't using our blogs for socializing like facebook or texting. I hope you're kind and friendly to one another, but resist posting casual messages or silly small talk or really anything not related to our work together as a class. Later on, when you've moved on from Creative Writing, you may want to continue your blog and of course then you can do whatever you want with it!
• Since your blog is an "assignment" for a writing class, please attempt to use proper grammar and punctuation. You should not use text-speak or abbreviations or slang that you might use in texting or email. i do not want you to type in all lowercase like this. I DO NOT WANT YOU TO TYPE IN ALL UPPERCASE LIKE THIS. Use complete sentences and your best grasp on writing conventions. This is not to say we won't all make a few mistakes here and there, but we want it to appear that we were trying not to, not like we just haphazardly slapped some stuff down.

When you've created your own blog today, leave the url of it as a comment on this post. I'll link all of them to this page and this will be our home base. You can name your blog whatever you want, but I'll be listing them by your first and last name in the blog roll because it's much easier for me to keep track of that way.  

I do hope you enjoy this process...I'm here every step of the way so don't hesitate to ask me if you have questions or want some guidance.

Your first post will be the "I am..." Poem you drafted on Thursday. You should be able to copy and paste the text from the draft you saved. Try to add an image or two using the button that looks like a photo (next to the blue word Link) on the tool bar. 

Also, please leave a comment on my "I am..." post telling me something you found interesting or something we have in common.