{"id":57,"date":"2011-01-24T16:15:18","date_gmt":"2011-01-24T21:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/?p=57"},"modified":"2011-01-20T15:24:58","modified_gmt":"2011-01-20T20:24:58","slug":"process-writing-prompts-for-burn-with-me","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/2011\/01\/24\/process-writing-prompts-for-burn-with-me\/","title":{"rendered":"Process-Writing Prompts for “Burn With Me”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trouble spots<\/em><\/p>\n

Note any spots in the text that are giving you some kind of trouble, any spots where you feel like you don’t quite get it.\u00a0 Wrestle with it on your own in 750words.com for a while.\u00a0 At the least, you’ll be able to articulate your trouble; at best, you may write your way toward insight.\u00a0 We’ll start class in small groups talking about\u2014and helping each other through\u2014our trouble spots.<\/p>\n

Eyes<\/em><\/p>\n

The story has a real focus on eyes.\u00a0 There are twelve explicit mentions of eyes or eyelids or eyebrows.\u00a0 Most sensory detail is visual.\u00a0 The story includes eye-imagery, like “the darkened windows stared at us.”\u00a0 And I can’t even begin to count the number of “visual verbs” like “look” or “watch” or “see.”<\/p>\n

Why the focus on eyes?\u00a0 How does it connect with the meaning of this story?<\/p>\n

Stories within Stories<\/em><\/p>\n

The story also has a real focus on stories.\u00a0 There are the stories that his father tells, and the story that Stu told, for example.<\/p>\n

Why include all these stories?\u00a0 Does this connect with the meaning of the story?\u00a0 Memory, family, home, stories\u2014do these all intersect in some way?<\/p>\n

Key Lines<\/em><\/p>\n

These couple of sentences feel like they might be keys to the story:<\/p>\n

“I didn’t know how to even begin to understand what was in his mind, what we were supposed to be talking about.”<\/p>\n

“There was a version of me that he held in his mind, one that I didn’t quite recognize.”<\/p>\n

If you think that these lines might be keys to a meaning of this story, riff on them for a while.<\/p>\n

Setting<\/em><\/p>\n

Place is important to this story.\u00a0 Between the ghost towns and suicide points, the settings are also pretty unusual.\u00a0 Pick one scene and think about its setting.\u00a0 What’s the relationship between the setting and what the scene means?\u00a0 How does the setting contribute to making that meaning?<\/p>\n

Finish the Sentence<\/em><\/p>\n

Use these sentence-starters as springboards for ideas about the story.\u00a0 You don’t have to stop when you reach the end of the sentence.\u00a0 Flesh out your thoughts with examples from the story, associations, and other thoughts.\u00a0 In other words, develop your ideas.<\/p>\n

This is a story of\/This is a story about . . .<\/p>\n

I was reminded of . . .<\/p>\n

I think . . .<\/p>\n

I’m surprised that . . .<\/p>\n

I’d like to know . . .<\/p>\n

I realized . . .<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Trouble spots Note any spots in the text that are giving you some kind of trouble, any spots where you feel like you don’t quite get it.\u00a0 Wrestle with it on your own in 750words.com for a while.\u00a0 At the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19095],"tags":[19098,19097,19096],"class_list":["post-57","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-process-writing-prompts","tag-finish-this-sentence","tag-key-lines","tag-trouble-spots"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/281"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57\/revisions\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.butler.edu\/seriouslyfunny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}