More Beitelmania: Profiles

In 1000 to 1500 words (ballpark), profile your randomly selected CW junior.

Some examples:

Actress Kristin Scott Thomas in the Washington Post Style section.

Actor Michael Ashe in Vanity Fair.

High school football player Shayne Skov in Sports Illustrated.

The trick is to find the human interest angle. Write for a non-ASFA, non-Birmingham audience.

Specific strategies:

1. Sit down and talk with your partner at least twice.

2. Converse, don't survey.

3. Try, if at all possible, to observe your partner in a setting outside of school.

4. Think nouns and verbs: what people, places, and things does your partner associate with? What does your partner spend his/her precious time doing?

5. Sketch out your partner's average day, their average week. Ask questions about things you're interested in. Ask questions about things other (i.e., non-ASFA) people might be interested in.

6. This is a human interest story. Always ask yourself: why is this human interesting? If you can't find an answer, that's your fault, not theirs.

Turn it in on Tuesday, November 25.

Making a Difference, Creative Nonfiction Style

Well, I threatened I might have you do it. Write your MAD experience. Make it good. Write for a non-ASFA, non-Birmingham audience. Try to focus on one particular aspect of the day. Be honest, authentic, and realistic. Think Wallace's "Consider the Lobster": he was assigned to an event that he wouldn't ordinarily go to on his own, and he let is imagination glom onto something. Do the same.

Aim for between 500 and 1000 words (rough ballpark) and turn it in by the end of the day tomorrow.

I Wrote a Letter to the President

Or to the guy who lost.

Write an open letter in at least three separate sittings to either Barack Obama or John McCain. Start the letter before the election but continue it afterwards. It should reflect the full flow of events over the course of the next week. Turn it in on Friday.

Click here, here, here, and here for background.