(Flash Fiction Assignment:
Due: December 4th for ENG-34 and December 4th for ENG-33
Draft 1 to 2 Fixes:
1. Check editors' comments, make your own comments at the bottom of the editing sheet, make and fixes you feel are necessary
2. Actually highlight on your draft 1 wherever you have decent descriptive language (you are aiming for at least 50% of your story to be highlighted ex. "the soupy thick air" (that gets highlighted) but you wouldn't highlight "the air was thick" because that's not really decent description
3. Do you have EIGHT different literary devices? Add more if needed. Ex. Allegory, metaphor etc.
4. Have you done some development of the following literary elements:
Setting? (physical, time, mood)
Character? (Physical, personality)
Plot (Something happens? Plot twist at the end?)
General Instructions:
1. Length and form obviously matter - 450 word max. (do not go one word over!)
2. Be willing to edit and re-edit and re-edit (you get grades for followig this process)
3. Soul-stirring language (add this layer of 8 different literary devices in your second draft)
4. Play against expectations - make sure your plot twist is actually a twist!
5. Make rereads necessary or at least inviting (ideally, your reader wants to read your story a second time!)
Draft #1 - Skeleton of the story = Setup your plot twist and other plot points ex. climax and resolution, include setting and characterization and make sure there is a conflict and theme and that it's in third-person point of view. Make sure this is typed and printed so it can be peer-edited in class (and they can catch typos)
Draft #2 - Significant changes have been made: Plot, theme, character(s), setting, point of view and the conflict have been polished and you are now to brainstorm and ensure you include the eight required literary devices. Enter these changes into your computer and print.
Draft #3 (Final Draft) - editing of the second draft should have further polished all of the above, including your ideas, use of literary elements and devices, spelling, punctuation and grammar.
*Proper typing format = Final copy of the essay is to be typed with Times New Roman or Lucida Grande font, font size 12, regular margins, 2.0 line spacing (double-spaced) and with your full name at the top, left-justified (do not center all your writing!)
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Flash Fiction- Organizing your final package
Order - On top: Final copy, then below that is draft # 2, draft # 2 editing sheet, draft #1, draft #1 editing sheet, brainstorm sheet, blank lined paper for reflection (we'll do this in class on the day it's due), and then leave the rubric loose (unattached) but with your name and class number written on it.
Remember to print your final draft twice so I have a copy for the writing contest.
Also - have your word count on the final copy!
Reflection - On your final copy which I will be grading - highlight and label your 8 different literary devices. Then, choose your two best and write a mini-paragraph where you explain: What the device is and the quote of it from your story, which literary element it supports and how, and how it helps to build meaning in your story.
Example of Reflection:
(to be done for your eight different literary devices used + theme)
8. Euphemism – I used a euphemism at the very end of my story when I wrote, “The very humanity who should have seen it coming and which, in its ignorant disarray ended up having its last two people remain on the last piece of fading land and playing ‘I wonder’ until their final sleep” in order to add a sense of unfairness and hopefully outrage in terms of the conflict (the Earth’s environment having been destroyed be inaction against climate change and pollution). A euphemism used in that way seems a little juvenile (something a kid would say) and so I wanted that euphemism to also remind the reader that climate change is bad for us, but unchecked, it would be worse and worse for the very young who would have to deal with the issues we passed down to them.
9. Theme - The theme of my flash fiction is to recognize that our decisions today affect everyone on this Earth, more specifically in terms of the environment. When I wrote, “She gazed back out at the warm ocean that seemed so kind but that instead, with the melting of all the glaciers and Antarctica, left the world suffocated by a blanket of oceans that rage against the dying light of failed humanity” it was with the intended effect of linking current events of melting ice caps and disappearing glaciers, to this story and where inaction can bring our Earth to a really sorry state. Quite literally, if we (humanity) do not act soon, then the young will inherit an Earth that could be damaged beyond repair, as outlined by my resolution.
(to be done for your eight different literary devices used + theme)
8. Euphemism – I used a euphemism at the very end of my story when I wrote, “The very humanity who should have seen it coming and which, in its ignorant disarray ended up having its last two people remain on the last piece of fading land and playing ‘I wonder’ until their final sleep” in order to add a sense of unfairness and hopefully outrage in terms of the conflict (the Earth’s environment having been destroyed be inaction against climate change and pollution). A euphemism used in that way seems a little juvenile (something a kid would say) and so I wanted that euphemism to also remind the reader that climate change is bad for us, but unchecked, it would be worse and worse for the very young who would have to deal with the issues we passed down to them.
9. Theme - The theme of my flash fiction is to recognize that our decisions today affect everyone on this Earth, more specifically in terms of the environment. When I wrote, “She gazed back out at the warm ocean that seemed so kind but that instead, with the melting of all the glaciers and Antarctica, left the world suffocated by a blanket of oceans that rage against the dying light of failed humanity” it was with the intended effect of linking current events of melting ice caps and disappearing glaciers, to this story and where inaction can bring our Earth to a really sorry state. Quite literally, if we (humanity) do not act soon, then the young will inherit an Earth that could be damaged beyond repair, as outlined by my resolution.