RIFF Package

8/10/2019 RIFF Package

1/25

RIFF: Research into Fiction

L i t e r a t u r e f o r Y o u n g A d u l t s

E n g l i s h 3 8 5 : 0 1

D e c e m b e r 1 s t , 2 0 1 4

By: Nicholas Ciambrone

The RUNNINGBACK DIARIES


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Questionnaire Samples 2

Questionnaire Summary 12

My Ideas on Genre Study 15

Chapter Sample .16


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Questionnaire Samples

Please answer these questions fully and honestly. This information will be used togenerate ideas for writing a young adults novel for Literature for Young Adults.

1. What hobbies (sports teams, clubs, activities, etc.) do you participate in?

2. What genre (fantasy, science fiction, mystery, romance, tragedy, sports, fiction,nonfiction, etc.) of reading do you most enjoy?

3. What is the last book you read outside of school? Why did you enjoy this book?

4. What is the last book you read in school? Did you enjoy it?

5. What types of characters do you most enjoy in a book?

6. What do you want to be when you grow up?

7. What type of music do you listen to?

8. What sports do you like?

9. What else would you like to say about yourself?


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Questionnaire Summary:

Football is popular among boys and girls

Diary of a wimpy Kid is a popular book

Romance and sports books are popular

Hip-hop and rap is a favorite type of music

Funny characters are a hit

Books Content Organization StyleQB1: Mike Lupica Lots of narration, very little

dialog, mostly about thefootball field, very littleoutside of the field

Chapters followinga sequence ofevents, makeslogical sense.

Third person point ofview, a bystander waslooking in but theyknows what everyoneis thinking

Crash: JerrySpinelli

Lots of dialog, talk aboutsports, competitive maincharacter

Chapters withDates, followlogical sequence ofevents

Narration from maincharacter, dialog withfriends, antagonists

Back-upQuarterback:Eleanor Robins

Lots of football talk, friendsare present and supportive,work with the protagonist

Chapters with asequence, followslogical order

Lots of dialog, withnarrator filling in gaps

Similarities:

These books all have a major focus on the aspect of sports. Each book

focuses on characters that are facing some sort of adversity in the sports realm.

These characters are all relatable to children who read them. They all face the

same type of situations in their lives. The books all follow a similar sequence. Each

text is organized in chapters that follow a logical sequence from the beginning of


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the story to the end. They do not jump around a lot and stay very organized

throughout. Each book also used dialog to tell a big part of the story. The

characters have conversations with their friends and enemies. Seeing the

interaction of the characters is important to each book. I would like to capture

these aspects in my young adult chapter. They will allow me to properly focus on

formulating a well written sports book.

Differences:

Each book and author uses their own stance on how to go about writing a

sports novel. Crash used a technique that makes the main character seem like a

misfit kid. As opposed to the other books, Crash utilizes this technique, which

allows young adults to connect to the main character. As they grow, young adults

often feel like a misfit and dont fit in with the other kids. Seeing character

overcome obstacles is exciting to young adults. I would like to try to capture that

in my own writing. In QB1 , the book is told from the third-person view. The story

takes the reader as a by-stander to all the action, as if you are watching the

scenes take place. This works well for this book, but is something I dont want to

do in my writing. I want to write my chapter from the stance of a main character

telling the story. In the book Back-Up Quarterback , the writing is in the same


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style as QB1 . Again, I am going to do that differently in by book. Back-Up

Quarterback uses a lot of dialog, which is something I want to do in the book. My

characters will be talking much more than in Crash and in QB1 .


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My Ideas on Genre Study:

All of these books focused on male characters. I think it would be

interesting to take on writing about a female football player. The plot would be

that the girl is in middle school and is playing football. When she goes to high

school and is a freshman, she again signs up to play. By the time the first game

comes around dissatisfaction comes from opposing teams and they make a

complaint to the league. Because there is so much opposition from opposing coaches

and players, the league makes an agreement that she cannot play. After this, she

faces ridicule in school for acting like a man, but a few people in the community

rally behind her. They work to getting her back onto the team that she worked so

hard to be on. As the story progresses, more people support her cause and the kids

that had made fun of her in school begin apologizing to her. At the end of the

story she is allowed back on the team to the dismay of the opposing coaches.

Throughout the book I am going to incorporate the ideas taken from the books I

studied as stated above.


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Ch.1The Decision

WHITTEN! GET OVER HERE!!!

What the heck you doing over there? You wanted on varsity, you cant be goin offwhenever you want like this is JV. You dont practice you dont play and its back toJV. Dont make me disappointed I let you on Varsity .

Coach, I know. I just needed some water.

You see these boys drinkin water? Nope. Cause they are tough. Those are some

big boys and they are sweating like a rat trapped in a wool sock in July, but theyaint stopping to drink water.

I know, I know, sorry Coach.

Ahh its alright. You are a freshy and girl. How much could I expect?

****Yo Kristin, over here!

Coming Scott!

Comment [N1]: ORGANIZATION: Thestudied were all broken up into chapter, and themajority had title names. I decided to, and founappropriate to use this same technique for mypiece.

Comment [N2]: STYLE: I used this idea Crash. The main character immediately introdu

themselves in that book, and I liked the concepdoing that. It immediately makes the readerconnect with the character by knowing a little babout them. As opposed to the other texts, I wanto focus on a strong female lead character. Thiswould allow the book to be more than just afootball book.

Comment [N3]: CONTENT: A hard ridinwas an important aspect in QB1, where there wcompetition to be the first string quarterback. Itimportant for me to include this in here, to showthat Kristin has to practice just as hard as the boon the team. This creates equality throughout thtext, and showing much more that is unfair thatdistrict would kick her out of the football progr


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Ready to run these drills? Coach said we need to practice a bunch because you aregonna start this week.

Yeah I am ready.

Who is that with Coach?

I dont know, Scott? Someone from the league trying to see how we look this

year.

Damn. They walking this way. Maybe its a recruiter for me. Make me look goodhere Kristin.

You hand me the ball and I run. They might be recruiting you for back up.

Oh shut up. You cant carry the team; we need a quarterback to do that.

Really? Because we never need to gain yards on the ground.

Whatever Kristin... Hi sir, I am Scott!

Comment [N4]: ORGANIZATION: Theare to act as Kristin directly talking to the audieThis is done in Jerry Spinellis Crash. For my ballows the audience to feel connected and becomher friend. The connection helps the audience gbehind Kristin when things go awry.

Comment [N5]: CONTENT: Stereotype people carry about girls who play sports. Using stereotype helps set the tone that where the stortakes place is a small, conservative town. This the reader understand why it would be a big deafor a girl to be playing on the football team.


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Kristin, this guy is here for you.

What? But Im a freshman. Its too early for anyone to be looking at me.

No, he isnt a recruiter.

Hi Miss Whitten. How are you this evening?

I am doing good. Just practicing drills with Scott, its a big game Friday.

Yes, yes it is. That is actually what I can to talk to you and Coach Stewart about.

Im sorry Kristin, I really cant do anything.

What are you talking about Coach? What is going on?

Well Kristin, you cant play on Friday. You cant play football period.

What????!!! My grades are good, why the heck cant I play.

You are a girl. The other teams voted and find that it is not safe to let you play.You do understand that everyone else is a lot bigger then you, and well, a man. Girlsdont play football. They are the cheerleaders. I arranged the cheerleading coachto let you on the team without trying out. That is more... where girls belong.

Are you fucking kidding me?

You will not talk to me like that! With that attitude I am surprised you were evenlet on this team. This is a district decision. There isnt anything your coach canreally do. We voted, and you cant play. We all find it unsafe for you to play. Now it is an issue? Where were you guys in middle school? This wasnt a problemthen.

Kristin, we need to hold the integrity and reputation of District III football. And you just dont fit that. You are a girl; we cant let a girl play a mans game. Give it

Comment [N6]: ORGANIZATION: Usitell a story was taking from Quarterback Sneakof the book is told through direct conversationbetween the characters. I wanted to i nclude thismy book to help the reader feel they are in thestory. I want to connect to something personal the reader that will facilitate them making a chon whether they think it is okay to let a girl plafootball.

Comment [N7]: CONTENT: The same ryoung adults would have in real life. While I amusing swear words throughout the book, I find itappropriate here based on the situation.

Comment [N8]: CONTENT: Conservatithe world. Emphasizing the story takes place inrural community. This was added to help build mstory. It was not taken from my genre, and mayeven skew away a bit to tackle a big topic like t


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sometime and think. It makes sense , and it is for your best. You dont want toembarrass yourself.

Kristin you okay.

No. I, ... I cant play.

Yeah you can! You are the best person on the team.

No Im not. I am not on the team. That guy said I cant play.

WHAT! Why not?

It will ruin the integrity and reputation of District 3 football.

Let me take you out, I will ask coach if I can leave practice early.

I dont know Scott. Im not in the mood.

It will be fun. You deserve it. It was a long day.

Alright. But can we just get a pizza from Nicks?

Hell yeah! They got the best pizza around! Way better than anything up inBillsport!

Comment [N9]: CONTENT: Through eabooks, and others of this genre, the main characappears self-conscious of what others think abouthem. I wanted to include this here to show thatKristin felt the same way, even though she hadfeelings for Scott. Later it will come out that Scdoesnt feel this way.

Comment [N10]: CONTENT: Capitalizisad moment that just occurred, Scott now is tryito take Kristin on a date. This will give him theopportunity to support her and work towards askher out on a real date. This love story will progrthroughout the story to balance out the harshnesthat Kristin is facing after not being allowed to football. I used my own style on this one, as I thcreates a nice balance for both boys and girls toread the book.


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Awesome! Are you doing okay?

Yeah just upset. Lets go. I want to get out of here.

So.. How about that weather?

Weather? Hahahaha. Thats what you want to talk about?

Well... no, but I just wanted to make some conversation. It was really quiet.

Its okay. I thought maybe you wanted some time to think about everything. Iknow it isnt easy to hear what that dude said.

Im so many emotions I dont know what to feel. You dont need to listen to this. Iwill be okay.

Im here for you Kristin, dont say that. I know you are upset. Thats why I wanted

to take you out.

I appreciate it. Nothing makes me feel better like Nicks Pizza.

What do you think your parents are going to say? I can only imagine. I will not be surprised if my dad tracks the guy down and beatshim up. He is very protective of his little girl. My mom, she always told me I can dowhatever I set my mind to. She is not going to let this slide either. I guess I amlucky in that way.

Yeah. I wish my folks were still together.

Comment [N11]: CONTENT: That aweadolescence confusion about relationships. I wato capture this to connect personally to the readwhom may feel the exact same way about somein their life.


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Oh they got a divorce?

Yeah a few years back... For a while I thought it was my fault... But I guess it isnt.My mom was cheating on my dad. Its not right.

Im sorry Scott. How is your dad?

He is okay. I know he still gets upset about it. He loved my mom with everythinghe had .

Do you think he will find someone else?

I hope so. He seems lonely. Honestly, I sometimes get worried. But enough aboutme. How are you doing Kristin?

I think Im going to try to get back on the team. I dont see a reason why theycant let me p lay. The stuff they said like reputation, imagine if the news hearsabout this! It will be all over the place. I dont really want that. Hopefully we canend it quick so it doesnt get there.

You think they will change their mind? You how our district i s. They are insaneabout football and being the best.

I dont know. Its not like I am bad. Im just a girl.

You play better than most of our team. You got legs of steel and sex appeal.

You seriously just said that?

Ummmmm... yeah... Im sorry. I didnt mean to.

Hahahaha. Its okay. I needed a laugh.

Yeah. Definitely a joke. Hahaha.

Comment [N12]: STYLE: This sentimensomething many students may feel. Its importafor young adult literature to work towards helpistudents understand life better. This wasntincluded in the books I studied, but I wanted toplace this in my attempt. It allows the reader toconnections to the characters.

Comment [N13]: CONTENT: Awkwardadult comment. Adds some humor into a toughconversation about not being allowed to playfootball and divorce. This also builds on theromance that is being set forth for Kristin and SIt works to build on connecting to the reader.


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Thanks Scott.

Youre welcome. I figured you need some pizza.

Well, and for taking me out here. It is very sweet of you. It takes my mind offgetting thrown off the team.

You are still on the team. Dont worry; we will get you back on. I promise.

How can you promise that? You dont know what the district is going to do. Plus youheard him; I wont be allowed to play no matter what.

Just wait and see. Wait un til the paper gets this. They will blow this up. It is2014, not the 1950s. Remember that equality stuff they did the assembly thefirst day of school?

Yeah, I am just worried. I dont want to be all over the news.

You wont be. The district is the ones that will get hated on. Everyone will rallybehind you.

I dont want this to be a big deal. I just want to play football.

I know Kristin, but dont worry. I will be by your side through this.

Hey Kiddo! Whats cookin?

Comment [N14]: STYLE: Quirky teenaggetting side tracked by a conversation. Thiscontinues to build on the perspective that Kristitalking directly to us. I used this idea from the bI had studied that show the characters as still bekids.


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Im okay.

Whats wrong? You look upset. Practice go okay today?

Practice was good. For a little. But then a man from the district came to talk toCoach.

About?

He said I am not allowed to play because I am a girl. That it would ruin thereputation of the district if they let me play a game on Varsity. Dad, what do Ido?

Kristin, what do you think about that?

Dad, I am just upset. I want to play football, and now it is this big thing. I dont

think its fair.

It isnt fair. We need to do something Kristin. It is not fair to do that. They haveno right to kick you off the team!

So what do you want to do?

I know a guy down at Lakeside Gazette. I can call him and have this in the paper inthe morning. That will get people talk about this. The district wont stand a chanceonce the public get a hold of this. But Dad, I dont want this big.

Do you want other girls to go through this same thing? If we can change it here,we can change it for a lot of other schools.

Comment [N15]: CONTENT: The toughgirl still cries. Something I used from the texts studied to show the emotional side of all the bigbad football players. The romantic relationshipbuilds this emotional side.


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Okay. Are you sure this is the best idea?

I wouldnt steer you wrong. I know it will be hard, but we can do it honey. Dontworry. I will always do the best for you.

Alright. If you think its best dad. Lets do it.

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