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Writers Retreat > Student Talk > Course Lessons > Assignment 8 > Stuck on Lesson 8
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Cat
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« Reply #15 on: October 28, 2009, 12:01:30 AM »
So just to be ABSOLUTELY clear, I just need to send in three outlines of three different stories for Assignment 8? Do they have to be one non-fiction and two fiction or can they all be fiction? (I'm not a huge fan of NF myself, as you may have ascertained  Wink)
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« Reply #16 on: October 28, 2009, 06:57:30 AM »
They can all be fiction, all be nonfiction, or be a mix of both. It is up to you.
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Cat
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« Reply #17 on: October 28, 2009, 03:59:15 PM »
Thanks Jan!  Kiss You da best. I'm having fun with this one, actually. For some reason my imaginative grey cells were really stirring, and I was able to come up with two different story plots pretty quickly. I love it when inspiration strikes like that.
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« Reply #18 on: October 28, 2009, 04:26:36 PM »
Good for you. ALways fun to be on a roll.
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cm1771
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« Reply #19 on: October 29, 2009, 12:42:25 AM »
glad i have stopped in here.  I, too, have been stuck on this assignment and am way behind.  I guess, like many of the others, I am getting too caught up in the understanding, planning, steps etc. of this task.  I usually just sit down and write so I am not sure why putting it all down on paper as a plan is so difficult.  I am going to give it another go and hopefully will get it done and gone!  Angry
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Truth_about4ever
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« Reply #20 on: November 06, 2009, 12:17:39 PM »
I have the same problem, cm. I get too worked up in figuring how it's going to work when I just need to sit down and write. THEN go back and edit.

As hard as it is to kill those darlings...
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« Reply #21 on: November 06, 2009, 02:44:55 PM »
I generally just sit down and write, but I've noticed that a lot of times my thoughts are too scattered and I can't get all the loose threads of my writing tied together...which can be a huge devestation. I'm kind of glad that with Assignment 8 I have to PLAN an outline. I'm hoping I'll be able to write out coherently what actually happens at point A that leads to point B and culminates in point C, and then my ideas won't go wandering off. Wink
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« Reply #22 on: April 06, 2010, 08:29:43 PM »
still having trouble with writing the ideas and plots due the outline
is there any way that can disregard it mentally and focus on the three topics?
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« Reply #23 on: April 06, 2010, 09:43:52 PM »
I'm not sure I understand what you're saying, Mexicanshedevil.

You could always write a rough draft of each piece (dont send them to the instructor) but then use THEM to help you see how to write a kind of synopsis of each and send them as your plans. All your instructor wants to see (in fiction) is main character, motivation, how the main character acts on the motivation, what the results of that act are, how the main character deals with THAT, then the results of that next act...and so on until the act that resolves the story. So just almost a list of actions and their results -- all tied to the main character and the story challenge/motivation.

For nonfiction, I just want to know what you plan to write about (topic) and how you're going to focus on a single fascinating part of that topic (slant) and basically how your going to group your information in a nice smooth organization (and not just spill it out on the page willy nilly.)
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« Reply #24 on: April 16, 2010, 06:16:21 AM »
Need some help!!   
     I'm working on a specific topic of self-esteem: conflicts with being a tomboy and girly girl

Would this me considered a non-fiction or fiction?
(and yes this is still for Lesson 8 work)
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« Reply #25 on: April 16, 2010, 07:57:20 AM »
Have another question:
     Subject on non-fiction means what the article is about, right? (it's like stating the theme of the topic)
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« Reply #26 on: April 16, 2010, 10:09:59 AM »
Well you could write fiction about being a tomboy or a girly girl (if you have any made up people or parts)
You could write an essay about being a tomboy or a girly girl (if you call on your experience and expand on it).
You could write a quiz about whether you're a tomboy or a girly girl and why it's okay to be either
You could write an article about raising a tomboy or a girly girl and how to build the self esteem in either.

The quiz could sell to a teen magazine
The article could sell to a parenting magazine
The essay would be tough to sell anywhere until you (as writer) are under 21.
The fiction obviously would sell where fiction sells.

It's possible to write an article on being a tomboy or a girlie girl for a magazine but it would be incredibly difficult. You'd have to really really know the magazine and how it approaches stuff like that...and you'd have to be very skilled in your approach. Those kinds of "lets fix you" topics are often better as quizzes unless you can do them as personal experience or write them for grownups.
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« Reply #27 on: April 23, 2010, 01:23:23 AM »
My story plot on this has changed........ it's regarding a girl whose writing a memoir and telling how difficult it was for her in 8th grade due to her squeak voice and everyone making fun. She doesn't the respect from anyone and..(I was planning on making her have a voice within a newspaper article)

Other story is on ethics vs government law in which our law enforcement/ child services, etc cause more damage to kids that have gone through a rough patch.


Any ideas on how to write or carry the stories through I would appreciate it. Would even apprecitate additional facts or ideas for both stories but mainly on the 2nd one.

Thanks 
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« Reply #28 on: April 23, 2010, 06:58:29 AM »
When you write fiction, you are required to have a plot. So fiction can inform (a little) but mostly it has to tell a story. It needs to be about overcoming challenge. So if the girl in eight grade was made fun of but did something to overcome that...you wouldn't need the "memoir" approach which just pushes us away from the story, you would write scenes and dialogue and actually write the story. If she's just informing us of events (in a pretend memoir) -- it's possible you don't have a plot and thus don't have a successful story.

I have no idea how one would do a "story" (meaning fiction) on ethics vs. government law. I could imagine a novel (again with a plot) that illustrated flaws in the law and how they hurt people through the experience of a single character in the "system" but I could not imagine handling that in a short story without just lecturing the reader (and thus effectively guaranteeing you couldn't get the story in publication). Be sure you actually have a STORY if you're writing fiction with a  main character and a plot.

Otherwise you have an article for adults (since kids would not be interested in that topic). An article is just facts (no made up bits) and is researched and written as a presentation of facts (probably with case histories of real actual people and not made up people).
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« Reply #29 on: May 23, 2010, 03:46:08 PM »
Writing my stories down right now but I'm stuck on trying to figure out good magazines for the following topic:
Double standards of high school sports


Passed through the entire Children's Writers Market book and checked online but nothing that I feel comfortable with that it pertains with.


Please Help!!!

thks
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