Creative Writing: Week 4 Assignments

Setting:

Setting the scene for your action can be very crucial. You need to be able to use description is such a way that you can draw your readers into the scene. Good use of description allows your readers to participate in the story as if they were actually there. Scene description is the first "virtual reality." Description should be written in such a way that the scene is revealed to the reader (shown, not told) using as many of the senses as possible. What was the light like? What time of day? Hot or cold? Was it a noisy place? Setting is an opportunity to bring some realism into your work. Don't have your characters attempt an intimate conversation on the corner of a busy street unless you are then using setting to point out some problems they may be having.

Small Groups

You will then send your group and me any writing (your fiction) or any responses that are due. If you receive any work from your group, you will read their work, answer questions about the work and send the responses to the author and to me.

Reading

As you read short stories posted to the board this week, pay particular attention to the setting. Ask yourself if you can picture where the action of the story is taking place. Look for paragraphs that contain description. Are there clues in the conversation between the characters that tell you something about the setting? Can you picture the setting in your mind? Does the writer draw you into the world of the characters? How does the author achieve that effect, or if he or she does not, how could they accomplish this better?

Assignments:

Read the discussion on "setting" and respond to it and to the postings of two other classmates.
Turn in your second piece of fiction to your group area and comment on the postings of the others in your group.
Write two entries in your e-journal.
Post a story or journal entry to the fourth week class discussion and comment on the work of two others not in your group.

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