Welcome to the first week of the last unit of the semester! This Unit, we'll be focusing on plot by looking at some songs and some Southern Gothic short stories and then by writing our own. Let's get right into it. Plotting Our StoriesThe time has finally come for us to start working on our own stories. We've been building towards it all semester. I, for one, am excited! We're all going to be writing stories! So let's talk about what a story is. There are lots of ways to visualize story. My two favorite ones are the Hero's Journey and Freytag's Pyramid. They are classics for a reason. For our purposes, we are going to take it down even smaller. At the most basic level, a story has three parts. These three parts are:
In order to have a story, there must be change. The change doesn't have to be big. It can be big—some of us are writing stories with very epic conflict. But it doesn't have to be big. Once again, we're going to look to the music world to help us wrap our minds around story: "The General" by Dispatch "The Mariner's Revenge" by The Decemberists "Ode to Billie Joe" by Bobbie Gentry This time, we are going to plot*, but also the other elements of story, like character, setting, and conflict. At the moment above of the *, it occurred to me that I'm taking for granted that we all know the difference between the three words narrative, story, and plot. I should probably clear this up. For this unit, I'll basically be using the words story and narrative interchangeably. There is a bit of a difference, I think. In common use, the word "narrative" is more often used to talk about a nonfiction story that has been shaped from real events (think "personal narrative). Story has the connotation of being completely invented. But like I said, for our purposes, these will mean the same thing. Plot is difference though. Plot is just the dimension of the story of where stuff happens. The action. Stories usually contain more than just action. So there's a bit of a difference between these two words. Plotting out a story and writing a story are two different things. A Parting Thought on Our Research PapersWe finished the final drafts of our last research paper (yay!). Before we move on completely, I just want to mention one thing I noticed that maybe you can take away to the next research paper you meet in your college career. So, just one final note on quote integration. (You can revisit my little dissertation on synthesis and quote integration here.) It's a good rule of thumb to never quote another person's words without framing them. On a very practical craft level, that means your sentences always, always, always need to start with your own words. You have to give your reader an entryway into the words of someone else. At the very least, the reader at least needs to know who is speaking. But a skillful writer will sometimes go beyond just the bare bones introduction of a quote to actually frame the ideas of the quote in the way that very clearly supports the essay writer's argument. Let me give you an example of what I mean: When determining what is considered a crime against humanity, the perpetrator must acknowledge their “attack against the civilian population and that his/her action is part of that attack” (United Nations). This is a sophisticated introduction to a quote. It's ok if you don't feel like you can blend your thoughts with the words of your source to this extent, but, like I said, every sentence in your essay should start with your own words. And your words should outnumber your sources' words in every single paragraph of your essay. Welcome to Gothic. Southern Gothic.Based on our interest in horror, I thought we'd close out our year focusing on one of my favorite genres that just happens to have a lot in common with horror: Southern Gothic. And we're going to kick it off with my boy William Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily." It's dark, with a side of crazy, just like you like your stories. Come to class on Wednesday ready to talk about the plot.
Surprisingly, Southern Gothic has become relevant again as an aesthetic. Here's a short video from one of my favorite pop culture publications Polyester Zine about what Southern Gothic means today on TikTok and Pinterest. This is the essay it references: "Daughters of Cain, Sharp Objects & How the Recession Gave Rise to the Southern Gothic." As a literary genre, Southern Gothic is firmly rooted in place, namely, the "deep south." This also happens to be the place where I was rooted. I grew up in Mississippi, an hour and a half north of William Faulkner's home. Basically, I saved the best for last ;) Comments are closed.
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