Notes from Our Masterclass

TASK:

• Find 5 authors you read and like. Research their websites, blogs, etc. Then contact them by email and ask them questions about their writing. Keep up this correspondence if it is successful. 
• As Boris Fishman mentioned in his masterclass you may want to look for a mentor. Maybe only 1 author will actually respond to you, but you'll never know if you don't risk it. Good advice in any class you take, or during any job, or as an artist.  

Some Advice:

• Don't reject yourself!
• Believe in yourself!
• You will hear many "no's" and get many rejections: have the arrogance to continue!
• Cultivate patience!
• Write every day! Serious writers write! They can't help themselves.
• If you can do anything other than write, you should probably do that. You can always come back to writing. 
• Write in a journal/notebook: keep the journal with you at all times!
• Eavesdrop. Record what you notice in the world!
• Practice concision: saying something as simply as needed. Every word in a sentence costs $20--save your money!
• The human heart has not changed in 2,000 years. Write about the human heart.
• Write down your ideas--even if you don't have time to develop it.
• Stay alert to the things happening around you! The world is where the stories are!
• Be who you are!

HOMEWORK Assignment: write a short story/poem in 100 words. The action of the story should take only 30 seconds OR the action of the story should span 30 years.
Once you have written your 100 word short story, then write the same story in 250 words. Then 500 words. Then 1,000 words. Then 2,000 words. Then 4,000 words, etc.

• Idea: Desert (setting) and a car has dropped off a person in this setting, leaving him/her with nothing. No hat. No water. The car is pulling away. Write a story in 100 words. 
• Idea: A young woman (18 years old) was told 4 years ago that she was adopted, the opportunity to meet her birthmother has come up. We meet her before a door. When she opens that door, she will meet her birthmother? Tell a story in 100 words. 

Then Email: borisfishman@gmail.com with your story/homework. Remind him that you took his masterclass at SOTA on April 10.

Mr. Fishman's sample writing schedule:

• 8:00-10:00 reading
• 10:00-2:30-4:00 writing

What is your writing schedule? Can you make time for writing?
Tobias Woolf's This Boy's Life. Read a copy.