Art of Composition—final
project ideas
- This I Believe—look at the book of NPR radio essays and create your own version
- A few of my favorite things—Turn this jazz song title into an essay in which you discuss how the things you love the most reveal a great deal about who you are.
- A fictional account of an event in the life of a real person (I’m reading historical fiction right now, so this skill is on my mind)
- A brief history of my family, based on personal interviews (I’ve always liked writers who can turn oral history into compelling, creative non-fiction)
- A personal poetry anthology (find several poems you like or admire and write your own poems using the originals as models or sources of inspiration; write poems based on compelling visual images from art or photography)
- The most important things I’ve learned in high school (at the end of a stage in your life, how do you think you have grown or developed? What wisdom or self-knowledge are you taking with you?)
- Select three photographs you like (flickr?) and develop them into a complete story
- Work with a partner to write two overlapping stories from different but related points of view. Compare notes and plan as you go so that the two individual stories tell one larger, complete story
- Write a story in which a character time travels back to an earlier moment in life and is forced to observe his/her younger self doing something
- Take one of your earlier incomplete or partial pieces or a journal entry and expand it into a longer, more fully developed piece
- Write a one-act play, using script dialog form and stage directions, in which two people talk about the fact that both have recently had experiences which have affected them deeply
- Or come up with an original idea for something you’d like to write but haven’t had the chance to do yet.
Schedule:
April 24-27: Develop proposals and a plan to help yourself
brainstorm: will you need to read for background? Write character sketches?
Interview people? Develop story boards? Also, remember to submit one of your
found poems to the New York Times and take a screenshot BEFORE clicking the
“submit” button (MUST BE DONE BEFORE MONDAY, April 27).
April 27-May 1: Do research, background, pre-writing,
note-taking—have something to show your thinking and preparation BEFORE you
start whatever your final piece is going to be
May 4-8: Work on writing the piece; confer with classmates
and me as you go; think about the most effective way to develop your idea into
your strongest, best writing
May 11-12: Bring a full draft of your project to class for
review
May 13 (Wed): Projects due; time to share with each other,
read one another’s work, and applaud our successes
May 14-15: Final class of the year; farewell; parting words;
a present from Dr. Allison
