home

=ASFA CREATIVE NONFICTION WORKSHOP=

Welcome to the wikispace home of the ASFA Creative Writing Department's Fall 2006 Nonfiction Workshop. Here you will find writing prompts, class assignments, as well as links of interest to writers. Members of the workshop will also be able to enter on-line critiques of their classmates' essay drafts.

ALL-NEW AND IMPROVED REMAINING CRITIQUE SCHEDULE!
My apologies, but circumstances have necessitated a shift in the critiquing order. Here's the new order:


 * **Wed., Nov. 29:** Mia and Danika
 * **Thur., Nov. 30:** Marcus and Sam


 * **Wed., Dec. 6:** Natalie and Hannah
 * **Thur., Dec. 7:** Libby and Amanda

Remember that we're not doing the wiki-post for these critiques. Just jot notes in the margins. The main focus is going to be on oral critique. And again, you will not be required to submit an essay for your creative nonfiction jury. (Note: Those of you in my fiction workshop still have to submit a jury story for that class). Instead, you will get a 100% for your CNF jury grade this semester provided you've simply turned in your final essay for critique.

Does this mean you are done with nonfiction? How does that maniacal laugh go..."muwahaha"? At any rate, the answer to that fiendish question is a big fat NO! You now **__have__** to submit one of the essays you wrote this semester--polished and revised--to the Alabama Writers' Forum's upcoming Literary Arts contest. That will be one of the requirements for next semester's 8th period class. More on the logistics of that later.

WEEK SIXTEEN: NOV 20-24
"I discovered quote-unquote ordinary people have much more common sense, and they understand and connect much better than many of the so-called experts. I have given up on experts." --Azar Nafisi

TAKE A LOOK AT SOME SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL RELATED TO OUR MONDAY DISCUSSION:

 * an [|interview] with Azar Nafisi.
 * a [|chronology] of U.S.-Iran relations throughout the 20th Century.
 * also [|this] article about a proposed ban on full-length veils (burqas) in the Netherlands.

SECOND VERSE, SAME AS THE FIRST
If Madeline's okay with it, go ahead and critique her essay today. I'm not sure where Ivy's essay stands--if you guys have it and are ready to talk about it, go ahead. If not, we'll figure something out when I get back next week. PS...Anybody know where I can get a new set of lungs?

Have a good long weekend.

EVERY NEW CHALLENGE PRESENTS AN OPPORTUNITY!
Obviously, I'm not there. You, however, are there. Hence...

YOUR MISSION, IF YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT:
Decide amongst yourselves whether you would like to proceed with critique today. My preference is that you do--Molly won't be there tomorrow, and the jury's still out on me. With that said, if Molly and/or Ashley would prefer to wait until I'm there, we can figure out a Plan B somehow.

If you do go ahead with critique, I'll meet with Molly and Ashley separately to debrief and give my feedback to their respective critique drafts.

Also if you critique today, remember to keep track of time. There are really only about 75 total minutes in 8th period; it's effectively shorter than third. If you start at 3:15, you'll need to wrap-up the first critique by just after 3:50.

Thanks for your flexibility. Whatever you decide is fine by me.

WEEK FOURTEEN: NOV 6-10
"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to." --[|Joseph Heller] from [|Catch-22]

__Monday__
 * Dance performance.

__Tuesday__
 * Conferences: Libby || Hannah || Sam || Mia.

__Wednesday__
 * Critique: ???????????????????????????????????????

__Thursday__

WEEK THIRTEEN: OCT 30-NOV 3
__Monday__
 * Independent Work.
 * Start reading __Reading Lolita in Tehran__ if you haven't already.

__Tuesday__
 * Conferences: Molly || Ashley || Madeline

__Wednesday__
 * Conference: Ivy

__Thursday__
 * Discuss the first section of __Reading Lolita in Tehran__.

__Friday__
 * Critique Drafts: Molly || Ashley || Madeline || Ivy
 * Conference Drafts: Libby || Hannah || Sam || Mia

WEEK TWELVE: OCT 23-27
"People know what they do; they frequently know why they do what they do; but what they don't know is what what they do does." --[|Michel Foucault]

__Monday__
 * Take a look at this on [|Lyric Essays]. And also [|this].
 * Take a look at this [|interview] with Dennis Covington.
 * And how about [|this] for yet another example of how to write a profile!

__Tuesday__
 * Post an "essay angle" (i.e. abstract) for your profile essay.
 * Independent Work.

__Wednesday__
 * Independent Work.

__Thursday__
 * Finish discussing __Salvation on Sand Mountain__.

__Friday__
 * Conference Drafts due: Molly || Ivy || Ashley || Madeline

WEEK ELEVEN: OCT 16-20
"The man who never alters his opinion is like standing water, and breeds reptiles of the mind." --[|William Blake]

__Monday__
 * Discuss __Salvation on Sand Mountain__.

__Tuesday__
 * Museum Trip with Profile Partners

__Wednesday__
 * Early Dismissal: Nonfiction does not meet.

__Thursday__
 * Fall Break

__Friday__
 * Fall Break

SAMPLE ESSAY ANGLE

 * Sam**

__Nouns__: Movies | //Birmingham// //Weekly// | “Slacker”

__Essay Angle__: It seems that every generation describes itself as lost. And yet I suspect that most every generation secretly believes that it has all the answers. And it not-so-secretly believes that the generation before it couldn’t be any more clueless. I’d try to observe Sam with older people, especially men, especially his father, who runs //Birmingham Weekly//. I’d watch a bunch of Kevin Smith movies (//Clerks// and //Mallrats//, especially), maybe read Douglas Coupland’s //Generation X//, Hemingway’s //A Moveable Feast//, and F. Scott Fitgerald’s essay, “The Crack-Up.” Also a book called //I Don’t Want to Talk About It: The Secret Legacy of Male Depression//. Not that Sam’s depressed; it just has a lot of interesting stuff about how boys get socialized.

Ultimately, I think there’s something to be said here about why young men (especially young men who feel like they have a lot to say to the world) sometimes feel a need to wear their hair long, move to Paris, and/or make indie movies. (Too bad Sidewalk’s come and gone, but I’d definitely ask Sam about it if I was his partner.) At ASFA in particular--perhaps high schools and universities around the country--the "slacker" or "outsider" culture seems to appeal to boys/young men in particular. Why don’t these fellas just get with the program, join the Key Club, and call it a day?

(SOME) BIG TICKET ITEMS

 * Gender || **Art** || "Things" || **Time** ||
 * Cosmos || **War** || Tools/Work || **History** ||
 * Relationships || **Men** || Food || **Myth/God/Religion** ||
 * Race || **Women** || Power || **Sexuality** ||
 * Death || **Nature** || Aesthetics || **Home** ||
 * Society || **Body** || Science || **Pop Culture** ||
 * Place || **Love** || "America" || **Progress** ||

WEEK TEN: OCT 9-13
"Try to love the //questions themselves//, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to //live// the question." --[|Rainer Maria Rilke]

__Monday__
 * __Capote__.

__Tuesday__
 * Finish and Discuss __Capote__.

__Wednesday__
 * Theatre Performance: __The Wind in the Willows__.

__Thursday__
 * Discuss __Salvation on Sand Mountain__.

Essay 2, Rough Beast, Slouches Toward Bethlehem
"And what rough beast, its hour come round at last / Slouches toward Bethlehem to be born?" --[|W.B. Yeats]

__Requirements__
 * Final product should consist of 10-20 pages (2500 - 5000 words)
 * Essays should incorporate at least one--but not more than three--outside print source. Keep in mind, this is __not__ a scholarly essay. No need for MLA format. Cite your source in the text itself, as Elizabeth Gilbert does in __The Last American Man__. Do so informally, artfully, as if you're inviting another voice into the discussion. Please eschew words like "thus," "henceforth," and all other fancy essay-speak terminology.
 * At least two real people should be given a voice--i.e. direct quotes of some substance. That doesn't mean you're transcribing; it just means you need to talk with enough people, in enough depth, that their words, verbatim, can add something important to your essay. Something that a mere paraphrase can't capture. Note: these are people you've talked to, not outside print sources.
 * Spend at least two hours outside the course of the regular school day with your profile partner, and then find a place in your essay for a narrative account of this encounter.
 * This is not a character sketch. Your aim is to use the information you glean about your partner to say something insightful about a Big Ticket Item.

__A Hypothetical Sequence__


 * Mr. Flynn is my profile partner.
 * I learn that he plays disc golf.
 * This intrigues me.
 * I go with him to Birmingham's disc golf course and we play a round or two.
 * I meet the disc golf regulars and talk to them, observe them, try to figure out what makes them passionate about this fringe endeavor.
 * In the end, I see that disc golf is, in its way, a counterculture movement.
 * I research the history of the frisbee, the free-spirited culture that has surrounded it since the 1960s.
 * I draft an essay that makes some point about American recreation, comparing disc golf--and its colorful, counterculture adherents--to more genteel pursuits like conventional golf and tennis. Though they have certain things in common, what separates them is a certain ironic awareness and rejection of convention in the disc golfers.
 * The essay is filled with sensory detail comparing discs to lots of majestic things that fly, comparing disc golfers to Greek discus throwers (with no small amount of irony), and both humor and insight into why it is that people do what they do with their free time, and how their choices define them as either conventional or not, part of a well-defined fringe culture or part of America's larger, accepted mainstream. Also why people feel a need to belong to one or the other--fringe or mainstream.

So that's the progression: Learn what your profile partner is passionate about, what he or she spends his/her time doing, and observe them in that pursuit. Think about Big Ticket Items. How can you tell this part of your partner's story so that it speaks to a larger audience, a larger concept? Talk to other people about this pursuit. Read about it. Think deeply. Now go write.

__Some Possibilities for Gathering Ideas__


 * Help your partner make a recipe neither of you has ever made. Eat it with your partner and her/his family.
 * Spend the afternoon at the mall. People-watch. Try on clothes. Play video games in an arcade. Browse through a bookstore. Eat something.
 * Go to a religious service with your partner. Maybe it's your partner's regular place of worship. Maybe it's a place neither of you has ever been, a service in a faith tradition you've never observed.
 * Go to a high school football game in your partner's neighborhood.
 * Spend an afternoon with someone your partner loves. Just you and that person--not your partner.
 * Spend an afternoon with someone your partner hates--perhaps his or her arch enemy. Again, just you and that person, not your partner.
 * Ask a random ASFA student from each grade and each specialty what their overall impressions are of your partner.
 * Take ten pictures of your partner--some candid, some posed. Display them prominently near your computer.
 * Trade mixed CDs with your partner. Listen to your partner's at least once a day.
 * Talk to an expert. Heck, talk to __two__ experts.
 * Re-read the excerpt from __The Last American Man__ and use it as a model.

__Last Advice__
 * It's totally fine for you to "appear" in this essay. It's up to you. Make the aesthetic call--do you want to be a character, injecting a more intimate voice into the piece (a la __The Last American Man__)? Or do you want to give the appearance of objectivity (a la __In Cold Blood__)?
 * Don't limit yourself to the straight interview, where you have a series of questions and you faithfully jot down everything your subject says. In some cases, that might work best. In others, it's probably better to just have a conversation and either tape record it or, immediately afterwards, write down everything you remember about the conversation.

WEEK NINE: OCT 2 - OCT 6
__Monday__
 * Finish Midterm Family Feud
 * Independent Work
 * **__Post Midterm Mystery Questions Today!__**

__Tuesday__
 * Critique: 14 - Natalie || 93 - Amanda

__Wednesday__
 * Critique: 14 - Marcus || 93 - Danika

__Thursday__
 * Midterm

WEEK EIGHT: MIDTERM REVIEW
__Test Date__ Next Thursday, October 5

__A Note on the Composition of the Test__ It will be multiple choice, matching, and essay. The multiple choice and matching will cover material we've read and discussed in class. You will be given three of the essay questions below, from which you will choose two to complete. Here you will be expected to show an understanding of the key concepts in class discussions and the selections from our class readings.

__Reading Material__
 * Ch. 1 from Elizabeth Gilbert's __The Last American Man__.
 * __In Cold Blood__ by Truman Capote.
 * __The Brandon Teena Story__.
 * __The Beatles: First U.S. Visit__.

__Terms and Concepts__
 * The Four Platitudes: Good writing is good thinking || Creative Writing is not a subject matter || Writing is an act of connection || Make it interesting!
 * Big Ticket Items.
 * Cinema Verite.
 * Subjectivity vs. Objectivity.
 * Journalism < ... > Art.
 * Empathy vs. Sympathy.

__Possible Essay Questions__
 * Compare the two films we've watched this semester in terms of subjectivity and objectivity.
 * Compare Truman Capote's narrative approach to his subject matter versus that of Elizabeth Gilbert as it's represented in the first chapter of __The Last American Man__.
 * Eustace Conway and Perry Smith are both flawed human beings who have particular trouble establishing and maintaining human relationships. Discuss the ways their respective "biographers" (Capote and Gilbert) lure us into establishing a connection with them. Cite specific examples from the texts.
 * Capote writes of Dick and Perry: "The two young men had little in common, but they did not realize it, for they shared a number of surface traits." Likewise, the events of __The Brandon Teena Story__ and __In Cold Blood__ share a number of surface traits. What important *differences* are there? How do the documentarians' (Muska/Olafsdottir and Capote) artistic decisions draw out those differences? How do those artistic decisions influence what you take away from your reading/viewing experience? Ultimately, how are their respective messages--their "So whats?"--different?
 * Mystery Question: Go to the discussion tab and submit a possible essay question based on the material we've covered so far. I'll pick one to be an option on the test.

WEEK SEVEN: SEP 18-22
"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, 'You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done.'" --[|George Carlin]

__Monday__


 * Invitation #1: Word association game with your profile partner. Come up with a list of ten provocative words. Try to come up with words that you think will elicit interesting responses from your partner in particular. Read them out to your partner and record the first word s/he thinks of. Lather, rinse, repeat for twenty minutes. Save the last ten minutes for an open-ended conversation based on your answers.
 * Conferences: Molly and Madeline.
 * Writer's Notebook: Read [|this]. Respond.
 * FYI: We'll be critiquing essays by Sam and Libby this Wednesday.

__Tuesday__
 * Invitation #2: Make a schedule--Mon-Sun, 24/7--of your partner's typical week. Map it out at half-hour intervals.
 * Conferences: Mia and Hannah.
 * Independent Work.

__Wednesday__
 * Critique: 14 - Libby || 93 - Sam.
 * Critique Wrap-Up.

__Thursday__
 * Discuss __In Cold Blood__.
 * __Turn in this week's Invitations if you haven't already__. [This means you, Marcus.]

__Friday__
 * Conference Drafts due by 5 pm: Natalie | Marcus || Amanda | Danika.
 * Critique Drafts due by 5 pm: Molly | Madeline || Mia | Hannah.

WEEK SIX: SEP 11-15
"One of the tempations of the artist is to believe himself solitary, and in truth he hears this shouted at him with a certain base delight. But this is not true. He stands in the midst of all, in the same rank, neither higher nor lower, with all those who are working and struggling. His very vocation, in the face of oppression, is to open the prisons and to give a voice to the sorrows and joys of all. This is where art, against its enemies, justifies itself by proving precisely that it is no one's enemy."[|--Albert Camus]

__Monday__
 * Invitation #1: Sit down with your partner and talk about where you were and what you did on September 11, 2001. What other galvanizing shared cultural events (Katrina, the 2000 Presidential Election, Oklahoma City, Columbine, etc.) do you remember? Let the discussion go where it goes. There's no specific goal. Just talk for thirty minutes. When you're done, write for at least fifteen minutes about your partner--NOT THE STUFF YOU TALKED ABOUT. FYI: There is no other option today.
 * Work on Critique Drafts.
 * Conferences with Libby and Sam tomorrow.
 * __Tuesday__
 * Invitation #2: Read [|this]. Write about it however you see fit...[OR] Read [|this]. Write about it however you see fit...[OR] Read [|this]--or not--and write about whatever you want to.
 * Conferences: Libby and Sam.
 * __Wednesday__
 * Visiting author and ASFA alum Sally Nemeth.
 * __Thursday__
 * Critique: 14 - Ashley || 93 - Ivy
 * Turn in this week's Invitations if you haven't already.
 * __Friday__
 * Conference Drafts due by 5 pm: Molly | Madeline | Mia | Hannah.
 * Critique Drafts due by 5 pm: Libby | Sam.

WEEK FIVE: SEP 4-8
__Monday__ LABOR DAY __Tuesday__
 * Invitation #1: Help proof RMR2...[OR] Try to remember the last unusual tool you used. In this context, "unusual" is defined as any tool you don't use on a daily or weekly basis. Recount the events surrounding your use of said tool...[OR] Has your profile partner done anything that has surprised you recently? Write about it...[OR] Follow the yellow brick road...
 * Conferences: Ashley and Ivy.
 * Continue reading __In Cold Blood__.
 * __Wednesday__
 * Invitation #2: Imagine you are sitting on the floor in your family livingroom, kitchen, or bathroom. Rewind to the very beginning, the first instant you set foot in this room. Now, for a moment, put this image/memory into extreme fast forward. Imagine/remember every single thing that has happened in this particular place from that moment forward. Rewind. Fast forward, this time slower. Rewind, fast forward, but slower still. Write all the things you see, or at least all the things that will fit into thirty minutes. Engage your senses. Don't worry about continuity or polish. Just write...[OR] Think about the first time you tasted one of the following: skin, metal, mud, cream, blood, or something you shouldn't have tasted but did anyway. Think about the last time you tasted that same thing. Now write. [OR] Write about the last time you cried (or wanted to) for a reason other than sadness.
 * Independent Work: What do Libby, Sam, Ashley, Ivy, Molly, Madeline, Mia, Hannah, Natalie, Marcus, Amanda, and Danika all have in common? They all have to finish __In Cold Blood__, start __Salvation on Sand Mountain__, submit essays for critique, and read and critique three to four of their peers' essays...all in just over three weeks! Oh, and did somebody say "midterm exam"? Whee...!
 * __Thursday__
 * Discuss __In Cold Blood__ through pg. 155.
 * Independent Work.
 * Conference Drafts: Libby and Sam (due Friday by 5 p.m.)
 * Critique Drafts: Ashley and Ivy (due Friday by 5 p.m.)

WEEK FOUR: AUG 28-SEP 1
__Monday__
 * Invitation #1: Describe the most conventional family you know...[OR] Describe a mega-suburb near and dear to where you live...[OR] Start with the following: "Normal people live lives of..."
 * Start __In Cold Blood__.
 * __Tuesday__
 * Invitation #2: Write all the things you've noticed your profile partner doing or saying since last week. If you run out of things, list all the questions you would ask them if you could...[OR] Describe the most unconventional family you know...[OR] Write about a recent, salacious pop culture happening...[OR] Follow the muse...
 * Continue __In Cold Blood__. We'll talk about ppg. 3-48 tomorrow.
 * __Wednesday__
 * Invitation #3: Make a list of all the people you need to talk to in order to get a complete picture of your profile partner. Be sure to include different demographics and relationships. What questions might you ask each of them? Surely the range and scope of your questions will depend on who you're asking and what kind of relationship s/he has with your partner...right? [OR] Think of something you've done recently that would have been far more enjoyable had your partner been with you. Speculate about how (and why) that event would have been demonstrably different...[OR] Imagine a place your partner would like to visit or live. Describe it... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Discuss __In Cold Blood__, ppg. 3-48.
 * FYI: We'll be discussing through pg. 155 next Thursday, September 7.
 * __Thursday__
 * Drafting Essay #1 (see below for ideas).
 * Continuing __In Cold Blood__. Keep thinking about the raw material Capote had at his disposal and where/how his imagination fleshes it out into a whole--and quite sensory--narrative. Also think about things like Empathy, Research, Immersion, along with our Four Platitudes and our Big Ideas.
 * Mulling over (not necessarily writing, at least in any organized fashion) your Profile Essay. Remember Capote's "cherry pie girl," his Mrs. Hideo. These are tangential folks who--arguably--had a big role in shaping his idea of who his "characters" were. Who's your "cherry pie girl," your Mrs. Hideo? Imagination is always at play in a writing project, perhaps moreso before you even begin writing. Use yours to think about how you can best characterize your partner, how you can best frame a portion of her/his life to say something essential about the human experience in 2006 on the planet Earth. What do you think you //need// to know about your partner? What do you //want// to know? What would sort of be, you know, kind of //interesting// to know? (P.S. Good writers/thinkers are always prepared for their expectations to be flip-flopped--that which seems sort of inconsequential at first can quickly turn into a flat-out essential, //need//-to-know morsel.)
 * Some combination of the above.
 * Conference Drafts: Ivy and Ashley. Due tomorrow by 5 p.m. E-mail them to tjbeitelman@asfa.k12.al.us with the subject line: [Your Name]: Nonfiction Conference Draft #1.
 * Invitations due by the end of the day today.

Ideas for Essay #1 (Or Whatever You Want to Call It)!

 * Choose a significant event from your past for which you have a collection (or at least a few) of photographs and write a nonfiction narrative of approximately 1000 words to help you create the scene. Then talk to someone else who was also present at the event. If you can, tape record the conversation and then transcribe it. Read the transcription and write a narrative of approximately 1000 more words based on your interview. After reflecting on the two different narratives, write a concluding section that makes commentary on the nature of memory/memoir.
 * What is an entirely improbable thing for you to do, an improbable subject for you to encounter, an improbable place for you to go? Go there (preferably with someone else), try it, and then write a first person account of your (honest) experiences. Aim for 3000 words or so.__DISCLAIMER__: Do not do anything Mr. Beitelman wouldn't do...and Mr. Beitelman is a very, very skittish person. To wit, he did not shave or drive a car until he was seventeen years old. So simply put, __DO NOT__ put yourself or others in harm's way and __DO NOT__ break any laws, school rules, or pertinent religious, social, or family strictures. Thank you. The Management.
 * Write about a single place--that is, a specific locale, not a country, state, or city--where three specific and significant events in your life have taken place. Give equal time to narrating each event, weaving the place and its role/significance into the narrative. Again, aim for about 3000 words.
 * And, of course, you can always...Follow the muse!

WEEK THREE: AUG 21-25
[|Albert Maysles] __Monday__ __Thursday__
 * Documentary: __The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit__.
 * Writer's Notebook Entry #1: Transcribe fifteen minutes of your life--focus primarily on capturing what people say. Don't comment, characterize, or set the scene. Just write what people say, preferably without them knowing.
 * __Tuesday__
 * Invitation #1: Transfer your 15-minute transcription from your Writer's NB to a Word document, including only the very barest essentials of what was happening...[OR] Using your 15-minute transcript as a refresher, draft your account of that brief snippet of your life without using any dialogue. Try to capture something essential about who you are and why you are who you are in recounting those particular fifteen minutes...[OR] Write about someone in your family who has strong feelings regarding The Beatles.
 * Mystery Activity 101!
 * Invitation #2: Write a free-form, free-associative character sketch of your interview partner based on your observations of her or him over the last twenty-five-and-a-half hours... [OR] Pick a Big Ticket Item (BTI) and write as much as you know about how that BTI relates to your interview partner. Do that for as many BTIs as you can. Don't know how a particular BTI relates to your partner? Speculate!... [OR] Start an Invitation with the following: "[Your partner's full name] is a [noun]. S/he [present tense verb]. If..." [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Discuss __The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit__ and follow up with Mystery Activity 101!
 * Mystery Activity 102! First, go [|here].
 * Mystery Activity 102! First, go [|here].
 * Mystery Activity 103!
 * Turn in Writer's Notebook and Invitations by 3 p.m. tomorrow.

WEEK TWO: AUG 14-18
[|Tom Brokaw] __Monday__ __Tuesday__ __Wednesday__ __Thursday__
 * Invitation #1: Pick an article on the Washington Post's [|homepage], preferably on a topic you don't know much about. Read it and write a litany of questions related to the article. Slowly build up the pace and intensity of your questions...[OR] Write about the last time you were extremely cold... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Finish with Big Ticket Items.
 * A Creative Nonfiction Continuum.
 * Finish Creative Nonfiction Continuum.
 * Documentary: __The Brandon Teena Story__.
 * Writer's Notebook Entry #1: Discuss the first half of __The Brandon Teena Story__ as it relates to any or all of the following: Fact || Journalism || Truth || Art || Story || Place.
 * Invitation #2: Describe--using all the tools of narrative (character, detail, setting, scene, dialogue, etc...)--a recent incident in which someone close to you exhibited the quintessential qualities of manhood or womanhood. Instead of commenting or explaining, use the narrative to convey your notion of "quintessential qualities of manhood or womanhood"... [OR] Write about an injustice you witnessed in person... [OR] Follow the muse...
 * Finish __The Brandon Teena Story__. We'll discuss the film in class tomorrow.
 * Writer's Notebook Entry #2: True or False: Brandon Teena was a man. Explain your answer. Your audience? Brandon Teena.
 * Discuss __The Brandon Teena Story__. Talk about it in terms of the Creative Nonfiction Continuum, the Four Platitudes, and the Big Ticket Items.
 * Tie up this week's loose ends (Writer's NB and Invitations).
 * Independent Work.

WEEK ONE: AUG 7-11
[|Lord Byron] __Monday__ __Tuesday__
 * Syllabus, Critique Groups, and Wikification.
 * Draft Semester Expectations.
 * Invitation #1: Describe a single physical feature of someone you know well. Be detailed and sensory. Use this physical feature to define--metaphorically, spiritually, and/or literally--the person in question... [OR] Write about what would happen if your mother was the next President of the United States... [OR] Free associate with one or more of the following words: BOW || COAL || SYRIA...
 * Read the excerpt from Elizabeth Gilbert's __The Last American Man__.
 * Wiki: Men are from Mars? Go to the discussion tab and respond to the post "Last American Man."

__Thursday__
 * Invitation #2: "When I look into [|Richard Scrushy's] eyes, I see my..." Keep going. [OR] Write about the northernmost place you've ever visited. What did it smell like? What weird food did you eat?... [OR]** Follow the muse...
 * Finish reading the excerpt of Gilbert's __The Last American Man__. When you're done (or as you read) mark passages (phrases, sentences, paragraphs) that you particularly like.
 * Four Platitudes: Good writing is good //thinking// .......... Creative Writing is //not// a subject matter .......... Writing //is// an act of connection .......... //Make it interesting!//
 * Write about the last excellent meal you ate. We're talking excellent, now. Not just tasty. Or satisfying. Focus on the sensory nature of the food, allowing the setting and the people involved to provide the "background noise"... Write about your most recent visit to one of the following: a funeral home; a doctor's office; the uppermost floor of a very tall building; or a house of worship... Follow the muse...
 * Review the Four Platitudes and discuss Big Ticket Items.