Cultural Settings Project: Narrative; Introduction to Jeanette Winterson

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To begin class today, please gather your notes for your setting project and look through them. If you need to, share your notes with another willing writer and respond to each other's setting or ideas. Brainstorm possible stories that could take place in the setting you have created. As a partner, try to ask some questions that do not seem clear to you as a listener or reader. Then exchange places with your partner and share again. If you feel you are not yet ready for this step, look through your own notes alone. Spend the first half of the first period in this activity. After 15-20 minutes, begin fleshing out a story or narrative.

Consider:
  • Who will be my protagonist?
  • What does my protagonist wish to accomplish? Name a few goals my protagonist might need to meet.
  • What makes my protagonist unique or likable? 
  • What flaws or mistakes or bad decisions has my protagonist made in the past? How have these mistakes or decisions affected his/her life in the present?
  • Who or what opposes or causes current conflicts for my protagonist?
  • What does my antagonist want to accomplish--or how might the antagonistic force oppose the goals of my antagonist?
  • Briefly consider the ending of a story (whether it will be the final end or not).
  • What scene from your protagonist's life is vivid in your imagination? 
  • What event or interruption starts your protagonist's goals to begin going astray?
When you have answered or considered some of these questions, taken notes, freewrote, brainstormed, or listed, doodled, or what-have-you, begin at an appropriate beginning for your narrative, and write. Continue to write for 15-20 minutes. 

At some point during the early part of period 2, we will move to the library to pick up The Stone Gods by Jeanette Winterson. You may either stay in the library and read, or return to the lab to write. In either case, please learn about the author from the links below before next class.


Jeanette Winterson is a contemporary novelist. She is a lesbian writer, but dabbles in science fiction, literary and poetic prose. She was born in Manchester, England, and adopted by Pentecostal parents who brought her up in the nearby mill-town. She attended Oxford, and currently writes for various UK newspapers (she is a journalist, as well as a literary novelist and poet).

Her novels include:
Author interview with Jeanette Winterson
Jeanette Winterson talks about her favorite books

HOMEWORK: Please read the first part of The Stone Gods. Analysis and discussion on this section will begin on Friday during second period. Please bring your book back with you to class on Friday.

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