Christmas Break Assignment #1

Dear Class:

I hope you are enjoying your break from writing. I am not. I need something to write about and I need students to encourage. So I am going to post an assignment here and I hope you will share with me some of your thoughts and/or stories, poems, . . . etc

So here is assignment #1

Write about something using SOS

You can either write about getting/giving help or you can use the letters SOS to stand for something else. Such as:

1) Same Old Shit
2) Secrets Of Santa
3) Suburban Orphan Society . . . well you get the idea. Use your imagination and send your writings to me and I will post them here.

my email is Taomaster7@gmail.com

Love ya and keep writing,
Frank

Last weeks class, what's ahead etc.

Thanks to all who came to last week's class. Thanks to all the writings - they were great.
Next week we have several suggestions on what to write about. They are:

1) Lies
2) Horizons
3) Come Back to Me
4) Forgiveness
5) Hurt Feelings

The writings should have at least one of these additional factors within:

1) Fiction (at the very least change the names of the people involved)
2) Humor (satire, parody, wit, puns, jokes, you name it)
3) Dialogue (have some people talking to each other)

And next week in class, we will have someone else , other than yourself reading the your work. This will give you an opportunity to hear your work as read by another. I will read them all myself. So don't worry - just write and make it so I can read it.

That's all for now - keep writing and having fun doing it,
Frank

The start of a new class

Yesterday, we once again had a great class. It is good to see old faces and some new ones too. Not a lot of old things were read so we had two writing assignments, one fifteen minutes long and the other five minutes long - both went very well.
There were several suggestions for topics to write about and these were:

Treasures of the Past

Excuse Me

Sentimental Journey

I don't have any

Mistakes

Keep up the good writing,
Frank

What a wonderful class we had yesterday !! Thanks to all. The creative juices were flowing when it came to thinking up topics to write about. So without further ado, here they are:

1. The Solution to . . .
2. Silence
3. Criminal Minds
4. Do I scratch it ? (or not)

Another exercise to try is: Write a story with multiple characters, having no central character or leading character. All characters in your story are equal stars (more or less). Not exactly equal but not having any one character dominate. This is not easy, but give it a try.

I will post an example of this soon. Right here.

P.S. Last night went to Palos Park Library for open mike night - heard a wonderful writer read from her book. I will edit in the detail later when I remember what they are.

Anyway, next month I (yes, yours truly) agreed to read some of my stories and or poems. So mark that date on your calendars and be there. April 7th at 7pm. Palos Park Library

thats all for now,
keep writing,
frank

Hello Want-to-be-writers:

Starting on Wednesday February 24, 2010
I am teaching both a afternoon class (1:00-3:00) and an evening class (6:30-8:30)

I will post here the writing suggestions for next week.

Topics for the afternoon class are:

1) Message in a Bottle

2) It was a terrible, terrible (storm or anything else)

3) Neighbors

4) Bits and Pieces (scraps)[incomplete ideas]

Extra credit for poems

Topics for the Night class

1) Rain

2) Terrible twos

3) I'm totally ( fill in the blank)

4) Bologna (all kinds)

Have a good time writing and remember these are only suggestions,
Keep Writing
Frank

This week's writing suggestion

This coming weeks writing suggestion comes from Jay.

"So that is your Idea of fun ?" or What is it that you do for fun.
Fun is the keyword. Use it in your story or essay.

But I had forgotten what it was. . .so I suggested you write about History or something that happened in the past.

For examples:

When I got my first pair of glasses

when I had my first date

when I found out roses had thorns

or

when the war started

when the race began

when JFK died

or

when my ship came in

when the grass was greener on the other side

Write me at Coughson@earthlink.net if you have questions or more examples or suggestions.

Writing a Book in Month

The following is taken from the book " Book in a Month" by Victoria Schmidt, Ph.D.

The five secrets to keeping the momentum of your writing moving forward are:

Secret number 1) work as if - which means that as you write and decide to make a change in plot, character, or setting (make a note on the margins of the change made and keep writing as if you have already gone back and made your change (Don't stop your forward momentum by going backwards and changing the character.
for example:
Betty was a nurse at County General working the graveyard shift. She liked working in the dead of night because she felt she was away from the general madness that takes place on the other shifts.

[AUTHOR'S NOTE] I decided to change Betty from a nurse to a kindergarten teacher so she can be closer to children.

Betty liked her job because now that her own children were grown she could still be around youngsters who appreciated her.

Secret number 2) Leave out subplots (to get a book finished fast this is a must) Side plots and subplots tend to distract you the author from the main plot.

Secret number 3) be realistic -MOST IMPORTANT SECRET - Don't try to write more than you can - if work, kids, and other things (holidays) take up your time so be it - DO WHAT YOU CAN as far as writing goes

Secret number 4) Don't use guilt or shame as motivation to write, don't put yourself down for not writing enough, or good enough - Just write as much as you want because you like what writing your book does for your own self-esteem. Positive motivation always is better than negative motivation

Secret number 5) Trust Yourself - when nagging little (or big) doubts come into your head such as 'Is this good enough' or 'I don't think I can do this' - TRUST YOURSELF - trust that you will make some adjustment in order to deal with whatever comes up
YOU CAN DO THIS
The author admits that secrets 4 and 5 are psychological in nature but says that a trick of writing is learning how to deal with yourself and the ways you block yourself.

I hope this helps you.
Frank