Mary Johnson- Creative Writing Video Project

Mary Johnson Creative Writing Video Project

Week Seven Hello

Do give the video from three ago year your attention, remembering that you have a final Oral Project and need not write an additional short story or memoir. 



The photographs come from this year's

Plum Creek Literacy Festival Festival; the last photograph comes from the St. Peter's Literature Festival, two years ago; this year's takes place on October 11, and I am one of the presenters.

The Writing Assignments for Week Six discuss your final assignments--two short stories, one Fun With Words and then a short story with a flash back, along with your final Oral Project.

I hope that you all have a lot of fun with this week's writing assignment that you will share on the second discussion thread.

And you will read an interesting selection of short fiction and Jonis

Agee's talk about her craft. The class notes also discuss Chapter Ten in the Creative Writing Guide.

As always, get to the Discussion Threads early and often.

I hope that you enjoy a productive week.

Week Four Hello

Hello Everyone,

You have two short videos this week, the one on this page that I made last fall and the one from a previous class that took place in November (twenty-five minutes.) from two years ago that remains useful.

Give the video from that November class your close attention, for pretty much everything obtains for this year's course. And I might add a couple images to the photography selection.

Look over the reading and the writing assignments carefully, and give the class notes your attention, for they discuss the readings in the context of your Poetry Projects due in two weeks.

Get to the discussion threads early and often, sharing links and ideas with your fellow writers; as I note on the video, the activity on the discussion threads needs to stay energetic, so please take the threads seriously and get to them early and with enthusiasm.

Week Three Hello

We begin Week Three, and I hope that everyone enjoyed a grand Labor Day Weekend.

You will get material back all the week long, and I dive into your writing and offer my comments and suggestions.  To get ready to revise your work, check out student work, including creative endeavors from Week One.

Give if you have the time Week Three Video from Election Night 2008 your attention, after looking over the short (fewer than fifteen minutes) video at the conclusion of this post and while remembering that the class took place few years ago in November and not September.

And see the announcement and the assignment:  the writing

assignment requires from you three and not four poems.


As always, read carefully your reading and writing assignments for the week; give the notes your attention as well.

I wish each of your a week of creative energy.

Go well, Bill

Greeting for Week Two

Hello Everyone and Welcome to Week Two

As always, read with care the Reading and Writing Assignments for the week; the notes are keyed to all the readings, and they discuss here and there the writing assignments for this week.

Remember to turn in the assignments as one document and, of course, share with your fellow writers what you write.

The video I made for Week Two last year covers identical material, so make sure to watch and listen carefully. The video discusses this week's writing assignment and makes suggestions about your participation in the discussion threads: get in early and often.

Experiment in your posts with hyperlinks--I tried to include some in  my own postings on the threads last week and refer you to the link, Creating a Hyperlink, on this blog that discusses how to make a hyperlink. Just click on the images for a larger image.

Enjoy a fun and productive week.

Creative Writing 2013 Week One

Cedar Waxwing

Welcome to Creative Writing for Fall 2013

As always at the beginning of the new week, give the week's video a look; after viewing the short video at the end of this entry, watch the greeting from a previous year if you like.

Most of the videos here come from previous years, but I kept the assignments pretty similar--unlike last year, however, you will not have a proctored final.  That said, you will create by the term's conclusion a video of yourself reading and discussing pieces of your work.

I will talk more over the next weeks about this fun exercise that everyone enjoyed last year.


I made a very short video for this year that will appear here--short because technical problems frustrated the first three attempts.  I will make a new video for you by Sunday evening this week, August 18.


This week's videos address the assignment for this week, the Final Video Project (remember:  we no longer have proctored requirements), and Discussion Threads. I also offer some suggestions about how to begin making your prose all the more emphatic and effective.

If you do not know how to create hyperlinks on the Discussion Threads, the preceding link should help you; just click on the image to enlarge the information.


Again, welcome to Creative Writing and make sure to watch both the videos.

If you have questions, e-mail me right away.

New introduction for Fall 3013:





Introduction from Fall 2011:

Week Eight Greetings and Announcements

Missouri River at Brownville

Congratulations: We reach the term's conclusion.

Give the new video a listen, for I talk about the term's conclusion, which occurs for us on Monday, October 17.

Review the material here about the Short Story and the Final Project. You will get comments back on the Memoir/Creative Nonfiction and, I hope, some of the formal short stories through Sunday.

In addition to Fun with Words and your Short Story, you have a Final Project to complete, another Memoir/Creative Non-Fiction narrative or a Short Story. And then you complete as well your Final Video Project.

Remember that you have, as outlined in the Week Six Writing Assignment, two formal writing projects: the short story and the final project, for which you will write another short story or another work of creative non-fiction.

You must also complete your Final Video Project, which requires that you talk on a video published where I can watch it (and a link you should feel free to share with others) about a couple pieces you have written: suggest something about the genesis of these works and place them as much as possible in the context of what you read and discussed these past weeks.


I go very gentle on the Fun With Words and the short work with which you played last week, Nanofiction and Hyperfiction.


Just reading the stories by your fellow writers will inspire your imagination.

You have worked hard this term, and I appreciate your efforts.

Enjoy a productive week and a most excellent vacation, and I look forward to seeing many of you again in Spring 2012.

You might also enjoy watching and listening to Ellen Klages who visited campus last year at this time. If you want a copy of what Ellen Reads--"Ringing up Baby" and the final pages from White Sands, Red Menace--just let me know, and I will supply you with the material.

Go well, Bill

Week Seven Greetings

Hello Everyone,

I offer a fifteen-minute discussion about the final two weeks, sort of a focused pep talk.

Look over the weekly announcements carefully for this and last week, for you want to get all the dates straight. Last week's Writing Assignment offers a schedule for the final two weeks, which include this week's fiction essay and the final project.

And this week's assignment explains the basic ins and outs of experiments with Hyper- and Nano-fiction; you can have a lot of fruitful fun with these exercises in control--and with humor, to be sure.

Check out the links to various short stories, from "A & P" by John Updike to "Boys and Girls" by Alice Munro.

You will have a good deal of production fun this week.

Enjoy, Bill

Week Six Arrives

Week Six Greetings

Hello Everyone,

We enter the final three weeks of the term. And as always in these courses, matters move swiftly.

This week's writing assignment lists the remaining writing projects, the "fun with words" fiction, a short story, and your last effort that you can complete before the final week, the Oral Project.  So read the instructions.
And make sure to turn in your short memoir, and I will soon get the Poetry Projects back to you. You have plenty of revision work to keep you busy until the final hours of the term.

Continue to experiment and write without fear. 

Read carefully this week's announcement for some important dates.  And remember:  I changed the final assignments:  you will write your "fun with words" piece this week and then work on a short story.  Instead of producing at the very end of the term another short story or memoir, you will revise work and, over the next three weeks, complete your Oral Project.





Enjoy a productive week, Bill

Week Five Begins

Greetings for Week Five

This week, you enter into a new area, Creative Nonfiction, and continue work on your previous endeavors. And everything you have practiced these past four works comes into play over the final weeks of the course.

So continue to hone this craft, for the results from your efforts will continue to develop long after this class ends.

All the reading and writing you have done over the past four weeks serve to make you all the more appreciative of this week's readings, from N. Scott Momaday to Langston Hughes. And the experiences you have considered over the past weeks will aid you with this week's writing assignmentt.

As the class notes suggest, Creative Nonfiction makes considerable use of the poetic devices, from simile to the senses, with which you have practiced these past weeks.

I wish you a productive week and a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday.

Hello Week Four

Greetings for Week Four

Hello Everyone,

Well, we reach by the end of the week the half-way mark in the class. Keep plugging along, for I certainly will.

As usual, you have three Discussion Threads this week; make sure that you pay close attention to those first two, for you must respond to each of the two. Thread Three is for your enjoyment and sharing.

Read carefully the class writing assignment, the special link for Prose Poems, and the notes for the chapter; all three play a role in your Poetry Project due in two weeks.

I will get Week Two and, I hope, part of Week Three back to you over the next few days.

Everything you accomplish these first weeks will come into play over the second half of the term.

Enjoy a productive week, Bill

Week Three Greetings

American Indian Pictograph at Indian Cave State Park

Greetings for Week Three

Blue Jay

How quickly this class moves along always stuns me. At any rate, we enter Week Three, which includes some excellent readings and writing assignments that I hope will challenge you. Make sure to look closely, as always, over the class notes.

I have enjoyed very much reading your first assignment and will have everything that I have received back over the next few days; and then I will work on this week's assignments.

Take the time to do a revision, for my comments push each writer in a direction taken from their individual work--but feel free always to move in a different direction: work on the spirit of my comments.

This class, though terribly compressed, is one of my favorites, so continue to work with enthusiasm. I am very pleased with the group of folks who respond with energy to the discussion threads, and I hope you will find this week's threads of interest.

But more people need to take an active role in the discussions, to be sure.

Once again, you have images to work with, this time in the context of a William Carlos Williams poem. I hope, too, that you will incorporate some of the Derek Walcott material into this week's discussion. See this week's announcements for other links.

Scrolling down from this post, you will find some "graphic" information about making hyperlinks; push yourself to find material on the Internet to add to our discussions--the Internet offers a wealth of wonderful sites to expand our class.

In this particular post, I talk about this week's assignments but also spend time talking about revisions for the writing assignments from Week One.

I wish all of you a good week.

This video comes from Election Night 2008, so do not get confused. I will add a new video over the next couple days.

Tufted Titmouse

Creating a Hyperlink

Creating a Hyperlink on Blackboard

Just click on the following images and follow the instructions on how to add a hyperlink to your e-mail messages.

Greetings for Week Two

Welcome to Week Two

Hello Everyone,

We begin Week Two of the Creative Writing journey, as The Creative Writing Guide suggests about Creative Writing's process of discovery.

Here I talk (again) about Discussion Threads and this week's writing assignments, which will give you an opportunity to have a good time, to enjoy serious fun with, among other things, Haiku--for two of the seven, you will use two of these photographs to which we will return next week.

As always, take the time to read the notes and make use of our texts in your discussions--and surf around for interesting web sites that will add to our conversations.

Enjoy the still stunning weather, Bill

Welcome to Creative Writing on Week ONE

Creative Writing Week One Greeting

Hello Everyone,

Here I offer a brief overview of the course with specific mention of the requirements for Week One.

Remember to enjoy the process and remain open to experiment.

Sorry for the confusion about the Discussion Threads; I changed the minimum number of posts from THREE to TWO.

Making even small changes with an on-line course causes multiple problems.

Enjoy a good first week, Bill