Assignment 11--due Mon. Jan. 29

1) Pick a poem to memorize--and start!

2) Write a fictional essay based on a book you have read. It can be just a scene, or a whole story--length is up to you.

Decide what character you would be if you could write yourself into the story. This probabaly means creating a new character, although you may choose a very minor character to develop, if you'd rather. Decide WHO your character is (what they look and act like, how they relate to the other characters), WHAT they want, and WHY they want it. Their motivations should drive the story or the scene.

(In the Robin Hood example, my character is an orphan girl, lost in the forest, who is discovered by Will Scarlet and brought back to the Merry Band. What she wants is to be allowed to stay; why--because she loved her father so much and she wants to be adopted by fifty new fathers. So I might write about the scene where she is found and taken back, and how she pleads to be allowed to stay with the Merry Band.)

Remember show, don't tell, the action and emotions of the characters. Don't say, "She was sad." Describe her shoulders drooping as she turned away, the tear starting to form in her eye, etc.

It's probably easiest to start the scene with your character alone somewhere, then joining in to the story.