ENGL 130: Introduction to Fiction Writing
Purpose of the CourseThis course will help you develop the writing skills used to express, in the short story, whatever is already present in yourself. While a creative writing course may encourage you to formulate themes, it chiefly guides you in techniques other writers have found useful. Some teachers ask would-be writers: "Do you have something to say?" It might be more appropriate to ask: "Do you yearn to say something?" This course will try to help you say it well. It cannot make final judgment on your insights. Judgment will be made by your own standards in the perspective of the recorded "best" of centuries of other writers, by the response of discriminating readers, and through the survival value of your work under the erosion of time. Since the course cannot provide you with material to write about, nor guarantee insights into your experiences, these lessons must begin one-step-removed from those raw events and feelings, at the point they are consciously shaped and directed on the page. Through these lessons, you should learn to express what you feel, then change your work and intensify its effect. A short story has its strongest effect when emotionally truest, when the writer shows honestly what it is like to be a human being in this world—to love, grow, hate, quarrel, learn, remember, and dream. Rooted in emotion but guided by intellect, fiction becomes durable when its truths are those many readers will recognize and re-experience, even in other countries and in later years. The truths a writer uses may bend toward entertainment or toward literature. Successful short stories may be written as merchandise or art, though usually they fall between these extremes. Often a competent story in a slick magazine and a "quality" story will differ more in tone, subtlety, and complexity than in writing essentials. Because this course is part of a university English department, it will bend toward literature. The reading texts are devoted to examples of literary, serious stories. Required Texts
You can order the required texts from the Higher Grounds bookstore at the Friday Center either online or by using the book order form. Web LinksThe Elements of Style: online version of Elements of Style, by William Strunk, Jr., a text that details the rules and usage principles of composition. The Norton Anthology of American Literature: This site offers author biographies and sections on historical context for the writers you will be reading in the class. Open Directory: Arts: Literature: Magazines and E-zines: This site offers an extensive list of links to mainstream and new literary magazines on the Web. You can sample publications and find places to submit your own work. North Carolina Writers Network: This site offers information on statewide conferences, writing contests, and news about NC writers. Poets & Writers: This site features news, interviews with published writers, a listing of magazines accepting submissions, and grant sources for creative writers. Supplementary Reading
Methods to be Followed in the CourseThe nine lessons in this course correspond to one semester's work or three hours of college credit. In each lesson, you will be required to read from your two texts, complete your writing and journal assignments, and submit everything you are asked to submit to your instructor via e-mail. Instead of a final exam, you will be asked to submit a completed short story and an analysis piece. Steady writing and hard work are essential investments. You may begin working on a story at any time. You will, however, need most of the background of the first lessons in order to work up to the story. You should begin to have an idea for, if not a partial draft of, your story by Lesson 6 at the latest. The instructor will comment on your ideas at any time on request. You will not be able to begin the analysis piece until the last lesson of the course. Pay attention to length minimums and maximums for each writing assignment. Though you may find on occasion that you can't help running slightly over the limit, you should know that your instructor may opt to read only to the noted maximum length of the assignment. Keep in mind that you always have your journal in which to expand. It is important, especially at the beginning, to remember that the writing assignments are exercises; nobody expects perfect pieces. Work at them, stretch your imagination—"Lengthen the ligaments," Virginia Woolf wrote in her diary—but then let them go off in the mail and move on to your journal work. Always keep a copy of your submitted assignment. You will need it not only as back-up, but as raw material for future assignments. Submitting WorkFormatUse proper manuscript, not e-mail, form. For example, indent paragraphs, don't merely skip a space between each one. Don't use shorthands or abbreviations that you might when "instant messaging." This is a writing class, and all assignments should be submitted professionally. Keep a copy of all drafts. Don't delete early drafts. You will be required to look at these later to gauge your progess. An easy way to do this is to simply save your drafts as version 1, version 2, version 3, and so on. If you are using Microsoft Word, you can also use the "Track Changes" option under Tools. Submitting assignmentsYou will send your assignments to be graded by clicking a "Submit" button (at the bottom of each lesson) that opens a pre-addressed e-mail to me and the Self-paced Courses office. Send your assignments as attachments. The subject line will be partially filled in for you, but you will need to add your name at the end. Submit each lesson's assignments via e-mail as a single Microsoft Word attachment. Use a filename that includes your name, such as "lesson3-Smith.doc." Make sure you have scanned your file for viruses before you submit it. Identify each assignment you send in by number—you do not need to rewrite the question. On Being CritiquedMany students begin this course apprehensive about the critiquing process. They send their writing off as if it is a fragile porcelain teapot, hoping for it to be examined and admired—or perhaps terrified that it will be scrutinized with a magnifying glass for flaws! Better to think of your writing as raw clay, always malleable, until the moment it is "fired in the kiln," or published. That way, should your instructor say to you, "Well, you know, it's a fine teapot, but wouldn't it make a better sugar bowl?" you have left the option open to tear off the spout and turn it into another handle, if the suggestion seems appealing. After yet another look, you may decide to turn it back into a teapot, or into something else altogether. There are very few "wrongs" in fiction writing, but there are practices that aren't effective or are too common. Many of these are brought about by years of training in expository writing, by reading mediocre commercial fiction, or by watching too many "formula" programs on TV. Your instructor has experience working with novice as well as published writers, and can help you develop the unique writing strengths you already possess. Remember, the instructor is critiquing the work, not the author; the writing on the page, not what is in your head. Your instructor's goal is to help you produce a work of fiction that is publishable. GradingYour final grade will be based on the effort you put in, as evidenced by the depth and complexity of your written analyses, and the improvement of your writing from the first lesson through the last. Honor CodeYou are bound by the Honor Code: "It shall be the responsibility of every student to obey and support the enforcement of the Honor Code, which prohibits lying, cheating, or stealing when these actions involve academic processes or University students or academic personnel acting in an official capacity." Lessons and ReadingsFor every lesson there will be writing assignments, reading assignments, and journal assignments. Listed below are the reading assignments for each lesson. For every story you read you are expected to visit The Norton Anthology of American Literature Web site and read any information that site has on the writer.
Lesson 1Course author: Richard Krawiec © University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill |
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