Compose a 5-7 page short story or work of creative nonfiction.

Consider what POV works best for your piece. A few possibilities:
-First-person narrator that observes the action from a distance (like Helen Oyeyemi’s story)
-First-person narrator that gives intimate insight into their experience (like Febos or F. Jaramillo or the NYT personal essaysP
-Close Third-person POV like in Berlin’s story, where the narrator closely follow one or two characters, and only know as much as they know
-Third-person omniscient narrator that knows everything (like Attwood)
-Second-person POV, like in Adrienne Minh-Chau Le’s piece, written as a letter to her mother, while still including substantial narrative

Determine what the central tension is.
-What do the characters want? (For nonfiction, this could be you the author, or others that you include in your essay)
-Where is the trouble?
-Is the action external, internal or both?
-How does the tension resolve?

World Building
-When and where does the story take place? Who’s involved?
-For fiction, are you sticking with realism, or are magical things possible?
-If magical, what are the rules of the world you’ve built? Ie, what’s possible and what’s not possible?
-For essays, what’s the cultural context that you’re writing about?

Audience
-Who, beyond people who know you, might want to read this piece?

Significance
-What makes this story or essay worth telling?

For structure:

For fiction, the "Because of that" exercise may be useful, as well as the plot triangle we looked at in class.

For creative nonfiction, "The Story Map" may be helpful way to begin. This tool is courtesy of the Moth Podcast, which is what they use to coach people telling their true stories on stage.This series of prompts could be adapted for fiction as well. 

Both of these tools are in our class 

At the end of your draft, add a manuscript note that describes your writing process and where you specify what kind of feedback you’d like.