Fiction Portfolio

Purpose of Fiction Portfolio One of your major assignment for E210 is to draft, revise, and finish a short story. This will be the bulk of your fiction portfolio. Your story needs to be character driven. Elements of genre fiction (science fiction, fantasy, etc.) makes characterization take a back seat, so focus on the character and make them complex. Components of Your Portfolio Your portfolio should include the following elements: • One fully revised and complete fiction story of 10-12 pages. Pages should be numbered with title of piece and name at the top of the first page. • All comments, typed and on the story, from your fiction workshop group. • All drafts of the story prior to the final version in the portfolio, including the draft used during the fiction workshop. • Any activities that assisted in the drafting or revision of the story. Formulating Your Story • The story should be character-driven. Situation is important – that is, we care about what happens in the story, but what’s more important is the character’s actions and changes within the situation. Make your characters round, interesting human beings with real conflicts that aren’t over sensationalized, clichéd, or stereotypical. • In drafting the story, try to gain a greater understanding of who your characters are and how their actions might create meaning for readers. • Reflect an understanding of fiction’s key craft concepts, as discussed throughout the fiction unit, including these concepts: 1. Beginnings: the story should start “mise-en-scene” 2. The story should be an actualized story, not an anecdote 3. Your character should be complex, just as real people are complex 4. The dialogue should be multifunctional and result from character 5. Use summary and scene with intention 6. Consistent and intentional point of view (POV) 7. Consistent and unique voice 8. The plot and climax of the story should be character driven 9. The ending should work to be surprising but inevitable 10. Finally, your story should feel like it could only come from you. It can truly have any tone— comical, dark, suspenseful, etc. but it should be yours and yours alone. • Please be aware of fictional time. The story should reflect an understanding of the form’s limitations: you can’t span a great deal of time and space in a short story the way your favorite novel might. Limiting your setting and plot will enable you to develop your characters. This is also the reason why genre elements are warned against—it takes time to build worlds, and is difficult to do in the small space of the short story and develop character. Most short stories have room for 2-3 central characters. • Within roughly 10-12 pages your story should be complete: fully-developed, complex characters, presented in a concrete setting. Your story should include: a. A situation presented primarily in scene (not summary—meaning, your story will mostly show, not tell). b. Fresh images and details. c. Some type of resolution to the situation or conflict. i. This can take on many forms and does not include wrapping anything up with a bow for the reader…remember, an ending should be exactly where the all the work the story has done up until this point has put it. d. Clear motivation and desires of the character. i. Transformation! The plot of the story functions to push this character’s desire, and there needs to be some kind of change in the character’s development. e. The story is fresh, easy to follow, avoids confusion and keeps readers interested. • Advice: remain curious. Start observing people everywhere you go. Pay attention to all art that you love— music, poetry, television shows, film. Collect pieces of life to add to your fiction. Tell the story that you need to tell right now: the story that puzzles you and makes you see the world in a new way.