Beginning Storytelling

OLLI at Duke

Shawna Ayoub

shawna.ayoub@gmail.com

9 Thu, Sep 11 – Nov 20 (no class Oct 2 & 9), 3:30 – 5 p.m.

Over nine weeks, we will explore the different types and forms of fiction and nonfiction. Our writing journey will include where to find inspiration, ideas, the importance of craft and revision, and a brief look at the publishing industry. Writers will develop one- to three-page writing assignments weekly between sessions for group review. In-class prompts and discussions will aid in writers’ story development. Participation is key to success in this course. This course is designed for writers at the beginning of their creative writing journey.

Recommended Texts:
Stephen King, On Writing
Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones
Margaret Schertzer, Elements of Grammar
William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, Elements of Style

Beginning Storytelling Syllabus

Week One: Gauging Our Experience with Writing

• Theme: Who are we and what do we know?
• Reading Assignment: 
• In-Class Exercise: Discussion on why we are here, how we find a story, and how we know it’s worth telling.
• Take-Home Assignment: Make a list of eccentricities of people who are or have been in your life. These don’t have to be people you know. They can be people you observe waiting in line at the grocery store or who handle a phone call. Bring your list to class for next week.

Prompt 1) Describe an object in the room

2) Write the object into a different room

3) Create a situation near or around the object. What is it’s role? How does the object affect or drive the story? Contributions?

The object can be the story, hold the story, drive the story or simply be a prop. In moving it, we are forced to create a context and answer questions of why it is there or why the reader is there. Characters and setting evolve naturally.

The basis of all good stories in the universal element, and that is achieved through specificity of detail. A common misconception is that general equals relatable. That’s the difference between knowing what someone is talking about and experiencing it. We want our readers to experience what we are sharing.

In other words, the storyteller’s job is to weave the reader into the an experience.

Prompt: 1) Pick a moment from your own life and outline it

2) Choose another moment and list parallel aspects

3) What are the shared truths?  

From here you may be able to use the structure or overarching theme of one moment to contain the other, or a grand metaphor may be derived to embed one or both experiences.

Week Two: Character, Point of View

What makes a compelling character? What makes a person interesting? We are complicated. Think of anyone you know. Every person is full of contradictions. What are some of your own contradictions? 

Who is the most important character? How do we know? 

Prompt: Opposite Sex

Consider a part of your normal routine. Write your routine from a man’s POV. Use first person. Try to embody your opposite sex and experience the routine differently as they would. Remember the details.

Week Three: Setting

• Theme: Knowing where you are so the reader knows where they are.
• Reading Assignment: 
• In-Class Exercise: Describe an object in the room. Describe the place you know best.
• Take-Home Assignment: Put the character(s) you began working with into that space. See what happens. Bring your writing to class next week to share.

Week Four: Plot

• Theme: How do people come together? How do people fall apart? The above questions are most often what plots a story. When we think about plot it’s just like making a party invitation: Who? What? Where? When? Why? What should I bring?
• Reading Assignment: 
• In-Class Exercise: Throw a party. Answer the W’s of a party you have been to or a party you imagine throwing. What happen/ed/s at this party? Show one scene.
• Take-Home Assignment: Write what happens at the party. Bring your writing to class next week to share.

Week Five: Dialogue

• Theme: Conversations that aren’t confusing.
• Reading Assignment: 
• In-Class Exercise: Two and three-person dialogue with tags. Someone was eavesdropping. They interrupt to add their own thoughts. What do they say? What are some ways you could change the person in your scene? Choose one character and write their perspective from third person on the topic of the conversation. Create a request in second person.
• Take-Home Assignment: Rewrite your in-class exercise in first person and bring it to class to share next week.
• Notes: Using two characters from your party, write a conversation. Really try to hear your characters as they speak. Does either have an accent? Does it affect their word choices? What are they talking about? What can we learn about who they are through what they are saying? Is a conflict taking place? Does it relate to (or is it) the crisis of your story? Consider what the conversation is adding to your piece.
• Voice and detail play a role in dialogue. As a writer, you will continue to develop your own voice. There is a cadence to your word choices, sentence structure, thought flow and themes. The more you write, the more this will become apparent.
• Your characters are not you. It follows that they will have different voices than you. A narrator is a character, as we said, and the narrator’s voice is also different from yours with the exception of a personal narrative. In that case, it’s you all the way.

Week Six: Haunts and Voice

• Theme: Writing what we know.
• Reading Assignment: “What You Pawn I Will Redeem,” by Sherman Alexie
• In-Class Exercise: Understanding how themes affect our voice by looking at the topics/themes/specialized knowledge we bring to the page.
• Take-Home Assignment: Take a walk outside for 20 minutes or park yourself and “people”-watch. Make notes on what your observe. Use all your senses. Get curious about what is around you. Imagine you are someone else. How would they observe this place/moment? What is happening in the background? Does anything in your life parallel what you are seeing/experiencing?

Write in class and discuss pacing, setting and sentence structure in “What You Pawn, I Will Redeem”

List six topics that call you to the page or that you find yourself writing about regardless of desire. 

Prompts: use one to create a shell for the other

How do these topics correspond?

How can you apply them to an external observation?

Examine themes in “What You Pawn I Will Redeem” How does Alexie return us to these themes though setting, character and language? What are the situations that demonstrate these themes? What would you expect from this writer in his other work? What are your expectations of the main character off the page?

Challenging world view by writing outside ourselves.

How do our themes affect our voice?

Week Seven: Pacing, Rhythm and Word Choice

• Theme: Paying attention to sentences, paragraphs, timing and word choice.
• Reading Assignment: 
• In-Class Exercise: Writing with two long and one short sentences.
• Take-Home Assignment: Experiment with other sentence structure to lessen or increase tension in your exercise. Bring to class to share.

Week Eight: Editing

• Theme: Using word choice to enhance your storytelling.
• Reading Assignment: The work you have generated in this course so far. Bring the piece you most want to improve to class.
• In-Class Exercise: Sharpen your verbs (and other words).
• Take-Home Assignment: Review this or another piece to see where you can remove, expand, or otherwise improve your work. Make those changes. Send this work to me by our last session for written feedback. If you hand it to me physically, make sure to provide a self-addressed, stamped envelope so I can return it!

Week Nine: Pitching

• Theme: Next Steps in Writing and Publication
• Reading Assignment: Susan Shapiro,
• In-Class Exercise: Write a pitch for the piece you edited last week.
• Take Home Assignment: Create pitches for pieces you want to write. Five pieces. 

How do we get people interested? How do you find the resources for publication? What are your personal goals? Look first at what your read.

Ongoing projects—outline and create an action plan.