Creative Writing
11/18 '14
Fang: I don't get to do any creative writing in my core extension class. The next thing I have to write is about immigration.
Me: What do you have to write?
Fang: An essay from the point of view of an immigrant coming to Ellis Island. And we have to do a bibliography.
Me: Did your teacher specify a year?
Fang: No.
Me: Well, if you choose a poor person coming over in the early 1900s, the conditions on the ships were terrible. People huddled on the floor in family groups, not always enough beds or any beds for a transatlantic voyage, there were vermin, poor sanitation, little food ... you could tell some really gruesome stories.
At this point, Fang, who adds, quite correctly that the late 1800s also qualifies, is grinning like a jack-o-lantern. Gruesome is his bag, baby.
Oh heavenly, fertile writing ground.
I can smell the tertiary syphilis from here.
share this with him. it might help, it might not.
I write fictitious plays based on true people and events. what I do is I read as much as possible about the true people and events. then I sit back and think about them until I come up with what the characters want, how they intend to get it, and what obstacles are in their way. Then I think about how they're likely to end up as a result.
then I think about what actions they need to take to get what they want.
then I write the play.
hope it's helpful.