Lesson 4 Inbox: Turn in Homework Here

[Fumbly]

Please reply to this thread to turn in your Lesson 4 homework and extra credit. Should you prefer to email your work, you may do so at: owl@sollarna.com

IMPORTANT: Emailed assignments must include your HOL name. The subject line should state the assignment number.

Assignment #4 (required) – Conquering the Saboteurs
Worth 30 House Points
Due December 31

Choose 30 points’ worth of homework from the following options. Since you should be working on your story, I don’t want this month’s homework to take up too much of your time. Instead, I’d rather it helped you write your story! Therefore, I’ve provided several options, and I encourage you to choose the easiest option(s) for you. (Psst… if you choose an option that requires sharing in the forum, it will also count toward this month’s extra participation points!) :

1) Review the faces of Writer’s Sabotage listed in Lesson 4. Identify your three main saboteurs, and explain you can activate persistence to conquer them. Please keep your answer between 300 and 500 words. (30 points)

2) List three other possible Writer’s Saboteurs not listed in Lesson 4. These can apply to all writers or just to you. Identify and describe them. Please keep your answer between 300 and 500 words. (30 points)

3) Have you encountered and overcome any barriers while writing your story? Describe what you experienced and how you equipped persistence to continue writing. Please keep your answer between 300 and 500 words. (30 points)

4) Fill out (as much as you can) Eva Deverell’s worksheet, “Reconnect with Your Story” (pdf). Instead of printing, you may also type the answers in a post or email. (30 points)

5) Devise a new, unique writing game. Share your idea in the class forum. Be descriptive so that your classmates may play it should they wish! Please keep your game description between 300 and 500 words. (30 points)

6) Donate 3 “plot bunnies” and 5 “props” in the class forum. Remember, plot bunnies are “scene” or side-story ideas while props are items that could play a meaningful role in someone’s storyline. (15 points)

7) Engage in a “word war” with a classmate. This can be conducted either on IRC or in the class forum. Agree to a start and end time, and see who wrote the most words to declare a winner. (15 points)

8) If a classmate shares a plot bunny, prop, and/or writing game, us it and share your review and experience. You may also share the written segment that included the donated element. Please keep your “review” between 150 and 300 words. (15 points)

9) Find and share 2 pieces of writing advice from 2 authors who have not already been mentioned in class. Preferably the advice you find will address persistence and be from an author you admire. Google will help. (15 points)

Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you encounter difficulties completing or turning in your homework assignments.

[Prof. Tarma Amelia Black]

Because I want the Participation Credit .....

Time Thieves -- not having time to write. Sometimes that can be a great challenge. Often, when getting done with what needs to be done, I just want to do nothing. Sit, be still. Knowing that there is yet another task to do, in a while, just increases that desire, to be still.
Thing is, I found out, when doing NaNoWriMo, that I didn't have to dedicate a certain amount of clock time each day to writing, in order to get it done. What was important is that I sat myself down, opened the document and it was there to play with. Designating a time of day, or putting 'writing' in the sequence of chores to do, work to do, usually helped. Whether I wrote one sentence, 5 pages or nothing, at least I was there. I also found if I didn't feel inspired to write, there was usually a reason. I do a lot of internal, non-intellect sort of story creation, and sometimes there is a twist which is not yet developed. Sometimes a day of extreme 'did nothing in writing' is followed by a hugely productive day or days of writing out what is presented as the story, and words get to my head. That practice has continued on and it works for me.

Dried Inspiration -- This is an odd thing. I don't really believe in Writing's Block .... but I do believe, or know, that sometimes trying to force the story to go in the way my head thinks it should go, rather than the way the story wants to go, results in a huge BLANK. I think Writer's Block might be intellect trying to take over the creative process from mind.

Conniving Competition -- this is not so much other folks telling me what to write, or being jealous of my writing. I think it is more that some folks write in a certain way and others write in other ways. Some folks HAVE to have an outline of the full story before they can even start writing it. My favorite author (okay, one of my favorite authors) wrote that she cannot do outlines and then write the story with any ease. She writes to find out how the story turns out. What happens? If she's done the outline thing, then she knows. Then she has a very difficult time finishing the last half of the story. How I get around these things, how I persist to continue with my story, is to keep in mind “There is no one true way.” I'm very glad that the methods used work for those folks. But I am aware that there are so many different methods, and I have fortunately found one that works for me, so I continue to do what works for me.