F‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍irst part (planning): Review your notes from prior classes,

F‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍irst part (planning): Review your notes from prior classes, during which we talked about the “style moves” pursued by authors like Simone de Beauvoir, Kathleen Collins, Amiri Baraka and Jean-Paul Sartre. (Not to mention the storytelling strategies used by filmmakers like Akira Kurosawa!) Ask yourself again: What did they want to do, with their language choices? Think about how we analyzed the changing tone of Beauvoir’s main character, or the changing tone that Baraka’s character of Clay uses. After that: complete the homework reading for this week (short stories by Ralph Ellison, Mary Gaitskill, and Robert Coover, on Blackboard). Take notes: what stylistic choices are these writers making? (Might Gaitskill’s “Secretary” be intent on placing the reader in a deadened, boring environment — at least at the start, before the big change? Does Coover want us to have an intoxicated feel, during his fast-moving story, “Going for a Beer”?) Second part (the actual writing of your own original, creative story): Here are some more leading questions, to get you going on a short story (or play, or poem). Do you want your story/play/poem to be dramatic, or comic? (Or both?) What about human existence would you like the story to IMITATE or reflect? From there, you should c‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍ome up with a central dramatic problem, and a group of characters (usually at least 2) who have to address or face that problem. This is a chance for you to be creative—and to apply the structures of storytelling, as discussed in class, to your own interests as a writer and thinker. At the end of your story, the CENTRAL PROBLEM doesn’t have to be solved for all time. (Remember the lingering sense of ambiguity that exists, even at the end of “Rashomon,” or even in the strange endings to some of the other short stories.) But the reader should feel that some distance has been traveled, since the opening of the story. You don’t have to write a masterpiece in the next week. But whether you choose a story that reads like a diary entry of a character — or whether you choose to tell a tale from 4 perspectives (or any other idea you like!) — you’ll want to use language in a purposeful way. Connect the style (or form) of your writing to the purpose (or meaning) of your story. Remember: you don’t have to invent a novel full of characters or plot-twists in order to craft an interesting story. If you’re having trouble coming up with an idea, recall Aristotle’s insight (from our first class!) — specifically, that we tend to like to see things in dramas that we wouldn’t want to ‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‌‌‍‍‍‌‍‍‍‍‌‍‍see in real life.