Tuesday, October 20, 2026
Thursday, October 15, 2026
Questions
On Point of View & Distance
- Why did Baldwin choose the unnamed brother as the narrator instead of telling the story from Sonny’s perspective? How does keeping the narrator at an emotional and geographical distance shape our sympathy?
- How would the story change if it were narrated in the first person by Sonny, or in the third person omniscient? What information or mystery would you lose?
- What is the narrator’s bias, and how does Baldwin make an uptight, traditional algebra teacher feel like a fully realized, sympathetic human rather than a simple "straight man" foil?
- Why does the story open in media res (with the narrator reading about Sonny’s arrest in the newspaper) rather than starting chronologically in their childhood?
- How does Baldwin handle time jumps? Which scenes does he expand in slow-motion detail (like the living room conversation or the final jazz club), and which does he summarize or skip? What does that teach us about pacing?
- How does the past structure the present? Look at how the mother’s story about the uncle and the father’s death interrupts the linear flow—how does memory act as a physical weight in the plot?
- How does Baldwin translate sound into language? In the final scene at the jazz club, how does he describe music so that it feels emotional and visual rather than just technical?
- How does Harlem function as a character rather than just a backdrop? What specific recurring motifs or physical spaces (the light, the darkness, the windows, the "cup of trembling") anchor the emotional state of the brothers?
- Adopt the Filter: Rewrite a short scene from your own work-in-progress through the eyes of an estranged or skeptical family member who views your protagonist with a mix of worry and judgment.
- Translate an Abstract Feeling: Pick an invisible emotion (like grief, burnout, or relief) and anchor it entirely to a physical object, a sound, or a specific setting the way Baldwin uses the blues or the scotch and milk.
- Play with Chronology: Take a scene from a draft that starts at the "beginning" and re-start it in media res at the moment of highest consequence, filling in the backstory later through dialogue or memory.
Tuesday, October 13, 2026
Monday, October 12, 2026
Tuesday, October 6, 2026
Short Story in Five steps
A story in five sentences
Sentence 1: Introduce two characters and a setting.
Sentence 2: Introduce what they are doing.
Sentence 3: Introduce a problem.
Sentence 4: Make it worse.
Sentence 5: Create a solution and a resolution. (This is often a long sentence!)
Tuesday, September 22, 2026
Famous first lines
- From Gabriel GarcÃa Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera: “It was inevitable: the scent of bitter almonds always reminded him of the fate of unrequited love.”
- From William Kennedy’s Ironweed: “Riding up the winding road of Saint Agnes Cemetery in the back of the rattling old truck, Francis Phelan became aware that the dead, even more than the living, settled down in neighborhoods. The truck was suddenly surrounded by fields of monuments and cenotaphs of kindred design and striking size, all guarding the privileged dead.”
- From Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. “It was a queer, sultry summer, the summer they electrocuted the Rosenbergs, and I didn’t know what I was doing in New York.”
- From Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas: “We were somewhere around Barstow on the edge of the desert when the drugs began to take hold.”
- From Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice: “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
- From Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina. “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.”
- From Christopher Buckley’s Thank You For Smoking: “Nick Naylor had been called many things since becoming the chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies, but until now no one had actually compared him to Satan.”
- From Toni Morrison’s Paradise: “They shoot the white girl first.”
- And, of course, this inimitable portal from J.M. Barrie’s Peter Pan: “All children, except one, grow up.
Tuesday, September 15, 2026
Tuesday, September 8, 2026
Sunday, May 3, 2026
Monday, April 13, 2026
Wednesday, April 8, 2026
Wednesday, April 1, 2026
Monday, March 30, 2026
Tuesday, March 24, 2026
Monday, March 9, 2026
Tuesday, February 17, 2026
Thursday, February 12, 2026
Tuesday, February 10, 2026
Memoir outline
Writing a memoir essay is less about recording a timeline and more about finding the meaning in a specific slice of your life. Think of it as a "mini-movie" where you are the protagonist.
Here is a flexible outline to help you structure your story.
I. The Hook: The Inciting Incident
Don't start with "I was born in..." Start where the action or the change begins.
The Scene: Use sensory details (smell, sound, touch) to drop the reader into a specific moment.
The Conflict: Briefly hint at the internal or external tension. What was at stake?
The "Before" State: Establish who you were at that time so the reader can measure your growth later.
II. The Build-Up: Rising Action
This is the "meat" of the essay where you navigate the challenges of your chosen theme.
The Journey: Describe the series of events that led to the turning point.
Internal Monologue: Share your thoughts and misconceptions at the time. (e.g., "I thought if I just stayed quiet, the problem would vanish.")
Key Characters: Introduce 1–2 people who acted as catalysts or obstacles.
III. The Climax: The Turning Point
This is the emotional or physical peak of the essay.
The Confrontation: The moment you had to make a choice, face a fear, or accept a hard truth.
The Shift: Show the exact moment your perspective changed. This is often a "point of no return."
IV. The Reflection: Falling Action
Now that the "storm" has passed, what is the immediate aftermath?
The Realization: Explain what you learned in the wake of the climax.
The Integration: How did you start applying this new knowledge to your life?
V. The Resolution: The "New Normal"
End by bringing the reader back to the present or a transformed future.
The "After" State: Show how you are different now compared to the person in the introduction.
The Universal Truth: Briefly touch on the broader human experience your story reflects (grief, resilience, identity, etc.).
The Final Image: Leave the reader with a lingering, powerful visual or thought.
Quick Tips for Success:
Show, Don't Tell: Instead of saying "I was nervous," describe your "knuckles turning white as you gripped the steering wheel."
Focus on One Theme: Don't try to tell your whole life story. Pick one specific thread (e.g., your relationship with your grandmother, or the summer you failed at your dream job).
Be Vulnerable: Readers connect with honesty, including the moments where you weren't the hero.
Monday, February 9, 2026
Tuesday, February 3, 2026
Wednesday, January 21, 2026
Tuesday, January 20, 2026
Syllabus
January 2026
Tuesday, January 20
- Introduction to Creative Writing
- General discussion
- Assignment:
- Read Alan Kaufman Chapters 1 to 5
Thursday, January 22
- Discussion of reading
- Assignment:
- Read chapters 5 to 10
Tuesday, January 27
- Journal readings
- General discussion of memoir/reading
- Discussion of craft
- Assignment
- Read chapters 10 to 22
Thursday, January 29
- Discussion of reading
- Assignment
- Read chapters 22 to 32