Friday, August 29th

Writers,

Sorry I couldn’t make it to class this afternoon. This week has been a rough one all around!

I hope you enjoyed your time with Ms. Shoenfeld, poet extraordinaire.

We don’t have class on Monday because of the Labor Day holiday, so we will pick up again and next Wednesday.

Homework:

On Wednesday, we talked about the three primary story structures as I see them. I want you to pick five movies or stories and identify the story structure in each. Please briefly justify your classification– This means I will probably need a brief rundown on the plot line and main character.

Think about some of your favorite movies! What story structure is used in Star Wars? Scarface? Titanic?

Yes, a lot of narratives aren’t purely one or the other; identify both but make a case of why you feel like one or the other is driving the story primarily, or which one is more important to the story. Try to find examples of at least two structures: don’t identify all five problem/solution narratives. Don’t worry about being “right”. As long as you make a strong case for your structure, you will be fine on this assignment. Please don’t use the stories we’ve already talked about in class. Typed and printed. This assignment will probably be 1-2 pages total.

Tips and Tricks:
‘Slice of life’ structure: Events may occur, but the character is not really driven by a want or there isn’t major problems to overcome. The character is pretty much the same at the beginning and end of the story.

Problem/solution: What is driving the narrative is primarily external problems to overcome or wants to achieve (whether they are successful or not). The character stays primarily the same from the beginning to the end.

‘1,2,3’: This story is more about a character’s internal struggle at the heart of the story. Even if there is conflict, it serves primarily to enlighten the character in some way.

1) Character holds some sort of belief at the beginning

2) Something happens

3) Belief is changed in someway.

-OR-

1) Ignorance

2) Something happens

3) Knowledge

 

ALSO by the end of next week we will be directing our attention more to your big unit assignment. Start gathering ideas! Start working on your explication!