Catch up/move on

We will be moving on to a new topic (ART!) for inspiration next week, so if there are any BOOKS/TEXT-inspired pieces you would still like to receive credit for (including the pieces I haven't given points/zeroes for yet) you need to do so no later than this Sunday night.  

Use class time today to make up work you're missing on our current theme (not dreams, objects, or color--that window has closed).  You can circle any work you complete today (or that I missed seeing somehow) on your grade check and turn it back in to the basket on my desk today or take it home for your reference to finish up work this weekend).  

Supplies for the magazine poem, blackout pages, and newspaper cutouts are all on the back counter if you need them.  You can be writing in your journal or working on something else if you've finished everything.  

I also need you to take this quick survey if you haven't already so I can sign off for us in the office.  Leave a comment on this post letting me know you've done so for 10 points.  Thanks so much.


Have a great Ceremonial weekend!   

6 Word Memoirs

In a New Post on your blog, please share whichever of the 6-Word Memoirs you came up with in class  that you are comfortable sharing.  Just one or all of them.  Include an image or images.  You don't need to explain them, but you could if you wanted to. You could also submit what you've come up with to the Smith magazine website.  Here's a link to the video we watched if you'd like to send it around to your friends and see which ones they think could apply to you (and themselves...).

In the news {papers}

In a New Post on your blog, please share some writing inspired by our dig through newspapers Tuesday.  You might have one longer piece or several shorter ones, but come up with at least 250 words.  Include some images and a catchy title.  

You could mention the headline, photo, ad, etc. that sparked your idea in an Author's Note, or you could leave that a mystery...but don't just describe or narrate what you cut out--make up something new.

Blackout

Thanks for trying the newspaper and book page blackout technique (scientific terminology there) in class Tuesday. Please share at least one of your blackout text pieces as a COMMENT on this post. 

You could type the text you left on the page as a sentence or poem or story.  You could also take a picture with your phone and post your work that way on your own blog, but that is optional.

I'm thinking you could do this same technique with any printed material containing a good chunk of text to work with. I also think you could be inspired to write all sorts of other pieces by using your blacked out piece as a starting point.

You could visit Austin Kleon's website to see what others have come up with and even post your own work there if you're up for it. 

Famous First and Last Lines: Make them Yours

In a New Post on your blog, type up some original writing of about 400 words or more  inspired by the pink famous first line and the purple famous last line you glued into your journal.  This could be one continuous piece or two separate pieces.  Include an image and an interesting title to your post. Put the lines you used in bold.

Hey!  Take this quick survey, too, if you can!  There is a single link to the survey. The participant will need to select his or her role and then site. Click here to take the survey: https://bbyt.es/TL7TC

Famous First and Last Lines

In a New Post on your blog, present the following information  for each of the lines you chose.  Title this post Famous First and Last Lines.  You could link to relevant informational sites.  

Be sure to include the following for EACH:

• the line word for word
• the author, his or her birth/death years, and a bit of info about him or her
• the year it was published
• 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 (pink):

"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. 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 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 a "yup!" to, laugh about, cry about...Such a powerful work to me--I will read it many times more, I know. I wrote about a passage that reminded me of the turmoil in Ferguson, Missouri, back in 2014.

Famous Last Line (purple):

"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 words, 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 a couple of summers ago and enjoyed it very much. I liked the film starring Leonardo DiCaprio (so cute! totally one of my girlhood crushes) as Gatsby released a couple of years ago. 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.

The lines were pulled from this list of Best Opening Lines and this list of Best Last Lines.  You could browse them for other writing ideas or inspiration.

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 (250 words or more) before and/or after, explaining why this particular set of words caught your attention or has stayed in your memory.  Title this post Memorable Passage.  Include an image with this post, too.

I used to 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.  Also here and here.  But that's totally optional.

Here is an example of a Memorable Passage post:

Today I finished Elizabeth Berg's Dream When You're Feeling Blue, a book I found at the thrift store a couple of weeks ago. This story follows 3 beautiful sisters and the various soldiers they correspond with during the war. Wouldn't I love to have all the letters to and from my grandfathers? Who wrote to them? I especially noted a passage summing up what one soldier had written to oldest sister Kitty:

"He thought times like this could galvanize people into a certain kind of unity but could also make for unexpected changes in the individual, for strange contradictions. He said he himself had begun to feel the need to be alone most of the time. And yet he also felt a kind of love and compassion for humanity far greater than what he'd ever felt before. He found it hard to blame the war on any one person. He thought that, despite witnessing--and taking part in--such unimaginable violence, most soldiers would come home from the war wanting never to hurt anything again.

"He told her about boys who came back from the battle vacant-eyed, their hands shaking, who in a few hours' time were ready to smile and joke again and then eager to rejoin those at the front. He said that extinguishing life in another seemed to make you unspeakably grateful for your own, indeed for life in general. For a few hours after a battle, Hank said, everything the men looked at seemed caressed by their eyes. They were such young boys. They were such old men."

I'll be thinking of William Archie Curtis and Julian Jasper Cowan when we celebrate the 4th this weekend, as I do on any holiday or moment with a patriotic slant. I'll never really know what those two went through, and I'll never be able to really define how I feel about what they did, the young boys they were, the old men I watched them become. But I'll think of them kindly and generously, as Hank described, as men who saw and felt so much pain that they never wanted to hurt anything again. My whole life they've been so very kind, so very generous, to me.

I Write Like...

As we do some 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.  I also found this interesting tidbit which confirmed my suspicions that there wasn't much heft to this particular tool, but hey...

Go to I Write Like and try it yourself. 

Go to the ProProfs What Famous Writer Are You? quiz and try that one.

Leave a comment on this post telling us your results (and what you think of them) when you do.  You might have to look up the author for more information if you don't recognize the name.  The ProProfs quiz said I write like our very own Missouri native Mark Twain.  Hmmm...

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. 

Choose 5-6 of these to answer in a post (500 words or so) on in a New Post on your own blog.  Title this post “Writers as Readers” and include 2-3 images. 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.

1. When you read, what do you need to be comfortable (environment, snacks, lighting)?

2. What genres (types of writing) interest you? What specifically about this genre interests you? Why are you drawn to science fiction books, for example?

3. Which author do you think your writing style is most like?  Do you purposely imitate certain writers and/or try to avoid writing like certain writers?

4. What is one of your best memories connected with reading?

5. Have you ever picked up a book and been excited to turn the next page, then the next, then the next? What book? Why couldn’t you stop reading?  Is there a book you had to just trudge through to the finish?

6. Who was your first reading teacher? Why do you remember her/him?  Was it a “teacher” or someone else (a family member?) who “taught” you?

7. What was the first book you remember reading? Why does this book stand out in your memory?

8. What is your favorite book or series? Why is this your favorite?

9. Complete the one or more of the following sentences and explain your answer.

“When I finished reading (blank), I was angry afterwards because….”

“When I finished reading (blank), I was sad because…”

“When I finished reading (blank), I was happy because…”

10. Some people refuse to read popular novels, such as the Harry Potter series due to themes they deem as glorifying the occult. Do you think books have the power to move people to action in something they have no interest in before they begin the first page?

11. When you write, do you continually envision the “reader” of your piece?  Who do you think would be interested in reading your work?  Does having a reader in mind affect how you choose your words, themes, ideas?  What’s different if you just write for yourself knowing no one else will ever read what you come up with?

12. Do you think that someone who reads a lot might become a stronger writer?  Do you think we pick up vocabulary, sentence structures, themes, etc. from the books we read that come out directly or indirectly in our own writing?

13. Do you think you’d ever write a book someday?  Do you know what it would be about?  How would you want to be described on the “About the Author” at the front of the book?

I'm sure many 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?

In the books

***For class tomorrow (Thursday), please bring 3 books (or something to represent them) that have mattered to you for whatever reason and be prepared to briefly share them with the class.  

Please have all work connected to DREAMS posted by the end of class Thursday to receive credit so we can move on to a new theme (BOOKS/TEXT).

Poem inspired by "Caged Bird"

"The caged bird sings of freedom." ~Maya Angelou

In a New Post on your own blog by the end of class on Thursday, please share a poem of at least 10 lines inspired by Maya Angelou's "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings."  You might use the prompts I shared in class as a start.  Include an image and give your post/poem a creative title of your own making.  

Here are the prompts I shared in class if you need one of these to get started:

I know why...

I know...

I don't know why...

Birds...

Being caged...

Freedom...

Singing...

I sing of...

Flying...

Flying away from..

Something else you thought of as you listened to Maya's Master Class video

Caged Bird

The free bird leaps
on the back of the wind
and floats downstream
till the current ends
and dips his wings
in the orange sun rays
and dares to claim the sky.

But a bird that stalks
down his narrow cage
can seldom see through
his bars of rage
his wings are clipped and
his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing.

The caged bird sings
with fearful trill
of the things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom

The free bird thinks of another breeze
and the trade winds soft through the sighing trees
and the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright lawn
and he names the sky his own.

But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams
his shadow shouts on a nightmare scream
his wings are clipped and his feet are tied
so he opens his throat to sing

The caged bird sings
with a fearful trill
of things unknown
but longed for still
and his tune is heard
on the distant hill
for the caged bird
sings of freedom. 

Dream Marks on My Pillow

Create a New Post on your blog and include some new writing connected to the drawing of a pillow we sketched and discussed in class on Wednesday.  You might include some poetry (maybe your haiku?), but also post a longer bit of prose.  Try for about 200 words at least on this one.  You can copy and paste the image from here, and if you'd like to, you can leave a comment on this post.  I've included some writing I did below.

Dream Marks on My Pillow by Ana Lancu

Last night before bed, I stepped out onto the front porch while Booker T. raced with a predatory growl towards the woods behind our house.  I waited for him to return, a triumphant skip in his step telling me all was safe and sound thanks to him, and from there on the front steps I noticed there was no moon out, or at least not one I could see.  A few stars dotted the sky but the yard was darker than usual and my big black dog crept back up beside me almost camouflaged.

I had been thinking of her off and on all day--my sweet Nanny who left us in June--and another round of loss swept through me there...no moonlight only made me miss her more. I scratched Booker's ears and cried, soft so that no one would hear, as if anyone was listening at that time of night.

I'll never be a little girl again.
I'll never see her shrug her shoulders
the way she always did.
I'll never see her handwriting on a
letter in my mailbox.
I'll never see her listening with interest
to my little boy's chatter the way she
always delighted in whatever I had to say.
I'll never see her again.

Ryan let Macauley sleep with us--a real treat on a school night--and with puffy eyes I slipped into the tiny sliver of our king size bed left for me, my son's now long legs tucked in close to mine and my big black dog in a ball at my feet, my husband miles of blankets and pillows away. Our room was dark and warm and I read only a few pages of my book before I floated into sleep.

And then, she was there...standing on my front walk, reaching out to me with a piece of paper in her hand.  He was there, too, a few feet behind her and to the side in dark blue jeans and the striped shirt he had on in their only picture with Macauley when he was a baby.  I grabbed her and squeezed her and cried for her to stay.  She just stood there and let me, still holding the paper.

I blinked and turned to see the numbers on the clock pushing me to start another day. I stared at the ceiling, making myself remember seeing her, knowing how dreams come and go if you don't commit them to long-term memory...like so many days I spent with her or spent not with her...they just slip away.

I could have cried in the car this evening when I told Ryan on the way to dinner. He said maybe it was a sign but he didn't say of what.  If I cry for her again tonight, will she be there on my front steps when I close my eyes?


Knowing I miss her,
will she reappear tonight 
when I close my eyes?

This song reminds me of what I wrote...

Angelou: 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 on your blog  with your answers to 4-6 of the questions on the blue handout I gave you. Your post should be a decent length (500 words) if you've provided thoughtful answers. Title the post Writers Dreaming.  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 next 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...

I love that several of you have 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...

Maker Project: Dream Catchers

The Legend Of the Dream Catcher

"The Ojibwa (Chippewa) believe that night is full of both good and bad dreams. When a dream catcher is hung above the place where you sleep it moves freely in the night air and catches the dreams as they drift by. The good dreams, knowing their way, pass through the opening in the center of the webbing while the bad dreams, not knowing the way, are caught in the webbing and destroyed at the first light of the morning sun. 

There are many variants to the dream catcher legend, some which say both the good and bad dreams are captured and some which say the good dreams slide down the feather to those sleeping below. Although the Ojibwa are credited as the first people to use Dream Catchers many other Tribes and Native peoples have adopted Dream Catchers into their culture. Even though the designs and legends of Dream Catchers differ slightly, the underlying meaning and symbolism is universal and is carried across cultures and language barriers. 

Everybody dreams."


As a part of our discussion about dreams and how they can relate to writing inspiration and processes, let's try to create dream catchers in class this week!  

Dream catchers have been a part of Native American and other cultures for many years.  You can do your own research at places like this one to find out more about the various interpretations of this universal symbol.  This, on the other hand,  appears to be something different... :)

To prepare, take a look at some online tutorials and do some thinking about what you'd like yours to look like. Click here and here and here for some ideas.

These are certainly not the only ones--feel free to do your own search.  You'll be using a tutorial of your choice to create your dream catcher during class.

I will provide the hoops, basic supplies, and a few embellishments.  If you'd like to or are able to get your own supplies to really customize your dream catcher, please do so and bring them to class tomorrow.

If I Were in Charge of the World...

In the spirit of DREAMING big, do some thinking about how you might shape the world if you could...what you would change or eliminate, what you would add or emphasize, what you would want for yourself and all of those you share this big place with...

Using the "If I Were in Charge of the World" poem by Judith Viorst as a starting point and a template, gather some of these ideas you have about what you'd like to see in a world of your own dreams or making. Polish and share your poem in a New Post on your own blog. Include at least one image, maybe several.  

Another optional musical bonus I thought of putting this together...

Dream Threads

"Rappel Upward on Dream Threads" by Joji

In a New Post on your own blog, try the following writing activity using the interesting sentences regarding dreams that you and your classmates came up with on Tuesday.  We'll call these sentences "dream threads," little bits that you've pulled from a bigger piece and that could be "woven" back together in interesting ways.

• Choose one of the sentences to begin your story.  You may use it word for word or alter it slightly if necessary.
• Choose another sentence to end your story.
• Fill in the space in between with a story connecting the two sentences. This will likely be fiction but it doesn't have to be.  It also doesn't need to be especially long and may only be a portion of a bigger, more complicated story--maybe 200 words or so--but it could be. It could also be a poem.
• Put the sentences you took from other people in bold or another color.
• Include at least one image.

Here's our list:


I look back up at the clock:   Five more hours, I tell myself.The last thing I saw was me looking down upon a massive burning city

“What was the point of going on with so much rejection in my life?”

“This is what madness sounds like”

“I personally don’t find scribbles and lines scary, but in this dream they are terrifying.”

“Why should I let this hold me back?”

There’s too many voices, I don’t know which one is my own.

“I close my eyes and see all sorts of chaotic color and commotion.”

A dream about zombies in which i never dream about but seem very interesting to me  

Being told that i will never play football after being hurt

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 3-5 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 20 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.

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...

There are various books and websites that offer interpretations of dreams and the elements involved.  You may or may not find these valid, but you considering dreams and what they might be saying could probably spark numerous writing ideas.  Take a look at some of these and see what you think:  Dream Dictionary    Dream Bible   Psychologists World      

I hope you've also done some thinking about how dreaming can play into the writing process. Please post a brief but thoughtful comment on this post answering one or more of the following:

...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 or lucid dreaming is possible

...your daydreams or your dream day chart

...your dreams for your future

...if you think dreams could inspire writing for you

...something else connected to dreams?

Colorful Comments

TGIF!  Thanks for all your hard work so far.  And thank you for your patience as I sort through your blog posts and leave comments for you. I really enjoy seeing what you come up with.

Today:  Please check out all the COLOR pieces by the members of your group and leave them the kind of friendly, specific, supportive comments we are going for.  Maybe identify a favorite line or bit of imagery or tell them something their piece reminds you of or makes you think about. Thanks!

Then, copy and paste your comments to a New Post on your own blog so I can quickly see what you've done and give you credit for your feedback.

Garrett
Sophia
Courtney

Lily
Michael
Coral

Angel
Alyssa
Sam

Jordin
Isaiah
Carson

Please have all posts and commenting connected to OBJECTS and COLOR completed before we move on to a new theme (DREAMS!) next week.  Once we move on to a new theme you won't be able to receive credit for work from the previous one...

Also FYI:  Mid-Quarter Journal Check next Friday!  You'll need 20 full pages (since we are 4 weeks in and you're doing 5 pages per week). Have a great weekend!