Memorable Passage

 

Post a passage (probably no more than a paragraph or so) from a book that was memorable to you. Type the passage in word for word and add some of your own thoughts before and/or after, explaining why this particular set of words caught your attention or has stayed in your memory.  See the instructions and example on the green handout from Friday. Title this post Memorable Passage.  Include an image with this post, too.

 

I write quite a bit on my own blog about what I read, if nothing else just to remember, but often to reflect on words that stuck with me. If you are so inclined or need some ideas about books to read or what you might write about reading, you can check out my posts here and here and here and here and here. But that's totally optional.

By the end of class Monday, be sure that you have posted this assignment, your story inspired by the lines you chose, and the information you found about where the lines came from.  Thanks for being wonderful!  XOXO

Famous First and Last Lines

In a new post on your blog, type up the writing you did inspired by the pink famous first line and the purple famous last line.  Include an image and an interesting title to your post. 

Create another new post on your blog today presenting the information you have found for the lines you chose.  Be sure to include the following for EACH:

• the line word for word
• the information above about the novel and author from the green handout
• a 40-50 word summary of the novel in your own words
• 40-50 words on why you personally would or wouldn’t like to read this book
• at least one image for each

Here's an example:

Famous First Line:

"You better not never tell nobody but God."

This line opens the novel The Color Purple, published in 1982 by author Alice Walker, who was born in Georgia on 9 February 1944 (Happy Bday soon, Alice!). Through letters written back and forth to one another, the novel traces the story of two poor, African-American sisters who are separated, one married off to an older, misogynistic neighbor and the other called to serve as a missionary in Africa. The main character Celie also writes letters to God because she has no one else to share her shameful secrets and her deepest feelings with. 

I first read The Color Purple novel in a college class at Drury, a class taught by one of my favorite professors who I have long admired and tried to emulate as a teacher myself. I had read the work of Maya Angelou and found myself drawn to the stories of African-American women, and this story captivated me. I have since read the book 6 or 7 more times, and every single time I find something to shake my head at, mumble an "amen" to, laugh about, cry about...Such a powerful work to me--I will read it many times more, I know.

Famous Last Line:

"So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past."

F.Scott Fitzgerald ended his most famous novel The Great Gatsby with these lines, considered by some to be the best closing lines of any novel ever. The novel came out back in 1925 but still shows up on collections of all-time classics and high school reading lists. Narrator Nick Carraway offers insight into the vapid society of West Egg, New York, in the 1920s, as well as the mostly empty marriage between Tom and Daisy Buchanan. The action centers on languid afternoons and extravagant parties at the mansion of Gatsby, an enigmatic millionaire.

I read The Great Gatsby in English class my junior year in high school. I re-read it again last summer and enjoyed it very much. I liked the new film starring Leonardo DiCaprio (so cute! totally one of my girlhood crushes) as Gatsby to be released earlier this year. The director, Baz Luhrman, also did one of my all-time favorite movies, Moulin Rouge, so I knew I'd really like what he did with Gatsby.

I Write Like...

Since we've been thinking about how what we read inspires or influences what we write, I thought it might be fun for you to check out a website I've seen that analyzes a bit of your own writing and tells you what published author your writing is similar to.

I tried it with one of my blog posts and evidently I write like Dan Brown. I know who that is, but I haven't read any of his books. Interesting.

Go to I Write Like and try it yourself. Leave a comment on this post telling us your results (and what you think of them) when you do.

Writers as Readers

I'd like you to do some thinking and writing about how what we read plays into our creative process, how the stories we read might inspire our own character and plot ideas, how we might both consciously and unconsciously pick up sentence patterns, vocabulary and writing styles from the authors we are exposed to. You might have all sorts of things to add to your blog about your reading preferences and experiences, and you're welcome to do whatever you'd like, but please do at least the following by the end of class Thursday:

• Post 5-6 of your answers to the Writers and Readers questions on the pink handout as a new post to your own blog. Title the post "Writers as Readers." Include some images in this post to make it interesting. You can even add links to author's web pages or book reviews or other related websites if you'd like. I can show you how to do this.

I'm glad you all liked the pen name (cat name!) formulas...There are some fun name generators out there if you'd like to Google them.

I have a gadget on my own blog that you might want to add to yours. It's a link to site called Shelfari that lets me track the books I've read and plan to read. It also has all sorts of options for you to record your ratings of and notes about the books you read for other users to see. You get a little bookshelf on your sidebar that shows what you're reading now. Check it out if you're interested.

 

I was glad to see that most of you are avid readers. I just think there's such endless inspiration and personal growth that is possible when you take the time to consider the ideas others have put in print. There is so much out there to read...how will we ever get through all of it we want to?

Writers Dreaming

Thank you for taking the time to consider author Maya Angelou's ideas about how dreams play into the writing process. Please do a new post to your blog  with your answers to 4-6 of the questions on the yellow handout I gave you. Your post should be a decent length (400-500 words) if you've provided thoughtful answers. Also include an image (of Maya, of something connected to dreaming or an aspect of one of your answers) on this post.

If you're interested in learning more about Maya Angelou, her interesting life and her beloved works, you can start at her official website. I  bought this t-shirt showcasing her autobiography (one of my favorite books) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings from a little store downtown next to Maria's called 5# Apparel. Most of the proceeds the store nets are donated to charities around the world. You can also find the t-shirt and others featuring classic, challenged books (ones that have been put on banned books lists at one time or another) at Out of Print. Click the "Shop" link to get to the t-shirts--the site donates a book to Books for Africa for every purchase made. I'd like to do some thinking this week about books that have made a difference to us as people and as writers, and I wonder if you've read any of the classics featured on their other shirts...

Continue to customize your blog layout with gadgets in the right column, maybe a new background or header. Click on the Edit Profile link on your Dashboard and fill in the information about yourself. You can also have a look at your classmates' pages. If you're inclined to comment, be sure to be positive and supportive and write in the best English you can. Please don't be lazy and write in all lowercase with no punctuation, and don't leave only meaningless "what's up/i heart you" type comments. We'll talk more about giving feedback on our posts in the near future.

I love that several of you mentioned you "dream" of becoming professional writers. Leave a comment here telling us why you'd like/not like to be a professional writer and/or what kind of writing you see yourself doing. Stephenie Meyer said on Oprah that she always heard that was an unrealistic, financially hopeless goal, but I hope that no matter what anyone says, if that's your dream, you go for it. Seems like you'd regret not trying more than you'd regret taking a shot at it...

Take a look at the grade check I printed for you and use any extra time today to make up missing assignments.  Please let me know when you do so I'll be sure to adjust your points.  I'm sorry that I've gotten a little behind on commenting on your posts--I will catch up in the next few days as well.  What you have to say is important to me.

For class Wednesday:  Please bring at least 3 books that matter or have mattered to you.  These can be books from your childhood, books you've read recently, books that matter because you love them, books that matter because they taught you something or changed your mind, books that made you want to read...We will each briefly share the books with the class.

For class Friday:  Be ready to turn in your journal for a mid-quarter check.  You should have at least 20 full pages.  Make sure the pages are filled completely to count (partial pages can be combined to make a full page--I'll consider that when I look through your notebook).

You may say I'm a dreamer...

...but I'm not the only one. Some people say they never dream when they sleep, and I've read that isn't true: Everyone dreams many times every night (the average dream lasting only 2-3 seconds) but we remember so few (or none) of our dreams because they're sent straight to our short-term memories. Unless you do something like write the dream down or share it with a friend to transfer the information to your long-term memory, that dream is gone and you may never remember having it at all.

I've done a lot of thinking and even a little writing about dreams over the years--what dreams mean, why I always have the same ones, how to avoid really scary ones...I wonder if this is a topic that is interesting to you? I've heard that it's really fun for us to talk about our own dreams but it isn't all that fun for everyone else listening?  I'm not sure anyone really wants to know about my recent dream regarding my neighbor in the buff drinking coffee in his backyard or the one where I'm sorting through tornado rubble in only a towel.  :)

I have a couple of recurring dreams, meaning dreams I have had several times throughout my lifetime, and I have to say they are mostly bad, or at least very uncomfortable. I often dream that I am still in high school and I have a volleyball game or track meet to go to and I'm not ready. I've either forgotten my uniform or shoes or I can't remember going to any practices beforehand to train. I haven't played high school sports for almost 15 years...why would this keep showing up in my subconscious?  Another dream I've had a lot (although not in quite a while, now that I think of it) is that my teeth are really chalky and they're crumbling out of my mouth, or they're all loose and if you tapped one they'd all fall out in a sort of domino effect.

My husband loves to watch scary movies and I try to be a good sport about joining him, but I always have terrible dreams after I've seen a scary movie. We saw The Blair Witch Project many years ago when it came out in the theatre, and that night I dreamed the witch had come into our bedroom and stapled the outfit I'd been wearing to the ceiling above my bed in the shape of my twisted dead body. Then I ended up having Ryan hold a pillow over her head while I shot her with a huge silver pistol with a silencer on the end of it. (How all that happened in 2-3 seconds is beyond me...) You must know that I am not a violent person and don't normally contemplate these kinds of things! How did that come out of my head?

I've read that you're likely to have nightmares if the room you are sleeping in is very warm and if you sleep with your arms above your head...I wonder what conditions make for more pleasant dreams? Do you think that what you have in your head right before you fall asleep will come out in your dreams, or do the littlest things from earlier in the day somehow pop up? Do you think you can control your dreams? I have a friend who is into "astratravel," which is, very simply, being able to will yourself to go places in your dreams. She said she could think about checking in on her cousin before she fell asleep and then she'd dream something about her cousin that would let her know how she was doing. She also told me that if you ever see yourself in your dreams, like you're looking down at yourself from above (in video games isn't that the third-person view?) instead of seeing the dream through your own eyes (like first-person in video games?) that you have astratraveled without even trying. Interesting...

I hope you've also done some thinking about how dreaming can play into the writing process. Please do a New Post today (250+ words) on any one or a combination of these related topics (add an image, too, and use some form of the word "dream" somewhere in the title of your post):

...a recurring dream you have
...the worst dream you've ever had
...the best dream you've ever had (PG-13 or tamer :) )
...what you think causes dreams
...books you've read about dreams or dreaming
...if you think dreams are symbolic or have deeper meaning
...what you found in the dream interpretation books
...if you think astratravel is possible
...your daydreams or your dream day chart
...your dreams for your future
...if you dream of being a professional writer
...something else connected to dreams?

In a separate New Post, type up the writing you did in your journal on Tuesday using the Dream Threads sentences and add an image that goes along with it. Let me show you how to add images if you haven't figured it out yet.  This one might be a little shorter. Use Dream Threads as your title.

color {time}

 

I hope you enjoyed our various activities last week using COLOR as our inspiration.  I was pleased with your effort and impressed by your productivity.  I hope you came up with some things you are proud of.

In a New Post on your blog today, please post at least 3 color-inspired pieces you wrote last week.  If you'd like to split them into 3 separate posts, that's okay, too.  Try to include at least 1 piece that is longer.  And definitely include some images.  If you need me to show you how to do that, I'd be happy to. You might check your journal for pieces from our celebration of MLK, Jr.'s March on Washington and the "dreaming in color" day.  You should also have several different pieces created in response to the paint sample cards we worked with.  If you'd like to write something new or add to something you started in your journal, that would also work. 

If you finish, you could revisit your object-inspired piece and add to or accentuate it.  You could also tour some of your classmates' blogs and see what they're working on.  If you choose to leave a comment, let's stay positive and supportive rather than critical at this point.  More on that later...

We'll be moving on to a new unit of study centered on dreams and dreaming after today...