Seniors Creative Writing: Your Good Place (due Tuesday, December 1)

I'm not always up to date on the most novel vernacular, teen or otherwise. By the time I start using some "new" expression, it's bottomed out to the level of drab cliche. So if you get a "you go, girl" or an "atta boy" from me, try not to gawk in amazement at me as if I'm some ancient mariner.

A few years ago, people my age and in my small circle of very cool friends have begun to use the phrase "in a good place," as in "his boss gave him a raise today, so he's in "a good place" or he was able to watch football all Sunday afternoon, so he was "in his good place." Getting a raise might put you in a "figurative good place," but watching football all Sunday afternoon and evening on your couch in your Mancave is a literal "good place."

Which leads me to this blog's question: Where's your "good place?"

You SHOULD answer VERY literally and specifically, sparing no expense of travel and writing descriptively as you can. The place must exist.

Maybe take me to some sunny exotic island in the Bahamas, send me schussing down the Rockies, or lead me to traverse your favorite hiking spot on the Appalachian Trail. Send me on a trip to a Delaware beach, or for youse Jersey girlzs and guyzs, the "shore." Plop me in the middle of the Christiana Mall (no... please don't) on Black Friday or maybe at Granny's house for a home-cooked meal. Take me on an Owl Prowl through Brandywine Creek State Park (look it up, it's a real thing--it's on my "bucket list"), a nice walk around Valley Garden Park in late spring, or an easy five mile jog in White Clay Creek Park with your IPod at full blast and with your eyes (and other senses) wide open.

Or perhaps you're the more "stay at home" type, who like Henry David Thoreau or Emily Dickinson, could make a full day out of bird watching, sitting in his cabin doorway or "going to church" in her family orchard. Then stay at home. Describe what it's like to be playing the guitar, getting big in the weight room, or just "chewing the fat" with your friends. 

This journal constitutes your attempt to write description, using concrete nouns, figures of speech, sensory images, and connotative words to set a certain mood.

However, one requirement of your post at Schoolsville is that your "good place" MUST be a "good place." Please, for this assignment I want no glimpses into any personal mansions of doom and gloom. As I might have said once or twice in the 70s, "Don't be such a downer, man."

For Andy Dufresne in The Shawshank Redemption, listening to the music of the "two Italian ladies" took his soul to heights that not even two weeks of prison lockup could destroy.

Can your "good place" do the same?

Minimum of 250 words. If you've had trouble posting at Schoolsville, then e-mail me your response. Read the descriptions written by last year's seniors as inspiration at this link. When the link opens, then go to the top of the page. 

SENIORS: Creative Writing: Punctuating Dialogue

When you write dialogue, be sure to punctuate it correctly so that your readers can see who is talking and where a line of dialogue begins or ends. The rules for using quotation marks, commas, and end marks of punctuation are listed below.

Use quotation marks before and after a character's exact words. Place a period inside closing quotation marks. 

"Peter and Esteban are joining us." 

Use a comma to set off the speaker's tag (he said) from the beginning of a quotation. Place the comma inside closing quotation marks when the speaker's tag follows the quotation. 

Harry said, "Come on, Ray. It'll be fun."

" Let's go," Gilda said.

Use quotation marks around each part of a divided quotation. Remember to set off the speaker's tag with commas. 

"I'm not sure," said Ray, "that I feel like it."

Place a question mark or an exclamation point inside the quotation marks when it is part of the quotation. 

"When will we be back?" Ray asked.

" Hooray!" said Debbi.

Place a question mark or an exclamation point outside the quotation marks when it is not part of the quotation. 

Did I hear Ray say, "Okay"?

I can't believe he said, "Okay"!

Start a new paragraph when you move from one speaker to another. 

      "How long a hike is it?" Ray asked. "I don't know whether I have the energy to make it. 

I'm  suddenly feeling really out of shape."  

      "I think," said Iris, "that it's about seven miles to the top."    

Senior Journal #1: Degas or Vermeer?

La classe de danse (The Dancing Class) 1873-1875 Edgar Degas oil on canvas

                                                           
The Star 1878 Edgar Degas

The Milkmaid 1658-1660 Johannes Vermeer oil on canvas

 

The Girl With The Pearl Earring (not dated) Johannes Vermeer

In John Updike's The Lucid Eye in Silver Town, Jay and his Uncle Quin have a minor disagreement over which artist is better--the Dutch Master Johannes Vermeer or the French Impressionist Edgar Degas. The disagreement not only reveals Jay's early development of arrogance (he haughtily pronounces, "In terms of paint, I think Vermeer makes Degas look sick"), but also reveals something about Updike's own artistic vision. Assuming the young Jay might be a young John Updike (both showed early interest in fine art) and knowing Updike's typical characters and heroes,  one can assume that Updike's choice of Vermeer as Jay's favorite artist was carefully chosen. Like Vermeer, John Updike often makes the ordinary character his subject. Often bathed in a beautiful light or doing their jobs with concentration and care, Vermeer's ordinary servants and common laborers look extraordinary; likewise, Updike's heroes are common people dealing with common problems in uncommonly, extraordinary short stories and novels. Remember this: the modern writer, the modern artist, often attempts to make the ordinary extraordinary. The classical writer and artist had no use for the common man, peasant, serf, groundling, and certainly few women. His job was to write poems and plays about kings, nobles, religious leaders ... you know, the people who really mattered. That's what Brit Lit was all about, wasn't it, up until your study of Wordsworth and Shelly and Coleridge?

Now let's move on to our writing task. But first some questions to get you to perform a basic analysis of the paintings.

Analyze the painting in terms of its title, historical context, subject/theme, characters, color, light/shading, composition/perspective, symbols, and tone.

Which one of the paintings (shown above) do you prefer? Give your reasons, using the points of analysis that preceded this question.

How does the painting make you feel upon first glance?

Imagine the "story" that the painting tells.

If neither of these four paintings appeal to you, choose another by Degas or Vermeer (you can easily find them online) in order to complete this assignment below. 

Write a good solid paragraph or creative piece responding to any ONE of these options. Write a minimum of 200 words. 

1.Why do you like one of the paintings, or prefer it to one of the others? Do not be intimidated if you do not understand too much about artistic composition.

2. Compare and contrast the Degas paintings with the Vermeers. Which artist do you prefer? Why? Be specific.

3. You are one of the characters in one of the paintings. Write a 200 word minimum interior monologue where we can "hear" your thoughts as you converse with yourself (in the first person) in the setting provided by the painting.

4. Compose a descriptive "set" piece in which you describe what you see in vivid prose language, using good concrete nouns, motion picture verbs, vivid images, and/or original figures of speech. No need to tell a story. Just write to set a particular mood.

Post before Wednesday, November 11. If you need some inspiration, read  some of the responses by the Class of 2014 in the October 2013 archives.

ALL CLASSES: Blending (Integrating) Quotations into Your Text

Watch this video to learn the three most common methods to "blend" or "integrate" quotations into your text. REMEMBER: you should NEVER "drop" or "parachute" a quotation into your text without introducing it or "blending" it into your own words. Teachers call these jarring "drops" by various names: "dropped quotes," "hanging quotes," and my latest favorite, "parachute quotes." >

Phase 5 ( red and blue) Unit 4 vocab sentences

Follow the same instructions as usual. Post below.

Phase 4 (green and yellow) unit 4 vocabulary sentences

Post below! Same instructions as always.