How to Own a Story

HOW TO OWN A STORY ASSIGNMENT:

1.      Find a story that speaks powerfully to you, but one that you have not studied formally. It should not be at least 10 or so pages; no flash fiction, please.

2.      Make three photocopies of it and read it a second time.

3.      FIRST STUDY: Take the first photocopy and label it as follows:

FIRST STUDY-EXPRESSION

Read the story a third time, and underline the sentences that have something special to them—notable resonance or especially effective expression. Underline similes and metaphors and put an asterisk (*) by each.

4.      Read it a fourth time and circle the imagery that is especially resonant or that recurs in the story. (Mark also any special lines that you missed before.)

5.      Read it a fifth time and highlight the spots where a character’s motivation is suggested or revealed. (Some lines may be underlined and highlighted.)

6.      Read it a sixth time and draw a box around the sentences or paragraphs where key character-actions take place.

7.      SECOND STUDY: Get a clean photocopy of the story and label it as follows:

SECOND STUDY-STRUCTURE.

8.      Read the story a seventh time and use a colored marker to draw boxes around sections of the story—boxing each scene and each narrative passage. Box the scenes in one color ink and the narrative passages in another color. Number the sections consecutively and write in a short label the SETTING for each section. Do the same for the narrative sections. (Note: some narrative sections may not really have a location.)

9.      A triptych is a work of art divided into three parts. Read the story an eighth time and divide the story into the following familiar triptych: BEGINNING, MIDDLE, and END. Mark each part of the triptych with a bold, uninterrupted line in the left-hand margin that go from the start to the end of part of the triptych (with a new color for each of the three parts). Label this long line (on every page) as beginning, middle, or end. (What determines the beginning, middle, and end? Think about them in terms of shape. The beginning suggests a shape, the middle forces a turn or expansion or compression that gives life to the shape, and the end shows or suggests the ramifications or changes—the effects wrought by the beginning and middle.)

10.  Read the BEGINNING again and further divide it up into beginning, middle, and end. Indicate these smaller sections on the bold line in the left margin. Label these as follows: “BEGINNING/Beginning,” “BEGINNING/Middle,” “BEGINNING/End.”

11.  Read the second section and divide the second section into beginning, middle, and end. Label the sections as follows: “MIDDLE/Beginning,” etc.

12.  Read the third section and divide the third section into beginning, middle, and end. Label these sections as follows: “END/Beginning, etc.

13.  Read the story a tenth time and underline the key sentences that make the story move forward within the individual sections and double score the lines that force movement among the sections; that is, underline the sentences that push a scene from its beginning to its end and double underline the ones that do that on the larger scale of the story (that don’t just push forward the scene but push forward the whole momentum of the story).

14.  THE HTOS LIST: You will need to look at both the FIRST STUDY-EXPRESSION photocopy and the SECOND STUDY-STRUCTURE photocopies to make the HTOS List. You will type the List on a separate sheet of paper. The List will be divided into nine sections, as follows:

                  (1) BEGINNING/Beginning

                  (2) BEGINNING/Middle

                  (3) BEGINNING/End

                  (4) MIDDLE/Beginning

                  (5) MIDDLE/Middle

                  (6) MIDDLE/End

                  (7) END/Beginning

                  (8) END/Middle

                  (9) END/End

Looking at your FIRST STUDY photocopy, you will type up each line that you’ve underlined and place the sentences within the appropriate section. Label metaphors. Label similes. Add any lines that you missed before.

15. You will now add the images to the List. Look at each image that you’ve circled in your FIRST STUDY photocopy. Type them up verbatim or devise a label for each image. Locate each image within the appropriate section where it appears in the story; for example, an early image would appear in the BEGINNING/Beginning section.

16. Add CHARACTER ACTIONS to the List. Follow the same instructions as for images.

17. Handout clean copies of the story to your classmates with enough advance time to read the story carefully.

18. Read the story two more times in preparation for teaching the story (your eleventh and twelfth reads of the story).

19. Lead a class discussion of the story.

Stories to Consider for the HTOS Assignment:

Choose a great story. Choose a story that particularly speaks to you. The following 200 stories are not by any means a comprehensive list; rather, they are just stories to help you get to thinking about which you might wish to choose. They are listed in no particular order.

1)     “Indian Camp,” Ernest Hemingway

2)     “The Death of Ivan Ilych,” Leo Tolstoy

3)     “Sonny’s Blues,” James Baldwin

4)     “The Lady with the Pet Dog,” Anton Chekhov

5)     “Five Points,” Alice Munro

6)     “Death in the Woods,” Sherwood Anderson

7)     “Dean of Men,” Peter Taylor

8)     “Daddy Garbage,” John Edgar Wideman

9)     “The Littoral Zone,” Andrea Barrett

10) “The Wide Net,” Eudora Welty

11) “A Romantic Weekend,” Mary Gaitskill

12) “Mrs. Dutta Writes a Letter,” Chitra Divakaruni

13) “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” Flannery O’Connor

14)  “In the Land of Men,” Antonya Nelson

15) “The Garden Party,” Katherine Mansfield

16) “City of Life, City of Death,” Nadine Gordimer

17) “Madagascar,” Steven Schwartz

18) “Odour of Chrysanthemums,” D.H. Lawrence

19) “Noon Wine,” Katherine Anne Porter

20) “Brownies,” ZZ Packer

21) “Taking Care,” Joy Williams

22) “Rock Springs,” Richard Ford

23) “Goodbye, My Brother,” John Cheever

24) “Bliss,” Katherine Mansfield

25) “The Duel,” Anton Chekhov

26) “The Suffering Channel,” David Foster Wallace

27) “Fenstad’s Mother,” Charles Baxter

28) “Mormons in Heat,” Don Waters

29) “Rape Fantasies,” Margaret Atwood

30) “The Jewbird,” Bernard Malamud

31) “Guests of the Nation,” Frank O’Connor

32) “The Floating Bridge,” Alice Munro

33) “First Heat,” Peter Taylor

34) “Home,” Jayne Anne Phillips

35) “The A&P,” John Updike

36) “The Artificial Nigger,” Flannery O’Connor

37) “Come Out the Wilderness,” James Baldwin

38) “Powerhouse,” Eudora Welty

39) “The Lives of the Fathers,” Steven Schwartz

40) “Silver Water,” Amy Bloom

41) “Relief,” Peter Ho Davies

42) “Nilda,” Junot Diaz

43) “Twilight of the Superheroes,” Deborah Eisenberg

44) “Big Two-Hearted River,” Ernest Hemmingway

45) “Silk,” Grace Dane Mazur

46) “Terrific Mother,” Lorrie Moore

47) “Scales,” Louise Erdrich

48) “Tell Me a Riddle,” Tillie Olsen

49) “Dirty Words,” Antonya Nelson

50) “Rebecca,” Donald Barthelme

51) “A Visitation of Sprits,” Randall Kenan

52) “Moon Lake,” Eudora Welty

53) “Other Lives,” Francine Prose

54) “Train,” Joy Williams

55)  “A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain,” Robert Olen Butler

56) “Gesturing,” John Updike

57) “Lilacs,” Abraham Verghese

58) “In My Father’s House,” Ernest Gaines

59) “Magician,” Peter Turchi

60) “Chopin in Winter,” Stuart Dybek

61) “A Stay by the River,” Susan Engberg

62) “The Shiprock Fair,” Ann Cummins

63) “No Small Feat,” Robin Romm

64) “The Blind Man,” D.H. Lawrence

65) “The Management of Grief,” Bharati Mukherjee

66) “Vandals,” Alice Munro

67) “I Danced with the Prettiest Girl,” Dagoberto Gilb

68) “The Magic Barrel,” Bernard Malamud

69) “Pigeon Feathers,” John Updike

70) “Fever,” John Edgar Wideman

71) “The Albanian Virgin,” Alice Munro

72) “The Day the Pig Fell into the Well,” John Cheever

73) “Misery,” Anton Chekhov

74) “In the Cemetery where Al Jolson Is Buried,” Amy Hempel

75) “Naked Ladies,” Antonya Nelson

76) “The Jockey,” Carson McCullers

77) “The Happy Ending,” Margaret Atwood

78) “Heaven,” Mary Gaitskill

79) “Lichen,” Alice Munro

80) “The Behavior of the Hawkweeds,” Andrea Barrett

81) “The Chaneysville Incident,” David Bradley

82) “Orientation,” Daniel Orozco

83) “Tony’s Story,” Leslie Marmon Silko

84) “Good Old Neon,” David Foster Wallace

85) “The Other Two,” Edith Wharton

86) “In the Garden of the North American Martyrs,” Tobias Wolff

87) “Black Tickets,” Jayne Anne Phillips

88) “The Story of My Dovecot,” Isaac Babel

89) “The School,” Donald Barthelme

90) “Araby,” James Joyce

91) “The Open Boat,” Stephen Crane

92) “The Bear,” William Faulkner

93) “The Overcoat,” Nicolai Gogol

94) “Gold,” Kim Edwards

95) “A Father’s Story,” Andre Dubus

96) “Bruns,” Norman Rush

97) “We Came All the Way from Cuba so You Could Dress like This?” Achy Obejas

98) “Family Terrorists,” Antonya Nelson

99) “The Old Forest,” Peter Taylor

100) “Rough Strife,” Lynne Sharon Schwartz

101) “Mothers,” Lydia Davis

102) “What to Do with the Dead,” Don Waters

103) “To Lenningrad in Winter,” Steven Schwartz

104) “Tomatoes,” Francine Prose

105) “The Metamorphosis,” Franz Kafka

106) “The Darling,” Anton Chekhov

107) “The Housebreaker of Shady Hill,” John Cheever

108) “Good Country People,” Flannery O’Connor

109) “The Depressed Person,” David Foster Wallace

110) “The Wrysons,” John Cheever

111) “Some Monday for Sure,” Nadine Gordimer

112) “Medicine,” Christopher McIlroy

113) “About Love,” Anton Chekhov

114) “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love,” Raymond Carver

115) “Hot Ice,” Stuart Dybek

116) “The Horse-Dealer’s Daughter,” D.H. Lawrence

117) “Foreign Shores,” James Salter

118) “Churchgoers,” Dagoberto Gilb

119) “Ralph the Duck,” Frederick Busch

120) “Prelude,” Katherine Mansfield

121) “The Man From Mars,” Margaret Atwood

122) “Shelter,” Charles Baxter

123) “Errand,” Raymond Carver

124) “How to Tell a True War Story,” Tim O’Brien

125) “The Displaced Person,” Flannery O’Connor

126) “Accident,” Jayne Anne Phillips

127) “Health,” Joy Williams

128) “The Enormous Radio,” John Cheever

129) “Death of a Traveling Salesman,” Eudora Welty

130) “Master and Man,” Leo Tolstoy

131) “A Note on the Type,” Ron Carlson

132) “Bullet in the Brain,” Tobias Wolff

133) “The Iron Table,” Jane Bowles

134) “Oranges and Apples,” Alice Munro

135) “As I Stand Here Ironing,” Tillie Olsen

136) “The World’s Greatest Fisherman,” Louise Erdrich

137) “The Mother Garden,” Robin Romm

138) “White Angel,” Michael Cunningham

139) “The Complete History of New Mexico,” Kevin McIlvoy

140) “Greasy Lake,” T.C. Boyle

141) “Blight,” Stuart Dybek

142) “The News from Ireland,” William Trevor

143) “A Wife of Nashville,” Peter Taylor

144) “Because They Wanted To,” Mary Gaitskill

145) “Vernon,” Brady Udall

146) “Bartleby the Scrivener,” Herman Melville

147) “Uncle Wiggley in Connecticut,” J.D. Salinger

148) “Drinking Coffee Elsewhere,” ZZ Packer

149) “In Dreams Begins Responsibility,” Delmore Schwartz

150) “The Country Husband,” John Cheever

151) “From Slickrock to Bedrock,” Antonya Nelson

152) “Communist,” Richard Ford

153) “The Burning House,” Ann Beattie

154) “No Place for You, My Love,” Eudora Welty

155) “Inventing the Abbotts,” Sue Miller

156) “Monsieur les Deux Chapeaux,” Alice Munro

157) “Billy Budd,” Herman Melville

158) “Chinese Lanterns,” Stu Dybek

159) “The Things They Carried,” Tim O’Brien

160) “Gryphon,” Charles Baxter

161) “Lust,” Susan Minot

162) “The Moons of Jupiter,” Alice Munro

163) “Cold Snap,” Thom Jones

164) “The Lives of Strangers,” Chitra Divakaruni

165) “Wicked,” Emily Hammond

166) “You’re Ugly, Too,” Lorrie Moore

167) “Ordinary Love,” Jane Smiley

168) “Loaded Gun,” Antonya Nelson

169) “Charlotte,” Tony Earley

170) “Emergency,” Denis Johnson

171) “The Pugilist at Rest,” Thom Jones

172) “Widows,” William Trevor

173) “City of Boys,” Beth Nugent

174) “Shiloh,” Bobbie Ann Mason

175) “Hunters in the Snow,” Tobias Wolff

176) “Family Epic,” Robin Romm

177) “Fleur,” Louise Erdrich

178) “Gold Coast,” James McPherson

179) “Rafters,” Kevin McIlroy

180) “In the Gloaming,” Alice Elliott Dark

181) “Believers,” Charles Baxter

182) “Kansas,” Stephen Dobyns

183) “Stitches,” Antonya Nelson

184) “Redemption,” John Gardner

185) “The Storyteller,” H.H. Munro (Saki)

186) “Pale Horse, Pale Rider,” Katherine Anne Porter

187) “The Way It Felt to Be Falling,” Kim Edwards

188) “The Way We Live Now,” Susan Sontag

189) “Doris is Coming,” ZZ Packer

190) “Kiss Away,” Charles Baxter

191)  “Helping,” Robert Stone

192) “Monogamy,” Marly Swick

193) “Zero db,” Madison Smartt Bell

194) “Lost in the Funhouse,” John Barth

195) “Love Medicine,” Louise Erdrich

196) “The Swimmer,” John Cheever

197) “Fair Hunt,” Antonya Nelson

198) “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” Joyce Carol Oates

199) “Daisy’s Valentine,” Mary Gaitskil