WEEK 5 - Special Reading Response: Creative Writing

SPECIAL READING RESPONSE: CREATIVE WRITING
Question: What specific human fears do dystopias try to tap into? When our characters discover the dystopian elements of their societies, how does this knowledge help (or hurt) them?

This week, instead of writing a traditional critical response, you will be writing a short fiction scene that involves a dystopian or utopian characteristic and "answers" the discussion board question above.

The scene should be at least 250 words (about one double-spaced page, but go by word count), and no longer than 750 words. I realize that's short, but I want you to just jump
into the dystopia/utopian focus of the story. (If the story ends up longer, you must cut it down to the 750 word max; you can always place a link on your blog to the longer version for the public to see.) Since you're writing fiction, your scene won't directly answer the discussion board question, but it should be confronting or exploring it in some way (I suppose Ursula LeGuin would say you are "asking more questions.") One of your goals by doing this exercise is to realize how fiction addresses deep questions and raises important issues, just the same as any critical essay.

Feeling a little shy about exploring your own ideas? No problem; you can take the characters from Woman on the Edge of Time (or any text we've read or seen so far) and describe them in a brand-new situation. Go crazy! (This is called "Fan Fiction," a variety of creative writing that is quite common in Science Fiction.)

Some suggestions for your original story: you can do a "society overview," where a character is learning about a new society's ways all at once (examples where this happens include Woman); you can do a "character introduction" where somebody important to the utopia/dystopia steps in (examples include Faith of Our Fathers, the cyborg prostitute in Woman); you can introduce an ethical problem, or perform a "social critique" of some aspect of our real-world that you find dangerous or dislikeable. If you're having problems beginning your tale, focus on describing something-activity in a room, an object in a character's hand, a mysterious scene on the horizon-or on an exchange of dialogue between two people.