Process Writing Prompts for “Cavemen”

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Bryan

Remember to support your answers with evidence from the text.  Work on expanding and developing your answers, really letting your brain run with them.  You don’t need to answer all the questions, so if you get carried away with question 2 and hit 750 words, that’s okay (though you’ll want to start with the finish-the-sentence exercise just below, because we’ll kick off the class with that piece).

Finish one of these sentences:

This is a story of _______.

or

This is a story about ___________.

(Three abbreviated examples of how this kind of thing works with other stories:

1. This is a story of a man coming to a kind of reckoning with his grief over his father’s suicide.  For years, this man has been stuck on the question of why? about his father’s suicide.  But then he goes on a fishing trip alone – alone for the first time in years – where he meets a stranger who helps him get over that hump.

2. It is a story of healing.  Emma is resurrected from her obsession with grief and her misery by art.

3. This is a story about a period in Revie’s life when his father is making the transition to a new state of life, post mom and post marriage, while Revie flounders.  He is being left behind by his father.  It’s really a story about grief, and how grief is private, a room one enters (and leaves) alone.)

Conflict/Tension

What are the conflicts or sources of tension in this story?

What is the conflict (or conflicts) within the narrator?

The Narrator

Does the narrator change over the course of the story?  If so, how?

Why does he propose to her?  What’s that really about?

Why is the narrator telling this story?

Kim

Why does Kim take up with a caveman?  What overturns her initial disgust?

Power & Control

Does the balance of power change in this story?  How so?  What causes the change?

How are issues of control & responsibility dramatized in this story?

 

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38 Responses to Process Writing Prompts for “Cavemen”

    • Bryan says:
      January 24, 2011 at 5:24 pm

      Can’t see it, Katie. I think you’ve posted the wrong link. Follow the instructions under “Process Writing” on the blog and try again, please.

    • Bryan says:
      January 24, 2011 at 5:29 pm

      Can’t see it, Ian. I think you’ve posted the wrong link. Follow the instructions under “Process Writing” on the blog and try again, please.

    • Bryan says:
      January 24, 2011 at 5:30 pm

      Can’t see it, Audrey. I think you’ve posted the wrong link. Follow the instructions under “Process Writing” on the blog and try again, please.

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