so I told somebody yesterday the first shop looks feels to be shaping up to be an MFA grad level shop. my policy in an MFA setting has always been this. if you want to bring in strictly new work stuff in progress either short stories or chapters from a still forming novel, cool. but I will also offer up a few assignments or story ideas for those of you coming in raw or sick of whatever you've been working on. I don't think you guys need the stalker assignment but it's always an option. another one that has been popular in the past was called the open ending

I tend to sub to the raymond chandler school of thought when it comes to novels. don't remember the exact quote but it boiled down to 'if I know the ending before I get there then some sharp eyed reader is gonna figure it out before they get there too.'

with short stories though. there is something to be said for the reverse. the theory that you should write the ending first, then figure out to get there. the open ending assignment went like this. I'd write a half page or page long scene featuring unnamed characters that hit like a hammer. rang like a bell. whatever. cut to the bone.

pass that scene around and tell the class this is your ending. figure out how to get there.

results were never not fascinating.

I also have a sliding pov assignment that's pretty cool.

speaking of pov and the black elf question. personally I don't give a fuck. I say write whatever and whoever you feel like writing. tell the story you need to tell with the characters that belong in that story. write from a chimp's point of view. or a dog's. write from a leprechaun's pov.

if you know the voice you know the voice. I wrote penny dreadful from like 17 points of view. several of them female. maybe I'd get called out for that today maybe not. either way zero fucks given.

not my lookout to turn this into a political forum but the thing about the black elf in rings of power.. I kind of liked that character. he was maybe the best thing about that piece of shit atrocity of a fuck you to the Tolkien estate. the problem was none of the other characters even mentioned it. when ALL of the other elves since the beginning of time are and have always been very pale silver blonde nordic looking folk you'd think at least one of them would say something. ask where the hell he came from or call him a half breed.

fucking something.

not to mention lord of the rings is traditionally kinda racist at its core. the elves hate the dwarves the dwarves hate the goblins the orcs hate the elves and so on. that was the point. bring them all together to have a coke sing a feel good hippie song and defeat Sauron.

meanwhile. all of us grew up with the original bridge crew of the starship enterprise. two white guys. one of them Russian. one from Indiana. one asian dude. played by a gay actor but not a gay character. a Scottish dude. a black woman. and a Vulcan. sorted. made perfect sense. galactic federation. nobody had to explain to us why this was a good thing.

likewise on psych ward the ideal seven man crew is two white guys two black dudes three women white or black. best if one of them is over 60 and has a momma vibe. some of the most violent most psychotic male patients will roll over if they get called out by a maternal figure. best too if one of the male staff is gay. best if at least one of them is ex-military. and if the black dudes are not gang affiliated it's gonna be a long fucking night.

to be honest you really only needed one white dude. his main job was dealing with the asshole white patients who were showing their psychotic colors and throwing the N word around.

and when you took that patient off camera you didn't say uhh hey man the N word isn't cool.. you shoved him against a wall and growled best lay off that nigger talk dude or I'm gonna take an extra long smoke break and let these gentlemen explain it to you.

same goes if you find yourself writing a scene like that.

mister pink didn't say you ever work with N word guys? just like you two, always trying to kill each other.

he used the actual word.

real characters talk like real people.

one of my best friends on psych unit black guy named Dre quoted that line all the time. it was never not funny.

anyway. real world is ugly and complicated. shades of gray every which way. exceptions to every rule. stereotypes tend to have grains of truth. likewise so should our stories be ugly and beautiful. messy complicated fucked up and dysfunctional. with shades of gray and grains of true.

word.