English 221: Intro to Creative Writing
Agenda: February 26

• The Autobiographical Impulse & the Interesting Mistake
• Freewrite: Write about a time when you made an interesting mistake for which there was cost and consequence. Write about a time when you didn't make an interesting mistake, but wish you had. Feel free to fictionalize.
• Re-read "The School" looking for answers to the following questions?
  • What's not described in the setting? What basic orienting facts about the setting are not given?
  • Is there conflict between character(s) and setting? (Setting as Action) How so?
  • How does the setting contribute to the mood of the story? (What is the mood or atmosphere of the story?)
  • What, perhaps, is the story's most important omission? (This can be about setting, or anything.) Why do you think this is withheld? (Why did the author make this choice?)
  What is this story really about? What about what it's about?
  • At the end of the story, who knocks on the door?
• In groups of four, discuss these questions.

For NEXT TIME:

READ: IW Ch. 5 pgs 163-172. And Robert Hass's "A Story About the Body". Come prepared to freewrite about this poem, using the critical vocabulary of the chapter: Story as a Journey; Story as a Power Struggle; Story as Connection and Disconnection.

WRITE: Take the Map you drew in your journal last week, and, in your journal, tell a story from your map. What's a story? Flannery O'Connor said, “If nothing happens, it's not a story.” What's a story? Ira Glass, host of This American Life, said, "For me to do a story, something has to happen to someone. It's a story in the way you learn what a story is in third grade, where there is a person and things happen to them and then something big happens and they realize something new."

Does the story have to be true? No. Can it be close to true but with some interesting mistake thrown in? Sure. Grow the story from your map and decide for yourself how much you want to pay attention to what really happened.