This Week

Follow syllabus: You should be reading Fiction Packet 3, writing about that on your blog, reading Lamott for Thur., and working on your fiction stories (see 2 exercises in previous posts below).


Fiction Exercise for this week:

Description

Format:           

Under 500 words. Double-space if writing prose, using 12-point Times Roman font.

The Assignment:

1.      Write a description of a place, thing, or emotion, aiming to provide unique detail, without giving away the name of what it is that you are describing:

Place, Thing, or Emotion

Describe a place, but without naming the place. E.g., a place you know very well in Ypsilanti or in your home town.

Describe an emotion, but without naming the emotion.

Describe a thing, without naming the thing.

The aim in all three cases is to avoid abstraction and cliché and to pay attention to vocabulary.

Note #1: Try to avoid writing a riddle or making a puzzle where the reader is put in the position of guessing at what the identity is of the described place, thing or emotion.

Note #2: Do not describe a person or character.

2.      Put a character into that place or emotion (emotional state) to whom, or in which place, something happens.

3.      Turn this into a work of “Microfiction”:

Very short stories are variously referred to as microfiction, sudden fiction, flash fiction, postcard fiction, palm of hand fictions, among other terms.  Word counts vary as well, though most examples of these genres run under 500 words.  Also in productive dispute are the requisite features of a successful short short fiction.  Some writers call for a clear sense of beginning/middle/end and a conflict/resolution.  Others allow for stories that are akin to portraits, slice-of-life vignettes, or works of prose poetry.  Feel free to explore any of these options when writing your own microfiction.