Course Description: This creative writing course will aim to foster the discipline necessary to write regularly, to elaborate on the elementary skills of fiction writing (with a special emphasis on metaphorical reasoning) and on the techniques necessary to design and complete two stories or creative essays. We will practice as well, the critical reading skills necessary for any aspiring writer. If you can't read carefully, you can't write carefully; if you can't help solve another author's fictional problems, you're unlikely to be capable of solving your own. Fiction writing is a serious way of knowing the world, and no time will be spent on analyzing the strictly commercial marketplace, or on how one might duplicate fiction whose only function is the passing of time or the making of money. Narrative nonfiction is an option, but no Y.A., children’s, or rote genre fiction. I look forward to reading and discussing your work.
Course Requirements:
- Punctual completion of reading and writing assignments.
- Regular class attendance and class participation, including a generous effort in helping other class members improve their work.
- Written work, including but not limited to:
—one parable (one page or less)
—two stories (6-8 pages), each taking on a formal challenge
—formal, written critiques of all stories discussed.
—various weekly exercises
- Oral presentations and introductions as assigned.