Eating Snow: Finding a Story, Learning Technique
from Other Writers, Paying Attention to Elements
Exploring the Story Elements of the Event (list elements)
As we go through list, read selections from previous week’s sketches: examples of
good uses of plot, character, setting, etc.
Plot: where does the story begin?
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Your or my birth
Waking up that morning
Start of class
Giving of assignment
Going out to complete assign.
Talking/interacting with someone on way
Looking for patch
Actually eating snow
Returning to class
No “start”; episodic montage (O’Brien)
PICK A PT AND SEE WHERE IT GOES.
Plot structures: standard linear; framed; heavily based on flashbacks;
multiple intersecting; circular.
Tracing the “event” is one thing; tracing the “story” is another. Where is the
interest, tension, pt. of discomfort, problem?
Possibilities lead to pt. of view
Whose point of view?
Student’s—1st, 2nd, 3rd, 3rd lim.
Teacher’s—
What is the situation, problem?
o Student against teacher (very specific, or resistance to school generally,
or authority generally)
o Something occurs along the way between characters
o Student embarrassment outside
o Finding clean
o Something else altogether—snow thing is just backdrop
Note how
you can’t
talk about
one
element
without
talking
about
another.
Total
overlap.
o
o
o
o
o
Teacher trying to run a good class
Teacher with hidden agenda
Something magical happens when biting into snow—fantasy
A question raised in the very titled (O’Brien)
LEAVE IT OPEN; SEE WHERE IT GOES
Who’s the main character? And what happens if you start WITH CHARACTER
rather than with situation or plot, as we did above? Notice how external the issues
above were. Possibilities: an incongruity somewhere; an obsession; trying to GET
something; trying to GET RID of something; unanswered question, choice, problem;
how see self vs. how seen by others.
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
o
Hate school
Want to be a writer
Want to hook up with date
Something going on elsewhere
Don’t know why in school
Badly want/need to do well in school
Distrust authority
Issue with childhood, a former snow event in personal history
Make it yourself? Someone else in the class?
Setting
Details that add tension to situation, nuance to character. Description which
slows pace.
What is the theme?
Danger of sentimental, predictable.
Learning from Reading: Other Writers and Tricks of the Trade
How can we shape this story by drawing on Oates, Carver, O’Brien? What’s
interesting about their stories? What writer’s tricks can we learn from them?
Carver:
CHARACTER, PROTAGONIST: anti-hero, ironic dumb-dumb. Arrogance
+ stupidity or narrow-mindedness. What does he want?
How revealed: contrast with other characters; dialogue (voice);
internal monologue; action; flashbacks; a situation which will
maximize his flaws and anxieties.
How would
any of this
apply to
snow
story?
Other ways to reveal character: exposition; what others say; setting.
POV: very ironic first person (dramatic irony). Reader can see things the
character can’t see about himself. Also, interestingly: we can see how one
character is seeing another (blind man’s view of narrator).
CHARACTER, SECONDARY: contrasts sharply with protagonist=show big
differences in maturity, world experience, creativeness, openness.
SITUATION: HEAVILY BASED ON CHARACTER = KEY THING TO TAKE AWAY
FROM THIS PIECE. PUT IN SITUATION WHICH WILL MAXIMIZE FLAWS,
FEARS, WEAKNESSES.
PLOT: simple simple simple. No large action. Totally situated in character.
Relies heavily on nuance for final moments, “resolution.” Discuss dinner
scene; final scene.
Oates:
CHARACTER: kind of generic, generalized, but the story is still grounded
very much in her youth and arrogance; i.e., character is key; INTEREST
BASED ON WHAT SHE CAN’T SEE ABOUT HERSELF; arrogance + innocence
or other incapacity; wants to get rid of mom/authority and gain
freedom/new experience/adulthood.
POV: third-person limited ironic pt. of view: looking down, as it were, on a
character going through this.
PLOT: start with exposition; suggestion of large action but not explicit
(something bad in the works, but never named or presented); no resolution,
extremely brief rising action; SUGGEST DANGER WITH MINIMAL ACTION
IMAGE: heavy suggestiveness, symbolism.
O’Brien:
PLOT: unusual non-linear structure.
SITUATION: pose an explicit question from the get-go.
How would
any of this
apply to
snow
story?
How would
any of this
apply to
snow
story?