Major Projects

You will complete at least three of the major projects.
 

*=counts as one project (400 points)
**=two projects (800 points)
***=three projects (1200 points)

    A prose major project is worth 400 points, whether it is a complete short-short story of 500 words or a longer short story of 2,000 words.  If your project is, say, an 8,000-word story, you will send it in increments of 2,000 words (more or less, stopping where there's a good point to stop).  That story can count as four major projects.

    If you have a story of, say, 3,000 words, the first 2,000 words will be graded on a 400-point scale; then the remaining 1,000 words will receive a 100-point scale grade for each 500 words. 

    You may do extra Major Projects in lieu of doing some minor exercises.

When you e-mail your instructor an assignment, please label clearly what the assignment is supposed to be and include your e-mail address(es). For example, Hoogoose D. Moose might send the following:

hmoose@moosenet.net; hmoose@students.fccj.edu

Hoogoose D. Moose

CRW 2000

Major Project: Short Story (2,127 words)

*SHORT-SHORT STORY, SHORT STORY (or CHAPTER): Write your own short-short story (length 500 - 2,000 words).

**SHORT STORY (or CHAPTER): Write your own short story (4,000+ words).

***NOVELETTE or LONG SHORT STORY: Write a longer short story or at the extreme length a novelette (7,000 - 15,000 words). Before you attempt this project, do the exercise, Focusing on What's Important to the Story.  Submit this in 2,000 words at a time.

****+PAPERBACK NOVEL: Write a short novel, perhaps in one of the popular genres -- mystery, romance, gothic romance, science-fiction, western (35,000 - 80,000 words or 140 - 320 pages). (The longer the work, the more this may replace some of the minor exercises.)

*CHILDREN'S PICTURE BOOK: Select an age group and write a storybook for children of that age (500 - 1,000 words).

*CHAPBOOK OF POEMS/SONG LYRICS: Compile a booklet of all of your poems and/or song lyrics. (20 items - each poem or lyric on a separate page). Most magazines prefer poems of 4-16 lines. (If you have many poems, you may wish to group them into chapbooks focusing on specific subjects.) You may do more than one chapbook.

**BOOKLET OF SHORT-SHORT STORIES: If you prefer one-page short-shorts, then you may wish to do a booklet of at least five short-shorts. The booklet may not include the short-short in #1 above.

*ONE-ACT PLAY: Write a play that could be performed on a stage in 20-30 minutes (about 20-30 pages).

**TWO-ACT PLAY: Same directions as above, but 40-60 pages.

***THREE-ACT PLAY: Same directions as above, except it should be for 1 1/2-2 hours playing time and 90-120 pages.

*HALF-HOUR TV SCRIPT: Using the proper manuscript format, write a teleplay (about 25-40 pages). Consult the handouts or items on reserve about TV script style. Do not let the page length scare you since teleplays are filled with white space. The actual word length will not be that long. Must be an original story; you may not use the characters of an actual television show.

**ONE-HOUR TV SCRIPT: Same directions as above, except doubled in length (about 55-80).

***MOVIE SCENARIO or TV MOVIE: As you study scriptwriting for films and television, you will notice that they have different dramatic requirements. One example: a teleplay has to allow for commercial breaks and teases to hold the viewers' attention until the commercials are over. (1 1/2-2 hours playing time, 120-250 pages)

*RADIO FEATURE BOOKLET: Radio features may be one-minute spots or three-minute spots. Paul Harvey, of course, has a longer feature, "The Rest of the Story," a tale that has a surprise ending. However, these features may deal with auto repair, home maintenance, little known Florida facts, economics, etc. Pick one feature category and write either 20 one-minute spots (1 page, 15 double spaced lines) or 10 three-minute spots (2 pages each). Study the format of existing radio features, and, of course, be original in your work.

*STORY FOR A MEMOIR: Select an event in your life and write 500 to 2,000 words about the event. In the memoir assignments, avoid ?diary?-style writing in which diction is thrown out the window, as in ?I woke up at 6 a.m. in the morning and said alright it?s gonna be a big day,? etc., etc.

**LONGER ACCOUNT FOR A MEMOIR: Select another event or a series of related events and write 5,000 to 17,000 words. Before you attempt this project, go to Minor Exercises and do the exercise, Focusing on What?s Important to the Story.

***MAJOR-LENGTH VERSION OF A MEMOIR: If you are on a roll, see how many events you can string together in what may approach a full-sized memoir.

EXTRA CREDIT: Again, you may do additional project(s) for extra credit.  These will be graded on a 100-point scale.

Have something that pleases you and your classmates?

During the course (and afterwards as long as you're enrolled at FCCJ), you may want to send submissions to The Experience, the FCCJ student literary magazine.  The current advisor is Professor Jana Kinder (jkinder@fccj.edu).  Check to see if she will accept e-submissions or if she'd prefer for you to send hard-copy to The Experience, FCCJ Kent Campus, 3939 Roosevelt Blvd., Jacksonville, FL 32205.

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