Fiction Portfolio

Fiction Portfolio — in ONE document:

  1. Revision of STORY
  2. Writer’s Memo: Share a reflection of your journey through fiction – discuss your progress, process, questions you have of your own writing, goals that have arisen out of this experience, discoveries about what you prefer as a reader (what is the story or who is the fiction writer that most influenced your writing), insights about what has inspired writing from you, what you’ve realized about your writing habits, if/how your idea(s) for what makes a good story changed over the course of this unit, the most important thing you’ve discovered about Fiction in general and in your writing, how you see yourself making the transition into the poetry unit, etc. (1-2 pages); at the end of this, offer a substantial Grade Proposal, considering what you have done to address issues of your first draft; ways that you’ve addressed workshop comments or my feedback; how the story is improved (and, if you wish, what might still need work), etc.
  3. Optional: Include up to 3 fiction pieces written anytime during this unit that you’d like me to see.

 

  • Note: Please include in your email subject: the assignment name (ie. Fiction Portfolio). Please attach your Revision and Memo as a single google doc or .docx (no pdfs accepted) with the file name as your first & last name and assignment name (ie. Stacie Cassarino, Fiction Portfolio). Hard copies will also be accepted in class, otherwise email the portfolio. *You must also post your STORY revision to our blog as a way of sharing your work with the class — I’ll create a space entitled STORY for this.

DUE Friday, April 5th by 8pm

NO LATE PORTFOLIOS ACCEPTED WITHOUT APPROVED EXTENSION

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Optional: Fiction Revision Exercises

Note: these revision exercises will not be formally turned in, but my hope is that you will test the possibilities of your Story in unexpected ways, and perhaps discover new revisionary paths, or more clarity/confirmation about what does work in your first draft. Trying some of these out can lead to breakthroughs or deepened understandings. ——The energy of revision is the energy of creation and change, which is also the energy of destruction. —Maggie Anderson

  • Rewrite opening page from the perspective of a minor character. Reflect on why you should or should not adopt this perspective.
  • Write the opening of your story in a dramatically different way, try changing voice/pov, diction, sentence length, adjectives; play with language and structure
  • Rewrite the opening paragraph of your story three times – in 1st, 2nd, 3rd POV
  • Reduce your story by half without compromising meaning or impact.
  • Use a highlighter to mark every moment that shows tension in your story. What do you notice? Does tension come from language, structure, setting, character, voice? Then, use different colored highlighters to mark parts that: 1. tell something about character, 2. tell something about plot, 3. tell something about setting: Consider how often the colors overlap; for each sentence that performs only 1 function, ask if this is a sentence that tells the reader something – try to make it show instead of tell. (Try this out with a published story we’ve read as a reading exercise.)
  • Write the story backwards, considering how structure is useful to content
  • Intensify and magnify the tension, the trouble, the issue to shrillness, even to the point of absurdity. Be extreme, and then think about what this exercise tells you about your story (have you resorted to cliché?)
  • Change the story into a letter being written to someone
  • Draw your story’s shape
  • Identify the crucial moment of the story; what is in your character’s pockets at this moment? Who just walked in unexpectedly? What is going on in the background? In the weather? Step outside the story and write the five-minute story of this moment.
  • Add a character to the story. Take one out.
  • Change the time: if the story occurs in the past, write it in the present or vice versa. Should you keep the change?
  • Change the form.
  • Fracture the story plane into several fragments, put them out of order and rewrite the story. / OR Use scissors to cut the story into paragraphs and parts, reordering them, then taping them into a new version.
  • Cut off the first page. / Cut off the final paragraph.
  • Story Test: Provide 1 sentence or more for each of these questions:
    • Your character is a plant. What type and why?
    • Your character’s future is a sound. What is it and why?
    • The plot is a type of weather condition. What is it and why?
    • The story is a smell. What is it and why?
    • The ending of your story is a color. What is it and why?
    • Choose 6 words at random and ask: How do they relate to your character?
  • Hidden Titles: Find the 5-10 most commonly used words in your writing this unit and use these words as “hidden” titles for individual flash stories. (Let the words instigate writing without being known, then eliminate them altogether in the end.)