1. WRITING GENRES The many styles of creative writing

2. Types of Genres  Genres of form  Poetry, fiction, plays  Genres of subject  Fantasy, science fiction, romance

3. Fiction  A narrative or story.  Can take the form of:  Short stories – a few pages to 40 pages  Flash fiction – a paragraph to a page  Novellas – 50 to 100 pages  Novel – 200- 600 pages

4. Responding to Fiction  Questions to ask while reading fiction:  Who is the story about?  What is interesting? Visually? Emotionally?  Where does the story take place?  What is conflict within the story? The nature of the conflict?  What’s different on the last page from the first page? What has changed?  So what? What makes you care about what happens to these characters?

5. Creative Nonfiction  Using the conventions of fiction to tell a true story.  Letting the reader see the story instead of summarizing, reporting, analyzing or explaining  Two subcategories  Memoir  Researched creative nonfiction

6. Responding to Creative Nonfiction  Questions to ask while reading creative nonfiction:  What is interesting? Visually? Emotionally?  Who is the story about? How do you come to know the people in the piece?  Where does the story take place?  What is the conflict within the story?  What information do you learn? What insights to you gain?  What’s different on the last page from the first page? What has changed?  So what? What makes you care about what happens to these characters?

7. Poetry  Compressed  Rich with language and emotion  Two basic types  Narrative – uses character, conflict, and story  Lyric - presents a brief, concentrated feeling or emotion

8. Prose Poems  Written in block type, usually 1-2 paragraphs  Looks like prose, but read like a poem  May be strange, surprising, or surreal situations  Employs the heightened language or poetry (images, sounds, feelings) with more overt rhythm to the words

9. Responding to Poetry & Prose Poems  Who is speaking?  Where is the poem taking place?  What are the images?  What is the structure of this poem?  What happens in the poem? What’s the “story”?  What do you see in your mind’s eye?  What feelings are evoked  What sounds in the poem emphasize the visuals, the feelings?  What gives the poem its energy?  What makes you, the reader, interested in the poem?

10. Plays and Screenplays  Designed to be performed or filmed  Storytelling in images  Short, focused, and intense  Relies on dialogue to tell the story  Exist in two forms  Formatted for readers  Formatted for an entire theater company or movie production

11. Responding to Plays and Screenplays  What is the story of the scene, act, or play?  Who talks?  What is the psychology of the person or people in the play?  What are the conflicts that come through in the dialogue?  What conflicts come through in the action?  What conflicts come through via the setting?  What changes over the course of the play?  What images do you see in your mind as you listen to the dialogue?

12. Graphic Novels, Comics, & Experimental Pieces  Graphic Novel: a comic that works like a prose novel or novella  Combining both images and words to create a story

13. Responding to Graphic Novels, Comics, & Experimental Pieces  What is the work about?  What’s the story the piece is telling?  What emotions are covered in this piece?  Is the dialogue accurate, lively, or interesting?  What does each panel/section/line do that is different from the others?  What keeps you interested in reading this work?  How does the artwork (if included) amplify the power of the story?  What does the experiment (if included) ask the reader to do? Is it worth it?

14. Your Turn!  Out of the genres we have just discussed, pick one that you enjoy or are familiar with, and one that you dislike or may not know a lot about.  Find your two choices on the list below and read the pieces of writing that correlate. Answer the responding questions we have just discussed for each piece.

15. Reading List  Fiction: Pg. 54  Creative Non-Fiction: pg 59  Poetry: Pg. 56 and pg. 57 (Billy Collins)  Prose Poems: pg. 57 ( A. Van Jordan) & pg. 58  Plays and Screenplays: pg. 53  Graphic Novels, Comics & Experimental: Pg. 55