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The author I chose to emulate is Z.Z. Packer
Paper 2: Researched Author Study (at least 2,750 words between the short story and analytical components)
For this paper, you will pick an author of literary short stories (not novels). This should be an author you’ve read from class, but it cannot be an author you wrote about for paper one. You will research the author and read as many of their stories as you can. Then, the paper will be broken up into two sections:
1) The short story (2,000 – 2,500 words)
After reading much of your author’s work, you should have a sense of their style. Try to understand the way they use language, create characters, incorporate dialogue, fashion settings, and balance summary/scene. Then, write your own short story, incorporating lessons you’ve learned from your author.
It is important to note that your subject matter can (and probably should) vary widely from the subjects of the stories you read. It is possible to be original while imitating the greats. Your goal should be a mixture between originality and homage.
You have the liberty to write as you wish. Remember that you can also incorporate and fictionalize some element of your life in this story. Here is where we combine what we’ve learned about audience awareness, strong narrative voice, scene structure, and the use of sensory details.
Though you are free in choosing what you write, I want you to know that you can extract an amazing story from the mundane. Many students possess a propensity to write for shock or about a serious, albeit disturbing, subject. These topics are not off limits or taboo, but they do not necessarily produce the best story either. Think about small, quotidian moments as well. These are often the moments you have the most authority and experience writing about.
I also know that the few weeks I have allotted you to write this story is insufficient. Good stories take months, if not years, to produce. Therefore, I am not looking for you to produce a masterpiece. I will, however, be looking at your usage of dialogue—is it realistic or contrived? Furthermore, I will analyze what type of narration you use and the rhetorical strategies behind it. Character development will be important as well. Do you make the characters noteworthy? As a reader, is there reason to empathize with or care about your protagonist or antagonist? Moreover, close, vivid scenes packed with details will be of chief import. Finally, the scope of your story’s plot should be appropriate for the length of our assignment.
Feeling a bit nervous about coming up with a short story? Take a deep breath. For this assignment, you have a variety of options to help you brainstorm. First and foremost, you are free to write exclusively from your own creativity. Do you have a story, a character, or a plot in mind you would like to explore? Go with it! However, if you do not, you still have options. Have you heard of a recent news story that you would like fictionalize? Go for it! Think outside the box. Stare at random objects or simply “people watch” and create stories from your brainstorming.
I will above all be looking that you effectively use dialogue, that your story is in scene, and that it is rife with conflict. Most importantly, I want you to be creative—this is possible even as you emulate your author. Write from first, second or third person, play with organization and time structures, write from the voices of multiple characters, or write from the voice of one character. Write from the position of an inanimate object or an animal, write the story backwards, write the story in fragments, write the story as its narrator, write a cryptic ending, write a sad ending… Just write! We’ll worry about helping it make sense in peer workshops.
2) The analysis (at least 750 words)
Next, in a clearly marked separate section, analyze your short story. How did you incorporate what you learned from reading your author (alongside class discussions and exercises) into your short story? Cite specific examples from his or her text to support your claims, along with evidence from a secondary source.
It will be useful to analyze and think critically about your author’s process of writing before you even begin your story: How did the author create his or her stories? Why do you think they made the choices they made? How do these choices affect the story/stories, and how have you incorporated these lessons in your own work? Likewise, what lessons in class did you incorporate into your work and why? How do these choices affect your work? I am most concerned with what you as a writer could learn from this author’s techniques and class lessons to use in your own writing. Exploring this process will help you understand all that goes into crafting an effective short story and provide you with deeper insight into both your writing and others’.
I would recommend the following structure for this section of your paper:
1) Introduction: tell us how/why you chose your author. Give us a brief overview of what is notable of the author’s style, typical content, language usage, etc. Finally, tell us specifically what aspects of their writing (dialogue, character development, engagement with social issues, etc.) most influenced you in writing of your own short story. While quality always trumps quantity, I envision you needing to analyze at least three literary elements.
2) Next, in the order they are listed in your introduction, devote a paragraph to examining each of those literary elements. To do this, you’ll need to do some close reading/analysis of the author’s work itself. Then, you will move on to showing the author’s influence on your story by analyzing your own writing. Why did you choose to emulate this component of your author’s craft? How and why does it affect your writing?
3) Equally as important will be the successful incorporation of research into your paper. Effective, non-stand alone quotes, internal citations, and a works cited page in correct MLA format are required for a complete paper. I reserve the right to deduct up to a full letter grade for incorrect quotation style, citations, and/or works cited pages.
4) Finally, you will need at least 5 sources for this paper:
-You must cite/refer to at least 3 of the author’s stories in the analysis
-You must also include at least 2 secondary sources, such as:
-An interview with the author
-A work of scholarly criticism that addresses the story you are discussing
Paper has to have at least 5 sources as stated above
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