Homework

https://www.writersdigest.com/improve-my-writing/discover-the-basic-elements-of-setting-in-a-story

Week Three-Setting Development

First, read the three (link above and the two attached assignments ‘Document, and Documentt’). Some ideas/tips overlap in each, but that's ok-it shows just how important they are! Each offers enough unique perspective and advice to be worth reading.

Next, complete the following exercises in a separate papers. The first and third exercises use the character Attached that you created last week called “Creating a character”. The middle one gets you out of the house and walking around a bit. All three require attention to sensory detail. These are "olfactory" (smell), "gustatory" (taste), "tactile" (touch), "auditory" (hearing), "visual" (well...visual!); I gave you the fancy terms just so you can impress others! :)  A basic lesson in creative writing is that often the best, most effective pieces of writing will evoke all or most of the senses. Simply put, if there's something your reader should see, let them see it! If there's something they can taste, let them taste it, and so on. Rather than tell a reader, "Kristin sat in the chair. She ate a scone," we might say, "Kristin enjoyed the sound and smell of the coffee shop's new leather chairs, but her attention quickly shifted to the cinnamon chips in her scone along with its perfect warmth, each part of it on the verge of melting." As always, have fun with this! While the syllabus has us focused on fiction, each of these exercises can be written poetically. Basically, think stanzas rather than paragraphs, think lines rather than sentences. The great poet Billy Collins explains the stanza well: "In poetry, a stanza is used to describe the main building block of a poem. It is a unit of poetry composed of lines that relate to a similar thought or topic—like a paragraph in prose or a verse in a song. Every stanza in a poem has its own concept and serves a unique purpose. A stanza may be arranged according to rhyming patterns and meters—the syllabic beats of a line. It can also be a free-flowing verse that has no formal structure." I am fine with your working on these either thinking in terms of a short story perhaps coming from it (we will start working on full stories next week) or as poems in progress.

1-      Coffee Time

Write about your character’s first cup of coffee or tea for the day. Write about where they make it as they make it. Show the character’s surroundings through the five senses and their actions.

Fill this in for the character:

He/she smelled ________

He/she tasted ________

He/she touched ________

He/she saw ________

He/she heard ________

 

2-      Now It’s Your Turn!

Visit a location you’ve never been to before—either an actual place from a setting you’ve chosen or simply a place near you that you find interesting. When you first arrive at the location, don’t record or photograph or write anything down, just spend some time absorbing it through your senses. Pay attention to the things that strike you most. Go home later and write a description of the place. Remember to include the sensory details—what it felt and smelled and sounded like.

 

3-      Your Character-Setting, Setting, Setting

Create your character’s “Happy Place” without mentioning that it is her/his happy place. Then, create a place in which your character is uncomfortable without mentioning directly that she/he feels this way. Finally, create a setting to which the character escapes which is not her/his Happy Place but which she/he examines it and finds it sufficient for the moment.  This should be three separate paragraphs. In each, include as many sensory details as possible. Make each at least two hundred words.