INTRODUCTION TO FICTION WRITING
ENGLISH 225, SECTION 1
M, W 3:30-4:45, 139A McIver Building
Professor: Porter Shreve
E-Mail: p_shreve@uncg.edu
Phone: 334-4692
Office: 119 McIver Building
Office Hrs: M, W 2:30-3:30, 4-6 and by appointment
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 autobiographical or fully
imagined, traditional or experimental, strident or quiet, domestic or grand.
While there will be assigned readings and specific writing exercises, the
course will not insist on any one school of writing. Our readings and creative
work should be as broad and diverse as the lives we bring to them. However, just as you’d find in any
discipline, there are rules to good fiction writing, and you will be graded
according to how well you apply these rules. The semester
will be divided among the elements of fiction: part 1 will focus on image,
setting and symbol; part 2 on plot, character and dialogue; and part 3 on point
of view, structure and style. Stories are constructs. How well you learn to
build them will determine your success in this class.
At the completion of this course,
you should be able to:
1. Identify and understand the various characteristics of literature
2. Apply the techniques of literary analysis to texts and to your
fellow worshoppers’ stories
3. Use literary study to develop your reading and writing skills
4. Demonstrate an understanding of the diverse social and historical
contexts in which literary texts have been written and interpreted
Requirements
Attendance
Since this course depends on
a full and lively classroom, we all suffer when seats are empty. The attendance
policy, therefore, is strict and absolute: Any unexcused absences will affect
your grade. Perfect attendance will be rewarded. Good attendance can nudge you
up. But if you miss two classes, each subsequent absence will cost you a full
letter 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 haven’t
done the reading for a given class, don’t skip it. Come and listen, catch up,
and don’t neglect the reading again. If you’re quiet or nervous about speaking
in class, stop by my office hours and we’ll talk about it.
Critiques
These are
your written responses to each other’s 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 won’t 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. 4 and Sept. 9. 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 you’ll save yourself a lot of staring at a blank screen.
Readings
You will
also be required to attend one public reading by a visiting or local writer —
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:
Final
portfolio: 70%
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; it’s 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 else’s words or ideas and claiming
them as your own. The thrust of this course is to find your voice. Please don’t 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. All readings are required unless marked
“optional.”
I. IMAGE, SETTING, SYMBOL
M 8/19
Syllabus, Conference sign-up
In-class writing: Should I Stay or
Should I Go….
“The House on Mango Street” Sandra
Cisneros
“The Monkey Garden” Sandra Cisneros
“The Moths” Helena María Viramontes
In-class writing: My House on Mango
Street….
M 8/26
“The Overcoat” Nikolai Gogol
“The Genius of Gogol’s ‘The
Overcoat’” Vladimir Nabokov
In-class writing: My Worst Job….
W 8/28
Conference Day
M 9/2
Labor Day: No Classes
W 9/4
Conference Day
M 9/9
“The Jewbird” Bernard Malamud
In-class writing: My Life as a Dog….
W 9/11
“The Rocking-Horse Winner” D.H.
Lawrence
Workshop 1 & 2
M 9/16
Symbol
“Battle Royal” Ralph Ellison
Workshop 3 & 4
W 9/18
“Shiloh” Bobbie Ann Mason
Workshop 5 & 6
M 9/23
Workshop 7, 8 & 9
II. PLOT, CHARACTER, DIALOGUE
W 9/25
“The Cask of Amontillado” Edgar
Allan Poe
Workshop 10 & 11
M 9/30
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
Flannery O’Connor
“Good Country People” Flannery
O’Connor
“Writing Short Stories” Flannery
O’Connor
In-class writing: Road Trip to
Hell….
W 10/2
“Where Are You Going, Where Have You
Been?” Joyce Carol Oates
Workshop 12 & 13
M 10/7
Character
“The Darling” Anton Chekhov
“The Lady With the Pet Dog” Anton
Chekhov
“Technique in Writing the Short
Story” Anton Chekhov
“Chekhov’s Intent in ‘The Darling’”
Leo Tolstoy
In-class writing: Character
Counterpoint….
W 10/9
Workshop 14, 15 & 16
M 10/14
W 10/16
Workshop 17 & 18
“Hills Like White Elephants” Ernest
Hemingway
Workshop 19 & 20
W 10/23
Overheard Conversations Field Work
In-class writing
M 10/28
“Cathedral” Raymond Carver
Workshop 1 & 2
W 10/30
M 11/4
“A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner
Workshop 6 & 7
W 11/6
“Sonny’s Blues” James Baldwin
“Autobiographical Notes” James
Baldwin
In-class writing: Revision Exercise
1
M 11/11
“Fiesta,1980” Junot Díaz
Workshop 8 & 9
W 11/13
Workshop 10, 11 & 12
“The Things They Carried” Tim
O’Brien
“On Tim O’Brien’s ‘The Things They
Carried’” Bobbie Ann Mason
Workshop 13 & 14
W 11/20
“The Red Convertible” Louise Erdrich
Workshop 15 & 16
“Kew Gardens” Virginia Woolf
“1933” Mavis Gallant
“What is Style” Mavis Gallant
“Review of ‘Kew Gardens’” Katherine
Mansfield
In class writing: Revision Exercise
2
Workshop 17 & 18
“The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas”
Ursula K. LeGuin
Workshop 19 & 20
Final Class: Holiday Reading List
* Portfolio due in my office by 5:00
p.m., Monday 12/16