Humainologie creative dialogue story writing workshop this coming Wednesday September 29

“Storytelling is not what I do for a living - it is how I do all that I do while I am living.” – Donald Davis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Davis_(storyteller)

“The very reason I write is so that I might not sleepwalk through my entire life.” - Zadie Smith https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zadie_Smith

“Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity.” - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimamanda_Ngozi_Adichie

Writing stories can empower and humanize people, including both the author and someone who is a “stranger” to the author, or from another ethnic or socioeconomic group. All of you are familiar with our writing partner strategy for getting a story started. That strategy is valuable for social and cultural transformation.

The potential psychological benefits of journaling are also important. Trina has provided this link to a short article on these benefits and how to begin tapping into them. https://www.verywellmind.com/how-to-use-journaling-to-cope-with-ptsd-2797594 It has a focus on PTSD, but is more generally applicable.

Salima recently provided a link with information about this year’s Humainologie Short Story Festival: You can see the media kit for the Short Story Festival here. We will update it once festival programming has been finalized.

More than twenty stories have already been submitted. Once all are in, there will be a calendar of workshops and readings. Deadline for submitting your story is October 31. Details on how to submit can be found here:http://www.humainologie.com/short-story-submissions/

Our creative dialogue for Wednesday September 29 is a story-writing workshop. We plan to focus on creating characters for the story and on writing the opening paragraph.

Using the resources provided in this email (and other sources), prepare for the workshop in advance as follows:

1. Create the main character and at least two additional characters for your story.

2. Write the opening paragraph of your story.

The characters in your story will bring it to life, and they are at least as important as the events. Here is a very short video on how to create compelling characters for your story https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqKxLx3As28

Once you have created your characters and have an idea about the shape your story is going to take – you might want to review that Kurt Vonnegut video - you will probably be ready to write the opening paragraph.

The opening paragraph of your story (along with the title) is the first chance your readers will have to see if they want to take time to read the story. I’ve appended the opening paragraphs of several short stories below this message. Each paragraph aims to capture the reader’s interest in a different way, and you can empower your own ability to write opening paragraphs by studying examples like these.

A story can be flash fiction, less than a thousand words, and can ignore all the rules. One of the simplest ways of getting started is to write a poem about something that happened. Charles Bukowski was a prolific poet who provides countless examples of that approach. His prose poem “a happening” is appended just below the opening paragraphs of several short stories by other authors.

Here is the Zoom link provided by Shinobu for our creative dialogue and workshop on September 29:

Topic: Humainologie creative dialogue Time: Sep 29, 2021 06:30 PM Mountain Time (US and Canada) Every week on Wed, until Oct 27, 2021, 8 occurrence(s) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83728528644?pwd=VmxxbDRSdHoxbU1Jam5rYnlPbnB0UT09 Meeting ID: 837 2852 8644 Passcode: 12345

Once upon a time,

Arthur

Opening Paragraphs and a happening

It was late and everyone had left the café except an old man who sat in the shadow the leaves of the tree made against the electric light. In the day time the street was dusty, but at night the dew settled the dust and the old man liked to sit late because he was deaf and now at night it was quiet and he felt the difference. The two waiters inside the café knew that the old man was a little drunk, and while he was a good client they knew that if he became too drunk he would leave without paying, so they kept watch on him. – Ernest Hemingway, “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”

On the drive over to the Nicholsons’ for dinner - their first in some time – Marjorie Reeves told her husband, Steven Reeves, that she had had an affair with George Nicholson (their host) a year ago, but that it was all over with now and she hoped he – Steven – would not be mad about it and could go on with life. - Richard Ford, “Under the Radar”

Downstairs, Meatball Mulligan’s lease-breaking party was moving into its 40th hour. On the kitchen floor, amid a litter of empty champagne fifths, were Sandor Rojas and three friends, playing spit in the ocean and staying awake on Heidseck and benzedrine pills. In the living room Duke, Vincent, Krinkles and Paco sat crouched over a 15-inch speaker which had been bolted into the top of a wastepaper basket, listening to 27 watts’ worth of The Heroes’ Gate at Kiev. They all wore hornrimmed sunglasses and rapt expressions, and smoked funny-looking cigarettes which contained not, as you might expect, tobacco, but an adulterated form of cannabis sativa. This group was the Duke di Angelis quartet. They recorded for a local label called Tambú and had to their credit one 10″ LP entitled Songs of Outer Space. From time to time one of them would flick the ashes from his cigarette into the speaker cone to watch them dance around. Meatball himself was sleeping over by the window, holding an empty magnum to his chest as if it were a teddy bear. Several government girls, who worked for people like the State Department and NSA, had passed out on couches, chairs and in one case the bathroom sink. – Thomas Pynchon, “Entropy”

Well, we had all these children out planting trees, see, because we figured that ... that was part of their education, to see how, you know, the root systems ... and also the sense of responsibility, taking care of things, being individually responsible. You know what I mean. And the trees all died. They were orange trees. I don’t know why they died, they just died. Something wrong with the soil possibly or maybe the stuff we got from the nursery wasn’t the best. We complained about it. So we’ve got thirty kids there, each kid had his or her own little tree to plant and we’ve got these thirty dead trees. All these kids looking at these little brown sticks, it was depressing. – Donald Barthelme, “The School”

a happening

he was always a first-rate jock,

I’ve watched him ride for many years,

on many an afternoon at Del Mar, Hollywood Park,

Santa Anita.

early this year

his wife committed a terrible

suicide.

those who knew him well said that

he would never ride

again.

and he didn’t ride for a

while.

then one afternoon he

accepted a mount

and as the horses came out

for the post

parade

and he rode into

view

the applause

began – a gentle

steady applause – it

continued for many

minutes

and many a sentimental

horseplayer

had to

turn away

to hide the

tears.

then

in that race

he came driving

down the stretch

just to miss

at the photo finish.

all he said later to the

reporters was: “it seems so

strange to come home and

not find her

there.”

since then

he has been riding

with a style and an

abandon that is

unbelievable:

driving through small gaps

between horses

or dangerously along the

rail.

he is now

the leading jock

and

he continues to

win.

people have not seen

such riding in

decades.

he’s the tiger in the

sun.

he’s each one of us

alone

forever

fiercely ignoring

the

pain.

- Charles Bukowski