Writers Immersion WorkshopPersonal narrative | Literary themes | Hands-on activities
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For all sessions bring:
Optional:
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This is very important to your participation in the immersion classes. You'll become a better writer when you purchase a composition book. Good writers keep a record of their thoughts, ideas, memories and dreams. Yes, dreams. Well-known authors find stories in dreams and write bestselling novels!
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The final touch to your Awe Narrative:🌟Combine all these elements into a fully developed story. Aim for 500 words or more.
🌟What is the shape of your story? Episodic form: try using mosaic writing. 🌟 Give it a catchy title. 🌟Optional: insert images into your document. 🌟Print your document. Bring it to the next class. |
Metaphor can be a memory bubble rising from within, or an episodic scene like from the film Forest Gump about an event or person, an object, symbol, image or dream.
Feather represents FateThe feather symbolizes the spiritual lesson that Forrest learns in the course of the film, and hearkens back to his line, "I don't know if we each have a destiny or we're all just floatin' around accidental like on a breeze. Maybe both happening at the same time." The feather represents the ways that fate and chance work in tandem with one another.
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Motif is the unifying element that can be a repeated, often a recurring element such as an image, theme, symbol, character, subject, or detail.
Running represents DestinyJenny's insistent "Run, Forrest, run!" becomes a kind of motif in the film. Forrest's initial escape from the bullies launches him into his future, sends him running towards his specific fate. First, he runs on the All-American football team, then he runs in the Vietnam War. Finally, after Jenny leaves him unexpectedly, he runs across the country, becoming a celebrity in the news for his determination and endurance.
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What was in Forrest Gump's suitcase?
There was a copy of Curious George, his favorite book. Perhaps the briefcase also contained his Congressional Medal of Honor and maybe a ring or certificate from his All-America football career at the University of Alabama. Forrest was a man of many accomplishments and yet it all fit into one modest suitcase. |
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Written in short, subtitled chapters, the prose moves in loose chronological order as it lays out experience as a series of vibrant vignettes. This structure is sometimes called a mosaic memoir, with each section serving as a “tile” of different color, tone and form. Some people call this a fragmented or episodic form, but whatever you call the structure, it amounts to conveying a larger story as a sequence of full-color snapshots.
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A magical juice derived from a flower called "love-in-idleness", turns from white to purple when struck by Cupid's arrow. When the concoction is applied to the eyelids of a sleeping person, that person, upon waking, falls in love with the first living thing they perceive.
Puck, or Robin Goodfellow, is a character in William Shakespeare's play, A Midsummer Night's Dream. Based on the Puck of English mythology and the púca of Celtic mythology, Puck is a mischievous fairy, sprite, or jester. |
The Motif - a love potionPuck's role is a retelling of Cupid's love potion used for playing tricks on humans and true love.
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Unlucky in love, chemist Paul Matthews (Tate Donovan) visits gypsy Madame Rosa (Anne Bancroft) for help. Quickly realizing he is a hopeless nerd, she gifts him with Love Potion No. 8, which makes anyone who wears it irresistible to the opposite sex for four hours. Paul and animal psychologist coworker Diane Farrow (Sandra Bullock) decide to test it on themselves. The awkward pair suddenly find themselves alluring to anyone they approach, but soon realize they are most attracted to each other.
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The Nerd ScientistsThe Motif - love potion
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Paul goes back to Madame Ruth, asking for an antidote. She provides Paul with the only solution, Love Potion No. 9. Unlike number 8, it does not create feelings of love, but removes the things obscuring it (such as potion No. 8) forever. Solidifying eternal true love between those who drink it together five minutes after they share a kiss. However, if Diane was never truly in love with him, Paul will love her forever, and she will eternally hate him.
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The Winning Couple
The Cinderella theme - true love conquers all.
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The Wizard of Oz a musical fantasy filmA girl and her dog are caught in a tornado's path and end up in the land of Oz. On her journey to find the wizard, she faces adversities with new friends but eventually finds her return home.
One motif is the yellow brick roadThe yellow brick road reminds us that imagination can take you anywhere in life.
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The Life of Pi an adventure-drama film An Indian boy survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a lifeboat in the Pacific Ocean with a Bengal tiger.
One motif is a color orange.The color orange represents people, animals, and emotion, and it moves us along in the narrative.
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Final scene - she's in a bed - giving a report. She describes an incredible venture about a fantastical world about her journey shared with new friends helping her to return home.
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Final scene - he's in a bed - giving a report as the sole survivor of a shipwreck. He describes an incredible venture about a tiger that survives and they share a life boat.
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The story is about Moana, the strong-willed daughter of a chief of a coastal village, who is chosen by the ocean itself to reunite a mystical relic with the goddess Te Fiti. When a blight strikes her island, Moana sets sail in search of Maui, a legendary demigod, in the hope of returning the relic to Te Fiti and saving her people.
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Polynesian creation myth.Peaceful, loving Te Fiti is the mother island who generously gives life to the sea and the other islands. The plot is original, but takes inspiration from Polynesian myths.
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Hinduism creation myth.Vishnu, the sleeping creator. In one corner of that never-ending sky, Vishnu, the lord of all beings, created a cloud. In its shadow he brought into being a great ocean. The water of that ocean was quite unlike the water of this world. It is from that ocean that this world was made, so it is called the waters of creation. In the coolness of its waters Vishnu lay down to sleep. While he slept, submerged in the water, he began to breathe deep, regular breaths. Time came into being. Aeons passed.
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