Workshop 5

Today’s prompt: The Fall. Maybe you want to tell a story that takes place in Autumn. Or you could interpret “the fall” to mean something else. Wrote for 15 minutes. Let people continue writing if they wanted to. Those that were finished shared their work and we responded to it.

Most people read, gave each other positive feedback. Then, we wrote for a second round. Participants could choose from two prompts: Who’s afraid of the dark, and trick or treat?

Before we read the second round, we discussed the mentor text, an excerpt from Piri Thomas’ memoir, Down these Mean Streets. Joe commented that he didn’t like the text, others agreed that it lacked realism. We talked about writing for different audiences.  Sometimes when you write for a reader that doesn’t know, I explained, you sacrifice some of the realism. We talked about the difference between the protagonist and the narrator- the character you were then, versus the character you are today. Sometimes, and sometimes as a result of our writing, we become a completely different character— older and wiser.

We might feel like completely different people at times— and in some ways we are; but in some ways we’re still the same.


What Happened to Belinda in the Fall
By Belinda

Like two years ago, I'm pretty sure it happened in the month of October. I was walking up and down through the hoe stroll and I see this guy but I really don't pay much attention to him. All I know is that he is looking at me and asks me what I'm doing. I say, "Nothing, just trying to make some money."
"How much money you trying to make?"
I say, "Well, like forty or fifty dollars."
Real quick, but really quick he said, "Ok, that sound good. Would a blow job work?"
I said, "Hell yeah."
So anyway we walk to the park, and I do notice that he had a limp. As we got deep in the park, I notice that he no longer had a limp.
All I know is that he was trying to choke me and I'm losing my air and thank God that I have a scraper. I take the scraper and I try to stab him whoever, just so I can stop him from hurting me.
It happened in the fall.

The Fall
By Christopher Vonderlieth

I remember counting the loot we just got from the robbery. About $160 give or take. But being dope sick and broke, it was more like $160,000. Straight to East NY to get high. About three months later, big ole scene with the cops. I felt like I was Gotti, the cops kept high giving and patting each other on the back, saying "good work." To make a short story shorter, my offer went from 11 flat to 9 flat to 7 flat to 5. I jumped on the five. I took the fall.