Saturday, September 4, 2010

Rough Drafts of your first major essay, your Descriptive Essay, are due Saturday with THREE COPIES. So the idea is you can write about whatever you want, whatever moves you, whatever you want to spend time thinking and writing about. But use description to move your piece along...I look forward to reading them all. Make sure to type it up in proper format and come to class with three copies. Ann, thanks for volunteering to let us all workshop yours!

Also think about the bigger meaning--it's not just enough to describe, but what does this MEAN to you, and what do you want it to mean to your reader? Remember Virginia Wolfe's moth? It was a descriptive story, yes, but there was a deeper meaning...

I could not find an electronic version of "Coming into Language", but you could check out the entire book by Jimmy Santiago Baca, Working in the Dark, and it is the first chapter, I believe. Also if you go to Amazon you can read the first few pages...

Here's a link to "Shitty First Drafts" by Anne Lamott.

Here's a link to "10 Things to Stop Misspelling"

Journal Prompt #2: Dreams

Think of a particularly vivid dream that you've had--the more recent the better. Write it down using as much detail as possible. Think about using strong nouns as well as lots of sensory details (what it looks like, smells like, sounds like, feels like, tastes like). Try to bring it to life and make it as vivid as it was when you dreamed it.