Action Sequence Draft

After our notes, please get into the following groups:

A: Faduma, Genesis, Mariangelis, Dominique, Ja'kiya
B: Raina, Jyeshia, Andrea, Justice
C: Laurie, Fadumo, Kaneil, James, Karina
D: Emani, Christopher, Delimar, Asher

Together in your groups please do the following:

• Examine passages in the short stories: 
• "To Build a Fire": page 350-352 from "But before he could cut the strings, it happened..." to "The match fell into the snow and went out."
• "How to Tell a True War Story": page 6-7 from "We crossed the river and marched west into the mountains..." to "They hauled it across the open square, hoisted it up, and dumped it in the village well."
• "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty": page 1, from ""We're going through!" to "Not so fast! You're driving too fast!" AND: page 4, from "His wife would be through at the hairdresser's in fifteen minutes, Mitty saw in looking at his watch..." to ""Cheerio!" he said.
• "The Most Dangerous Game": page 53, from "Rainsford held his breath" to the end of that paragraph...AND "page 56, from "He knew his pursuer was coming; he heard the padding sound of feet..." to the end of that section: "Thank you for a most amusing evening."
• "An Occurrence At Owl Creek Bridge": page 586, from "He had come to the surface facing down the stream..." to second column, half way down: "His brain was as energetic as his arms and legs; he thought with the rapidity of lightning."
• Together find examples of ACTIVE verbs. Discuss how these active verbs help to provide...well, action...to the story. In other words: what's their use and effect in the story?
• Together look for moments when the POV of the story travels to the MIND or THOUGHT PROCESS of the protagonist. DISCUSS: What effect does this "interruption" have on the passage? 
• Together comment on the description of the setting in these passages. What objects/locations/weather, etc. stand out as important in the passage?
• Together comment on the sentence structure of the passage. How does the passage start? How does it conclude? How does the author control the pace of the story?
• Together discuss whether or not the passage includes major or minor events. How do these events tie into the plot of the story? 

Today, after taking notes and examining the texts of the stories we have been reading we will head to the lab to begin working on a specific action scene. We will be building our story around this scene--it might be a minor action, or a major one. It might happen in the beginning of the story, the middle or the end. Put that aside now. Your job TODAY is to write a scene of at least 200 words (it can be longer!) describing an action. To do this, follow the steps...

1. Choose or create a protagonist. You can come up with an original one or a favorite recurring character of yours. Genre and style is completely up to you!
2. Choose a sample dangerous action from the link below. If you prefer, you can start your prompt by selecting an activity, then creating a character to try it.

Sample dangerous actions:

• Choose one of the 25 extremely dangerous activities for your protagonist to participate in. You can find the list here online.

3. Slow down the action sequence by trying to describe each moment of the dangerous activity. You may wish to spend a few minutes researching, but don't get stuck wandering around in the internet. Look for what you need, give yourself 5-10 minutes maximum, then get on with the writing. This scene will be a draft and does not need to be perfect at this point. It DOES have to be well described.

4. Use ACTION VERBS from the handout (or your mind) to electrify your prose. Pay very close attention to these action verbs in your writing. Try not to repeat any if possible in your passage.

5. Sometimes nouns give us trouble. We don't know the name of a thing. You can help that by consulting the visual dictionary. Use the visual dictionary (particularly for body parts) or other complicated equipment associated with your dangerous action. You can find the visual dictionary at the link here--or after this class in the side bar as a tool for your writing.

• Visual Dictionary

6. Stay with the action. Do not tell us the backstory of your character. We don't need exposition here. Just stick with the action happening to the character. See how long you can keep the scene going.

7. Some pointers: 

• Short sentences speed up the action of an action sequence. Try it.
• Long sentences move more slowly, and provide more detail. Use it to slow your pace--as if the scene were filmed in slow motion.
• It's okay (and a good idea) to get into the mind of your protagonist while the scene is going on. What is the character thinking while the action is occurring. Note that sometimes it is possible for people to act without thinking. Moving into the mind of a character makes it clear to the reader whose perspective is important in a story. It also can be used to develop character through characterization or to create suspense by delaying the outcome of an action.
• Cross cut scenes to create suspense if you have more than one character involved in the action sequence. 
• If there's dialogue, keep it to the point. Short and sweet.
• Remember you should use your setting to help create tension and conflict in an action sequence. Setting is location, time, place, and weather--but also props: furniture, cars rushing by on a busy street, a rainstorm, a holiday shopping mob, a rattlesnake, etc.
• You may find it helpful to write what you can, then rewrite the same passage again and again by seeing if you can be more specific or more detailed as to the action or setting. Your minimum word count is 200. The passage can be longer.

Your draft is due at the end of class today. Late work will be accepted, but it's not worth as much. Time to write.

HOMEWORK: Read the short stories "The Monkey's Paw" by W. W. Jacobs and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" by Richard Matheson. Note how the authors use action verbs to bring their stories alive. Pay particular attention to how the authors create suspense by quickening and slowing down or interrupting the action of the story. There will be a test on ALL the short stories we've read next week. If you didn't read them, please do so over the weekend. They are: "He Swung and He Missed", "To Build a Fire", "The Most Dangerous Game", "How to Tell a True War Story", "The Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge", "The Jumping Frog Contest", "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty", and the two for homework: "The Monkey's Paw" and "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet". To help you study, jot down the premises of these stories, the basic plot elements, setting, and characters in your journal. It is easier to study for tests after taking notes on the subject matter.