Writing Assignments from a Fiction Book

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine

Over the summer, I read two different books. Each book had a unique style in telling a story. Last month, I discussed the style of Megan Miranda’s book, “All the Missing Girls.” At this link you can see my blog post titled, Writing Backwards.

Today, I’ll focus on Susan Breen's novel, The Fiction Class, a book that kept my attention from beginning to end. This book interweaves the challenges of writing, and teaching writing, interspersed with the challenges of the protagonist’s ever-changing life and a touch of romance and sadness. These life changes were believable and identifiable by any reader.

The author, according to her website, “teaches creative writing at Gotham Writers in Manhattan and is a faculty member at New York Pitch Conference and New York Writers Workshop.” She knows a thing or two about the exercise of writing. Each of her chapters gives a glimpse into the writing class and ends in a writing assignments. These assignments are excellent writing prompts for all authors. You will find nuggets of “how to” tips sprinkled throughout this book as the protagonist teaches her students.

It gave me the idea for a blog that leaves our 

readers with a “writing assignment.”

Author of The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros said, "Writers always live their lives facing backwards, [considering] things we said or could have said, or things we wish we could take back. The work we do is precisely about trying to clean up the mess we made, the kind of emotional footprints we leave behind, or the mess we inherit."

Okay, so here’s your “writing assignment.” 

Choose a particular moment in your life and write a do over. How would it be different? What are the far-reaching consequences of your do over? Ready, set, go.