Week Three: Writing

Didn’t have time for a goofy video this week. Sorry!

9/8-9/15

All work is due by midnight on Friday, 9/15

Thanks go out to the Writing Group for their input for this week!

Below is a detailed list of what’s to be completed this week.

1. To get us thinking more about the superhero theme, read one of these:
   How Ancient Legends Gave Birth to Modern Superheroes OR
   Introduction (pp. 1-10) to Ink-stained amazons and cinematic warriors superwomen in modern mythology available through the UMW Library, also in the Files section in Canvas
   Both give an expansive view of what superheroes are – not necessarily people in colorful tights and capes.
   Also, read or watch any superhero story of your choosing. If you don’t know of any, or where to look, you could try either of these:
   The First Ever Superman Cartoon (1941)
   The Tick 1990’s Season 1 Episode 1
   There are a couple online databases of public domain comics that you could look through – Comic Book Plus and The Digital Comic Museum – I won’t vouch for anything you find there, but since they’re public domain you’re free to use any of it, which may come in handy for future projects. And of course there’s Netflix.
   Write a blog post reflecting on these. Considering these and other works in the genre you may know of, what themes, patterns and commonalities do you see? What defines a superhero, or a superhero story, to you? And…
2. Watch Vonnegut on The Shape of Stories: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP3c1h8v2ZQ Apply Vonnegut’s method to the story you picked and write a blog post on it. Tag the post superherostories
3. Write a Character Dossier: Create a character dossier for a superhero themed character of your own making. Feel free to use the TVTropes site as a resource. You do not have to conform to any traditions, and you are not limited to superheroes themselves – you could make a character in an ancillary role, such as:
   Supervillain
   Sidekick (not that anyone wants to be a sidekick)
   The intrepid investigative reporter
   Government/police official trying to deal with the hero problem
   Insurance agent covering them for property damage
   Paranormal investigator
   Attorney who keeps them out of trouble
   Engineer who designs & builds equipment
   I’m just throwing ideas out there. Some people were not so interested in the theme, so these are ideas of other ways to approach it. Roles like these are interesting because you can make of them whatever you want.  Also, this is a character you will be working on over the course of the semester, so take some time to think about this.
   Fill out the Dossier form for your character.
   Write a narrative post introducing your character. This can include information from the form, but should have more details, like a back story. Tag the post: characterdossier
4. Writing Assignments: This week, we will be using Writing Assignments from ds106’s Assignment Bank. Pick one of the following to do:
   SuperStory Generator
   Day In The Life Of A Superhero
   Each assignment comes with a “star” or point rating that roughly estimates its difficulty. In addition to the assignment you choose from above, you must complete at least 8 stars of other writing assignments. Connect at least one of the assignments in some way to our theme.
   Note: You started creating assignments last week. You can do this at any time. So if you don’t like the writing assignments as they are, you are welcome to come up with a new one and do it yourself.
5. Daily Creates: Let’s do 3 this week.
6. Commenting: You should all be following each other’s work and offering each other feedback, ideas, support and encouragement. A good habit is to visit the course site every day to see what people have posted. Click through to a few posts and share your thoughts on the work, and ideas that it may inspire. We all appreciate positive feedback, and we can all be inspired by each other. This should take no more than a few minutes a day.
7. Write your Weekly Summary: This is an every week thing. Your summary should link to or embed all your work for the week, and give your thoughts on the week as a whole. Submit the URL for this post to Canvas by the end of the day on Friday.