Recent Excitement

Three of my fiction students asked me if they could "talk me into" teaching them a private class. An advanced fiction workshop.

These students are currently publishing. I mean, they know a thing or two about craft, and frankly, I didn't know how much they'd get out of my class in the first place.

But apparently, they liked it! And I am just GIDDY coming up with the readings for this class... I'm thinking a mix of theory, craft, readings, and some good ol' fashioned workshop.

Eeeeeeek!!

Wednesday Writing

Not that I have any babies to name or anything, but I always have names kicking around in my head. I'm a fiction writer, and I figure, they're characters waiting to be born.

I will actually often go and search for names from specific countries if I'm working on a character who I've come up with a background/ history for, but not yet named. If I didn't look, my characters would all sound like the same WASP-y or Latina kids I grew up with. Which is fine when that's what I'm writing about, but often, it's not.

I wrote a story a long time ago about a nurse in Johannesburg who adopts a baby boy. I looked for African names online and found one I love: Kefentse.

I also thought Asher was a really cool, unique sounding name (this was found during my Hebrew-name search). I liked that one so much, I filed it away under "possible future baby names," thinking I was so original and off the beaten path.

But, according to this, I am so not. Number FIVE on top 100 boy baby names of 2010. Lame. Maybe by the time we have kids it'll be as original and uncommon as I thought it was.

Do you have any tricks that help you write stories?

Love

"As an undergraduate, I liked writing short stories and was happy to be in the air conditioning, rather than out banging nails in the Arizona heat. It was cool to hang out with other people who loved books and go to smarty-pants parties. But it was a teacher who took me aside, a mentor who made me strive, a writer who showed me that all my perceived faults — lying, exaggerating, daydreaming, rubbernecking — combined to make something good called a story." ~Adam Johnson

Oh, that just makes my heart hurt.

Tuesday: Discussion

This one is going to be quick. Last night, instead of reading a story, I had my students listen to this one: http://www.newyorker.com/online/2009/05/11/090511on_audio_wolff

They were far more engaged than I expected them to be, I thought it would be much harder for them to listen to a text than to read it themselves. But I was wrong. Granted, Tobias Wolff is an awesome reader, and probably reads aloud with much more command than they read silently in their heads. They were cracking up, eyes popping at the swear words, faces twisting in disgust as the bunnies died.

I'm curious about the relationship between traditional reading, and listening to a story. Do you ever use audio "texts" in your classes? Do the students take notes? Are they engaged? Can this be a powerful part of a class, or is it simply a nice break if they're tired of reading?

Image courtesy of biblioklept.org