Marvel and the Avengers Teach You How to Write: Flexible Schedule

Week One: Place and time tells the reader the physical location and year/era the story takes place. Although Marvel stories have fantasy and science fiction elements, most take place in a fairly realistic, contemporary world. How might these stories be different if they were set in a different country? What if they took place 50 years in the past or 50 years in the future?                                             

Week Two: Setting is important in the MCU because each story is set in a different area, from New York City to Wakanda. Besides being descriptive, setting can help the reader feel as if they are actually with the characters in the scene. That's an important element for stories that take place on different planets and unique worlds.                                

Week Three: The protagonist is the main character. Stories generally only have one main character. This character has a specific want or goal that he/she works on trying to achieve throughout the novel. 

Week Four: The antagonist  is the main villain. The MCU is notorious for having some incredible villains! We will talk about students' favorite villains and what makes these characters so compelling. 

Week Five: Secondary characters are not less important than main characters! In the MUC, often the hero or main character has a team of friends to help solve the story's main problem. How do these characters add to the story? How would the story be different without these supporting characters? 

Week Six: Showing vs. telling. Students will discuss examples of both showing and telling. They will rewrite telling words and sentences to show the characters' action and emotions more clearly.   

Week Seven: Passive voice. Students should write in active voice as much as possible. They will read examples of both active and passive voice. Then they will rewrite passive sentences in active voice so that the character completes the action in the sentence.  
        
Week Eight: Foreshadowing is the art of dropping hints early in a story to warn us about upcoming events later on in the story. Students will examine some examples from the MCU (including end credit scenes!) and discuss how important these hints are to the overall story.   

While earning my Master's Degree in Creative Writing for Children and Young Adults, I had endless discussions with my screenplay writer friends about the Marvel Cinematic Universe (especially as we eagerly awaited Avengers End Game). We poured over every end credit scene and debated about what each symbol meant. The MCU is so complex that it seems impossible to know it all!  The movies and characters make great conversation because the MCU constantly adds new movies and TV shows to its franchise. It is also nice to find other people (and potential friends) who share a love for Marvel, the Avengers, comics, superheroes and good storytelling. 

Students are assigned a weekly writing assignment, a weekly Kahoot quiz, and daily writing tasks and quizzes. 

The more assignments that students post and the more creative writing that they share helps me to understand their knowledge and comprehension of the topics we are discussing. Posting scores from the Kahoot quiz will also help me gauge their understanding of the weekly writing theme. 

No live meetings, and an estimated 1 - 2 hours per week outside of class.