Discussion Topic (DT) from Lesson 1

Discussion Topic

1. What favorite book or short story have you read with an interesting and engaging plot?
Was the story action driven or character driven?


A. Eat, Pray, Love was a book I really enjoyed because of its message mainly, but also because I'd been to Italy where part of it was filmed and enjoyed remembering about the places. I've developed friendships with people on wdc from India so I had a natural curiousity about that region also. In other words, it was interesting for the cultural curiousity and engaging because of what the main character learned and the fact that I saw some of my own impatient and searching behaviors in her. I could see myself doing what she did.

B. I think this book is a mixture but mainly Character driven vs. Action driven. Really, I would say it was somewhat of a quest rather than the other two options. Although the main character goes to three different countries and experiences things in each (could be the action), the story is really about her own spiritual growth and learning to trust her own judgment in men.


2. In the short story I asked you to read for the class, Brownies, was the plot easily discerned?
Did it follow the basic Freytag Model?
Was there a resolution for the protagonist?

A.
In the story, Brownies, I'm not so sure the plot was easily discerned. It was as if the plot for the individual girls was different.
Arnetta was driven to show she was boss and that to prove to herself and her troop that her own perception that the white girls were looking down on them was a fact, thus she had a "right" to be indignant about whites. Her character being more dominant, seemed to take on the "obvious" plot of getting back at the white kids for allegedly calling Daphne the N word. However, the plot for Daphne and for Laurel/Snot was a little less obvious. They yearned to be a voice of reason in an otherwise dictatorial troop led by Arnetta with help from her sidekick, Octavia. But, their struggle was to gain the courage to actually stand up and say what needs to be said. Finally, Daphne succeeds in getting leading the others to hush and listen to what Snot has to say. I thought Daphne would be the more docile one but really, she showed courage in the end to stand up to Arnetta when Snot was ready to just give it up and stare at the scenery til the whole disappointing affair was over. But finally, at the very end, Snot get the point of the whole story. White/ Black is a color, not a character description, and anyone of us, even when we have a kind spirit, can be a biggot or can be prejudiced and unkind to someone of another race or cultural group. Whether by meanness or ignorance, we all have been insensitive to someone who was just trying to show kindness.

B.
I do think it followed the basic Freytag Model in that the crisis was building with the walk toward the bathroom.

C.
The resolution for the protagonist was quiet but profound in that she realized that her father acted no different than they have learned to expect whites to be, expecting a black person to do their bidding without thanks. It dawned on Laurel (Snot) that no, her father didn't thank the Mennonites. And these people (maybe like the children in troop 909) never did anything bad to him. In fact, they might have done something very uncomfortable to them in their beliefs (wearing jeans) just to be nice to someone who might not have deserved it. I think it was a moment where she realized not all whites are the same ("the bad guys) and not all blacks are the same either. Her father did something unkind just to feel the satisfaction of having a white person do his bidding. She also kept fantasizing about Daphne's poem, "My father was a veteran" which illicits pride, but yet when she was asked if her father thanked the Mennonites, she had to admit that no, he did not, while inside, having to admit she was not proud of him for this.


3. How do you get ideas for your story plots?
From where do you draw your inspiration for your stories?
Are there any methods of finding a plot idea which do not work well for you? Why?

A. I get ideas from things that happen in my caseload as a social worker, circumstances I can't seem to wrap my head around but need to in order to understand those I work with, and sometimes from poetry I've written that is so darned long or wordy, it really should become a story instead of a poem. Life, in general, is enough cannon fodder for storytelling.

B. I guess I draw inspiration for my stories by watching those in my family struggle with difficult events, and then think on how I felt also when these things occurred. I see how grandparents struggle to raise grandkids while barely making ends meet themselves, always fearing the snapping jaws of DHR (my agency) will find them unable or unfit and will put the kids in foster care. It makes me want to translate these experiences for the rest of the population who is content to gripe about those receiving food stamps and Aid to Dependent Children being lazy or undeserving when I know personally many grandparents who work, raise their own kid/s and pay for daycare for their grandkids theyve taken in. But, those are the ones who work too much to get much from food stamps. I don't want to preach so I have to find a way to weave some of these issues into a story with a plot someone might be interested to read.

C. I don't do so well trying to hunt for a plot out of thin air without having first some idea of a character or a situation I want to describe. I really have trouble with genre-driven plot-finding methods. For instance, I'm not likely to even start a science fiction and fantasy type story (or romance, for that matter) because I don't enjoy reading them and thus, I am not really familiar with the genre "requirements" and plot sequences that drive these stories. I lean towards real life situations and characters that struggle but learn something valuable in the end.