Warm-Up

At the climax of Raymond Carver’s story, two men draw a cathedral together: “His fingers rode my fingers,” Carver writes, from the point of view of his main character. “It was like nothing else in my life up to now.” The moment seems sacred within the context of the story; it is a holy moment although it appears in the midst of everyday life.

For your warm-up, write about a holy moment. It doesn’t need to be religious in any strict sense of the word; it could just be a moment in which suddenly, the ordinary seemed extraordinary.

Narrative voice:

• The voice through which the sequence of events of a story are told; could be first or third person (rarely, second person)

• Includes style and tone—that which makes a particular voice distinctive

• Does the voice speak in high or low diction? With regional or idiomatic expressions? What does the voice tell us about the character? Is she or he a reliable narrator?

• Narrative voice is the voice telling the story; it is NOT the same as dialogue.

Writing Analytical Questions

• In a story about ____, we might expect ___, but instead the author gives us ____. Why might this be?

• What meaning does [a certain repeated image] make?

• The voice / images / characters are one way in one passage and another in a second passage. Why the change? What meaning does it make?