WEEK 1
I.
What is Flash Fiction? (Lecture 1)
II.
How to Start
a. Exercise – (Memory
of special occasion)
b. Discussion of
exercise
III.
Flash Fiction Stories
IV.
Flash Fiction Essays
V.
Discuss Stories
VI.
Gathering Ideas
a. personal
experience
b. articles and
essays
c. other people’s
personal experience
d. stories/books
e. Exercise
VII.
Snapshots
a. Imagine a
scene. Choose one element within the scene to write about. Can be real or
imagined.
VIII. Read
a. Flash Fiction
on Internet. Flashquake, Vestal Review.
b. Devotions
c. Chicken Soup,
Cup of Comfort personal experience stories
d. Try you hand at
your own flash fiction piece
WEEK
2
I.
Review Week One
II.
Talk about assignment
a. Read pieces
b. Discuss goals
c. Hand out market
info
III.
Getting started with Week 2
a. Read Memories
of a Childhood Past
b. Exercise
c. Read pieces
d. Discuss how
sharing personal experiences can expand your writing skills while helping the
world.
IV.
Fiction pieces
a. Read Micro
Fiction
b. Exercise
c. Read pieces
d. Discuss the
difference between fiction and non-fiction
e. Read flash
f. Exercise
1. I only know
that…
2. Perhaps this is
what happened…
3. She/He must
have thought ….
4. I have not been
told all of this story because
5. Nobody knows
why….
6. I think he/she did
this because….
7. Read pieces
V.
Negative traits
a. It is often
much more difficult to write about someone we dislike rather than someone we
like. Fiction Writers have more difficulty in creating a believable antagonist
because they tend to stereotype the “bad guy,” giving him/her all negative
traits and no good traits. Even in life, we tend to stamp negative traits on
someone we dislike and never see the good traits.
b. For next week:
Exercise.
WEEK 3
WEEK 3
I.
Read pieces
c. Discuss writing
about antagonists
1. Was it more
difficult than writing protagonists
2. If so, why
II.
Writing about ourselves
a. Sometimes the
hardest person to write about is ourselves. We shy
away from bragging and don’t want to share our faults. But until we can be true
about who we are, we can’t relate to others about who
they are.
b. Writing
Exercise - Part 1 - positive
c. Writing
Exercise – Part 2 – negative
d. Writing
Exercise – Part 3 – regret
III.
Let’s
turn to the protagonist now. Every story has a protagonist, main character, who
the readers relate to and cheer for. Without protagonists you simply don’t have
a story. Even with the greatest plot, without a protagonist, the plot slips
away because, as said many, many times before, READERS RELATE TO THE
PROTAGONIST AND HOW THE PROTAGONIST DEALS OR DOESN’T DEAL WITH THE PLOT/CRISIS.
a.
Protagonists
are much like antagonists, except they are a bit more likeable, at least by the
end of the story or book. Many times they are the underdogs in the beginning of
the story, but by the end they have grown either emotionally, mentally, or
spiritually and sometimes physically.
b.
Writing
Exercise – Create a protagonist
WEEK 4
I.
Critiquing work
a. Why critiquing
is important
b. Critique
techniques
II.
Pass pieces around to critique
a. Have students
read some critiques
b. Discuss
critiques
c. Revise pieces
d. Read revised
pieces
III.
Goals for writing
a. Discuss markets
b. Discuss where
students will send their first piece in.
c. Question/answer
d. Jot down
writing goals for next four weeks