Please work today to try and finish your historical fiction stories. That means you need to revise and edit what you have already turned in, as well as adding to it.
ALSO: Please respond in a posted comment here to yesterday's workshop.
What did you think of the workshop with Debra Dean? What did you learn from the writing prompts she offered?
And of course, since you have read the book, what did or did not impress you about the narrative style, characters, plot, etc.? Please respond "talking literature"---in other words, like a literary reviewer, refering to specifics in the novel and discussing them using literary terminology.
I think that the workshop really gave me a clear sense of the novel. She explained it a bit more to make it understandable and even explained her idea for choosing the characters and the setting. What i learned from the writing prompts is that you can get a lot of ideas from jotting thoughts and making outlines for characters. What impressed me about the novel as a whole is that she researched information to develop her setting. She did not know anything about the bombing of Leningrad prior to writing the book.
ReplyDeleteThe workshop kept me interested for the most part, she was a very bubbly person and that kept me engaged. The writing prompts made me take a new approach on writing. The way she gave us simple questions that led us to know our character better than we thought we did. It taught me to make my characters more than the stereotypical everyday characters that I write about. Making it easier for me to get into more detail about my story and the backgrounds about my characters.
ReplyDelete-Briyanna Brinkley
Taylor Rugg
ReplyDeleteI found the workshop with Debra Dean to be one of the most interesting workshop that we have had in the creative writing department with guest authors. I found Ms. Dean to be a very high-energy woman who was incredibly passionate about writing, and that passion transferred well into her free-write prompts that she had us do. I think the workshop was successful because it wasn’t solely revolving around her and her novel – rather, it was a workshop in the sense that we had the chance to write and talk about the writing process, and then discuss her novel and her as an author. The writing prompts were very helpful and I actually used two of the three in my historical fiction short story.
I found the diction and syntax of the novel to have a great flow – it was smooth enough to be easy to read and follow, but it also subtly mimicked the mind of an individual suffering with dementia. The characters were believable and the plot was interesting – the use of flashbacks within the novel were very successful to develop the characters and the plot. The point of view was objective enough that the reader was able to relate to more than just Marina, but limited enough that the characters weren’t overwhelming.
- Taylor Rugg
The workshop with Debra Dean was very enlightening. I gained and even more thorough understanding the novel itself, but also of Deborah Dean herself and the thought and effort that went into her novel. I thought she was a wonderfully genuine woman, and I really enjoyed listening to her talk. One thing that stood out to me was the fact that she treated us like we were already writers, whereas other workshop authors treated us like aspiring writers. She counted us as writers, just like her. She said if you act you’re an actor, if you paint you’re a painter, if you write you’re a writer. I also liked her rules for free writing, and combined with her thought provoking prompts, resulted in a really effective lesson. I wrote so much, just because I didn’t stop. I had never thought to do that before, and I always worried about it being crap, and I never just let my pen move and my thoughts flow. I enjoyed listening to her stories about the Leningrad Siege, and I was impressed with how much she knew. I knew she had done research, but I didn’t realize the lengths she had gone to, and the amount of knowledge she had retained. It was admirable, and inspiring, and made me want to know that much about something, a certain time period or group of people. I think from her lecture I was better able to understand the historical fiction genre, and grasp the true amount of work that goes into a novel.
ReplyDeleteGracie Elliott
Also I wasn't here on Friday when things were assigned so I didn't print out, and I just posted today.
ReplyDeleteI think the workshop was really good and informative. I was impressed on how she never really been to Leningrad until after the book was published but she did really extensive research to cover most of the detail about what happened in the siege of Leningrad. I also found the writing activities to be interesting. It really tested my ability to write with an ongoing on conscious of creativity. Her rules and ideas about free writing were exact and really acclimated to my level.
ReplyDeleteI liked the workshop honestly. Debra Dean was a very interesting author as a person. She easily kept our class captivated in her speech, she accurately answered questions. I liked her exercises on how to come up with ideas.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed the workshop with Debra Dean. She was a great personality on stage, both fascinating to listen to and incredibly scholarly in her knowledge. I thought the workshop could have used a bit more structure, though I did enjoy her readings and especially the writing prompts. They were excellent to help develop characters, especially in regards to underdeveloped characters. I chose to focus on a character from my Fugitive Pieces story, who I felt had a lot of potential but who I didn't really know much about. It's incredible what free writing can do—it can produce the worst writing ever, as she says, but also some inspiring ideas and things that you may not have known about your character. The simplest prompts are able to get something more out of your character than one would ever think. From the first prompt I developed more about my character's clothing and appearance, and was able to expand upon how I perceived them. The second and third prompts, however, regarding what our characters were afraid of and what they thought of other characters, were especially powerful. I learned about my character's relationship with his mother, and how he has always been afraid of disappointing her, something I hinted at in the story but was able to develop much better with this prompt.
ReplyDelete