INTRODUCTION TO FICTION WRITING

ENGLISH 225, SECTION 1

T, TH 12:30-1:45, 330 McIver Building

 

Professor: Porter Shreve

E-Mail: portershreve@aol.com

Phone: 334-4692

Office: 119 McIver Building

Office Hrs: T, TH 2-3:30

Text: The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction,

unabridged fifth edition, edited by Ann Charters

 

Course Description

The object of this workshop in fiction writing is to write what moves you, whether it be autobiographical or fully imagined, traditional or experimental, strident or quiet, domestic or grand. While there will be assigned readings and specific writing exercises, and while we will discuss various techniques, strategies, and styles in a more or less structured atmosphere, the course will not insist on any one way of writing. Our readings and creative work should be as broad and diverse as the lives we bring to them. In workshopping each others stories we will offer thoughtful, considered criticism, reading each piece on its own terms.

Student Learning Goals

At the completion of this course, you should be able to:

    1. Develop your skills as a creative writer and storyteller, applying the craft techniques that you learn in the classroom
    2. Identify and understand the various characteristics of literature
    3. Apply the techniques of literary analysis to texts and to your fellow worshoppers stories
    4. Use literary study to develop your reading and writing skills
    5. Demonstrate an understanding of the diverse social and historical contexts in which literary texts have been written and interpreted

Requirements

Attendance

A writing workshop, because of its size and unique dependence on the participation of each individual, suffers greatly when seats are empty, so the attendance policy here is strict and absolute: Any unexcused absences will affect your grade.

Participation

Active participation in both workshop and discussion is critical to the success of this class. Come prepared, and be aware that in my effort to get everyone involved I might have to call on people. If for whatever reason you havent done the reading for a given class, dont skip it. Come and listen, catch up, and dont neglect the reading again. If youre quiet or nervous about speaking in class, stop by my office hours and well talk about it.

Critiques

These are your written responses to each others work. When we workshop your story or poem you will need to bring one copy for each student in the class and one copy for me. I wont grade individual critiques but I will randomly collect them.

Conferences

You will be required to meet with me once for a fifteen-minute conference at the beginning of the semester. I will hold these conferences in our classroom during two conference days: Sept. 6 and Sept. 11. Playing ideas off of somebody one-to-one is often the best way to find what you want to write. Take advantage of our conference session and office hours and youll save yourself a lot of staring at a blank screen.

Readings

You will also be required to attend two public readings by visiting or local writers either in poetry or prose and to write a short (1-2 page) response to each, which should be included in your final portfolio. I will announce the writers coming to town as that information becomes available.

Portfolio

You will need to turn in a final portfolio of your written work on Tuesday, December 11. This should include all exercises, your two (or more) response(s) to public reading(s), as well as 20-40 pages of thoroughly revised, beautifully polished stories (including drafts). This might mean one story or it might mean three, depending on your inclination. Sometime in mid-to-late October, when I hand back your second story, I will give you a midterm grade based on the first two stories you turned in. Your grade in the final portfolio will cover story 3 plus your one or more revisions.

Grades

Roughly speaking, the breakdown will be as follows:

Midterm grade: 30%

Final portfolio: 40%

Participation: 30%

Notes: Written critiques are a good part of the participation grade and should be taken seriously. Individual stories and poems will not be graded; its your cumulative output that counts. Keeping in mind the seemingly arbitrary nature of putting a grade to creative work, I will pay particular attention to effort and improvement. More than anything, I expect to show you how much better your work gets with every draft.

Plagiarism

You all know intuitively what it is: using someone elses words or ideas and claiming them as your own. The thrust of this course is to find your voice. Please dont put me in the position of checking line with line, word with word. Plagiarism is an extremely serious matter. It can result in failure of this course and possible expulsion from the university

 

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE

 

*note: Readings listed beneath each date should be read for that date.

 

T 8/21

Introduction

Syllabus

Conference sign-up

 

I. POWER STRUGGLES

TH 8/23

The Domestic Sphere

"Shiloh" Bobbie Ann Mason

"Say Yes" Tobias Wolff

In class writing: the domestic disagreement

Workshop sign-up

T 8/28

"Fiesta, 1980" Junot Díaz

"The House on Mango Street" Sandra Cisneros

"Hairs" Sandra Cisneros

"My Name" Sandra Cisneros

"The Monkey Garden" Sandra Cisneros

"Girl" Jamaica Kincaid

In class writing: living room as battleground

TH 8/30

The Regional Sphere

"Everything That Rises Must Converge" Flannery OConnor

"A Good Man is Hard to Find" Flannery OConnor

"A Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable" Flannery OConnor

In class writing: character sketch: the enemy, the opposite, the authority figure

T 9/4

"Young Goodman Brown" Nathaniel Hawthorne

"The Lottery" Shirley Jackson

"The Importance of the Single Effect in a Prose Tale" Edgar Allan Poe

In class writing: run in with authority

TH 9/6

Conference Day

T 9/11

Conference Day

TH 9/13

"Country Lovers" Nadine Gordimer

Workshop 1, 2

Story 1 due: Power Struggle

The National Sphere

T 9/18

"Battle Royal" Ralph Ellison

Workshop 3, 4

TH 9/20

"In the American Society" Gish Jen

Workshop 5, 6

T 9/25

Workshop 7, 8, 9, 10

 

II. JOURNEYS

TH 9/27

Physical

"The Things They Carried" Tim OBrien

"On Tim OBriens The Things They Carried" Bobbie Ann Mason

In class writing: physical journey

T 10/2

Workshop 11, 12, 13, 14

TH 10/4

Workshop 15, 16, 17, 18

T 10/9

Fall break

TH 10/11

Psychological

"The Overcoat" Nikolai Gogol

In class writing: introspective journey

T 10/16

Workshop 19, 20, 21, 22

Story 2 due: Journey

TH 10/18

Emotional

"The Swimmer" John Cheever

"The Management of Grief" Bharati Mukherjee

T 10/23

"A Worn Path" Eudora Welty

"Why I Live at the P.O." Eudora Welty

"Is Phoenix Jacksons Grandson Really Dead?" Eudora Welty

TH 10/25

"River of Names" Dorothy Allison

Workshop 1, 2

T 10/30

Workshop 3, 4, 5, 6

 

III. CONNECTIONS/DISCONNECTIONS

TH 11/1

Human

"The Darling" Anton Chekhov

Workshop 7, 8

T 11/6

"Cathedral" Raymond Carver

"The Origin of Cathedral" Tom Jenks

Workshop 9, 10

TH 11/8

Workshop 11, 12, 13, 14

T 11/13

Metaphysical

"The Metamorphosis" Franz Kafka

"Kafka and The Metamorphosis" John Updike

In class writing: encounters with the absurd

TH 11/15

"The Garden of Forking Paths" Jorge Luis Borges

Workshop 15, 16

Story 3 due: Connection/Disconnection

T 11/20

Revision strategies

Workshop 17, 18

TH 11/22

Thanksgiving holiday

T 11/27

"A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings" Gabriel García Márquez

Workshop 19, 20

TH 11/28

Intellectual

"If on a winters night a traveler" Italo Calvino

On Italo Calvinos If on a winters night a traveler" Salman Rushdie

Workshop 21, 22

 

T 12/3

"The Jewbird" Bernard Malamud

"All Stories Are True" John Edgar Wideman

TH 12/5

Course Wrap-up

"How to Become a Writer" Lorrie Moore

Exeunt

* Portfolio due in my office by 5:00 p.m., Tuesday 12/11