Creative Writing

Have you ever wondered what makes great fiction work?  Teachers always follow Henry James in saying that the success of a story or novel is (are you ready?) in whether it succeeds.  “Does it work?” they ask.  Most students are left feeling perplexed.  What works?  What is success in fiction writing?  This course will seek to answer some of these questions. 

Creative Writing will give students a broad view of how to write short stories and sections of longer works.  Students will “try on” all sorts of narrative perspectives.  They will create very honorable characters, and also those who are very malicious.  They will try morality fables along with open-ended narratives.  They will develop various narrative voices, experimenting with levels of narrative “objectivity.”  Students will kill off their characters and bring them back to life.  Characters will fall, and characters will find redemption!  Description, dialogue, pace, setting, diction, syntax, voice, rising action, climax, denouement, conclusion, meaning, purpose, message, and audience will all become our tools for making stories work.

This course will be an elective, and as such, will not have the same requirements of a standard Westrate English course (about half the work load).  Students will read key works of fiction and will work on shorter creative pieces.  Many of the writing assignments will be one-page pieces to be “workshopped” together, though students will also produce a number of complete stories.  The instructor will work to create a safe community of writers who are unafraid to experiment, to share their work, and to be critiqued.  Most important, this course will be lots of fun!

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