English 3200-1HW: Intermediate Creative Writing, Honors
Fiction
Dr. Margaret E. Mitchell
Fall 2008 MW 12:30-1:45 TLC 1204
Office: TLC 2235
Email: mmitchel@westga.edu
Website: http: //www.westga.edu/~mmitchel
Phone: 678.839.4852
Office Hours: MW 10-12; T 1-4; by appt.
**To find stories posted for workshops, scroll down to the schedule....**
Class Description:
This class will provide an intermediate level immersion in the writing of fiction, seeking a balance between the imagination and the discipline that are both essential to crafting good stories. Readings in short fiction will improve your familiarity with the contemporary literary landscape, acquaint you with various elements of the craft, and encourage you to situate your own emerging voice among those of other writers. Workshops will allow you to benefit from intense discussions of your own work and that of other students. We will emphasize revision; by the end of the semester you will have produced a polished portfolio of short fiction.
Course Texts
Making Shapely Fiction , Jerome Stern.
The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. Ed. Richard Bausch and R.V. Cassill.
Twenty Grand and Other Tales of Love and Money. Rebecca Curtis.
Jesus’ Son. Denis Johnson.
Requirements:
If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot. There’s no way around these two things that I’m aware of, no shortcut.
Stephen King, On Writing
Whatever you think of Stephen King (I, personally, confess to a lifelong weakness for his work), you have to agree that he is a master of getting words onto the page. Taking his advice seriously, then, we will devote our time this semester to both writing and reading. You will read a number of stories from the Norton, emphasizing recent fiction but also paying attention to some early examples of the genre that still have much to teach. You’ll also read two collections of short stories by single authors, one by Denis Johnson and one by a great emerging writer, Rebecca Curtis. Weekly readings from Jerome Stern’s useful and very readable Making Shapely Fiction will introduce elements of craft and often provide a framework for writing exercises.
In addition to these frequent, relatively structured exercises, you’ll also turn in two 5-page short stories and one 10-page story in the course of the semester. (I’ll provide you with guidelines for these assignments as they approach.) You’ll work on revising these stories throughout the semester, turning them in for fresh feedback and evaluation as often as you like, and eventually they will make up your portfolio.
I’d also like you to keep a journal—not a diary, but a writer’s journal. Here’s what Rebecca Curtis has to say about why this is so important:
But the best stuff I've done is the stuff I didn't really intend to be anything 'important'. John Gardner, I think, in the Art of Fiction, or something, has a suggestion to write nonsense, or top-of-the-head stuff, in a journal for twenty minutes every day. This was the best suggestion I ever got. It's like how athletes need to stretch, or musicians to practice scales, maybe. The writer is just writing whatever comes to their head, a list of things they're angry about, a dream they had, a ridiculous poem, for twenty minutes without stopping, and without the expectation that anything 'worthwhile' will come out of it, and nothing usually does; but this process helps the writer immensely, or at least it helps me. It frees me up.
(http://www.sunspinner.org/issue-spring06/feature-curtis-01.html)
You won’t have to write every day, although you certainly may; but I would like to see at least 2 twenty-minute entries a week. Acquire a notebook that you will use purely for this purpose (separate from your class notebook) and bring it with you everywhere. Date your entries: I’ll collect these once around mid-semester to check your progress, and again at the end of the semester. They will be evaluated on the basis of regularity and obvious effort. In other words, although what you write in your journal may very well be playful—and maybe it should be, in order to have the liberating effect Curtis describes—it is, nevertheless, something you should take quite seriously. Serious play.
On the schedule below, you’ll see that I have not listed specific reading assignments. That’s because I want to get a sense of your work and your interests before choosing specific stories. In that sense, our reading will grow out of the class itself, in response to your needs and your wishes. I’ll fill those in as the semester progresses.
On workshop days you’ll be expected to read your classmates’ stories in advance (I’ll make them available to you electronically, as a rule) and come to class prepared to discuss them seriously and respectfully. You’ll write a one-page response to each story (more details on this will be provided separately), and you’ll bring two copies to class—one for me, one for the author. (This means that when your stories are workshopped, you’ll receive a one page response from every student in the class.)
Grade Breakdown:
20% -- Participation (includes participation in discussions, workshops, writing exercises, journal). If quizzes become necessary, they will count here.
20% --Formal responses to student work
20% -- Drafts of Stories
40% -- Portfolios
Poems and short stories will be graded on a “check system” as you write them. Checks should serve as progress markers, and do not “equal” grades in that checks are not static like grades: you have a chance to improve your checks with each revision, and you may revise as many times as you like. Only checks on final portfolio drafts translate into grades.
Minus: Technically incomplete (did not meet requirements of assignment)
CheckMinus: Technically complete, but minimally so: clearly undeveloped
Check: Meets requirements of assignment, shows understanding of basic concepts
CheckPlus: Well developed, successful execution on multiple levels, effort is obvious
Plus: Superior; usually reserved for revisions
Because of the nature of the course, grades are not necessarily as precise or as set in stone as they often are in other classes. Much depends on your efforts to meet the requirement of each assignment—the seriousness of your effort. If you ever have concerns about where you stand in the class, or how to interpret the various forms of feedback you will receive in the course of the semester, please come to see me; I’ll be happy to talk to you about your work and your grades.
Policies
◊Please come to class on time. If you are late three times it will count as an absence; lateness may also affect your ability to complete in-class assignments within the amount of time allowed. Please turn off cell phones and other potential sources of electronic disturbance before you enter class and remove them from your desk or your person. If such a device does go off during class, I will mark you late.
◊ Make sure that you bring to class any texts under discussion.
◊ This is a small class. Small classes are rare, these days: you are lucky. But it won’t work unless we’re all here, and all prepared. You will not be permitted to make up in-class work unless we have made arrangements in advance. You may not turn assignments in late, unless I grant you an extension. If you miss more than three classes, your grade is likely to suffer, based on work you have missed and your failure to participate. If you do miss class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed and arrange to obtain relevant readings or assignments. If you miss 6 classes (the equivalent of 3 full weeks of class, in other words), you are very unlikely to pass. (If you have truly extraordinary circumstances documented by the university, you should look into obtaining a hardship withdrawal.)
◊ Student Writing: Everything you turn in as a formal assignment MUST be typewritten in a standard font. If your story or poem is being critiqued, you are responsible for emailing it to me in advance (I will specify a day and time) so that I can distribute it to your classmates. It is also the responsibility of each of you to download, print, and read workshop stories well in advance of class. You should come to class with your copy of the student work marked up and your written response printed out. Keep ALL of your written work in a folder for your portfolio.
◊ I check my email regularly; this is always a good way to contact me. University policy dictates that we correspond via your westga email account rather than any email accounts you might have. Make sure to use your My Westga account when you write to me.
◊I expect you to preserve an atmosphere of courtesy, respect, and intellectual maturity in the classroom, to take your own work and that of the other students seriously. We will critique everyone’s writing at some point during the semester. When making suggestions or critiques, remember that the comments should be helpful. I would never want you to hold back any sincere criticism that you wish to make; workshops won’t be effective if everyone is overly cautious in their comments. But remember your purpose in making any critiques: to lend help to your classmates. And don’t be afraid to emphasize what you LIKE about someone’s work as well. The success of this class absolutely depends upon this.
◊If you have special needs of which I should be aware, please meet with me as soon as possible to discuss satisfactory arrangements.
Academic Honesty:
Presenting the language or ideas of someone else as your own constitutes plagiarism--whether your source is a friend, a relative, or a critic; whether the uncredited material is a phrase, an idea, or an entire poem or story. Plagiarism will result in a failing grade for the class, and may have consequences at the university level.
This schedule of readings is designed to be flexible, and I reserve the right to make changes as the semester goes on, should it seem like a good idea….
Week 1
Mon Aug 18 Introduction. Margaret Atwood’s “Happy Endings.”
Wed Aug 20 Making Shapely Fiction to p. 32: some basic story structures. Writing exercise.
Week 2
Mon Aug 25 “Witness,” Madison Smartt Bell (116).
Wed Aug 27 MSF to p. 76: more story structures, what you know, what NOT to do. Writing exercise.
Week 3
Mon Sept 1 Labor Day—No Class
Wed Sept 3 Five page story due. Looking Backward: “The Story of an Hour,” Kate Chopin (297); “The Lottery,” Shirley Jackson; Ernest Hemingway, “Hills Like White Elephants.”
Week 4
(1 page response to each story; 2 copies of each.) (MFS, 79-126: techniques and strategies)
Wed Sept 10 Workshop. (1page response to each story; 2 copies. (MFS, 127-151: more techniques and useful terms).
Week 5
Mon Sept 15 Workshop. Rebecca Curtis’s Twenty Grand.
Wed Sept 17 Twenty Grand, continued.
Week 6
Mon Sept 22 MFS 152-206: plot, point of view, & other things you can’t do without. Twenty Grand, cont’d.
For Wed.: Come up with a familiar expression—along the lines of “the wolf at the door”—and sketch out the beginning of a story that would produce its meaning through literalizing that phrase in surprising (and not necessarily strictly realistic) ways. 1 or 2 pages, at least. You don’t need to come to a conclusion; your emphasis should be on setting up this concept, exploring its possibilities.
Wed Sept 24 Stories tba. Revision #1 due.
For Mon.: Compose opening pages (at least 2) of your own “lottery” spin-off. Think about what you want it to say—what sort of commentary you want it to offer—but make sure this is revealed as subtly as possible in the story. Avoid hittin gus (sic) on the head.
Week 7
Mon Sept 29 MFS 206-255 (showing and telling, style, structure, etc.). Writing exercise.
Wed Oct 1 Raymond Carver's "Cathedral" (206); Edwige Danticat's "A Wall of Fire Rising" (417).
Week 8
Mon Oct 6 5 page story #2 due. You may expand (revising or rewriting or reconceptualizing as extravagantly as you like—you can even start over entirely) either your “Wolf at the Door” metaphor into narrative story, your "Lottery" spin-off story, or the "faraway" story you just worked on in Wednesday's class. (If you weren't in class and are curious about this option, let me know.)
Wed Oct 8 Individual conferences. No class.
[Oct. 9-10: fall break]
Week 9
Mon Oct 13 Workshop.
Wed Oct 15 Workshop.
Week 10
Mon Oct 20 Start reading Denis Johnson’s Jesus’ Son.
Workshop
Wed Oct 22 Jesus’ Son. Writing exercise.
Week 11
Mon Oct 27 Jesus’ Son. Second revision due.
Wed Oct 29 Reading tba. Writing exercise: getting ready to write a longer story.
For Monday:
1. Read Joyce Carol Oates's "How I Contemplated the World..." (1176).
2. Spend 10 or 15 minutes writing in the voice of a character that might figure in your 10-page story. (Review your story ideas and settle on a character who seems particular vibrant--the one most willing to "speak").
3. Choose one of the short essays from the "Writers On Writing" section of the anthology (it begins on p. 1619). Be prepared to talk briefly to the class about it--articulate the writer's main points and offer your own thoughts in response.
Week 12
Mon Nov 3 See above.
Wed Nov 5 First 5 pages of long story due. Informal workshop.
Week 13
Mon Nov 10
Wed Nov 12 Draft of 10-page story. Informal workshop: approaching a major revision.
Week 14
Mon Nov17 10-page stories due.
Wed Nov 19 Workshop.
Week 15
Mon Nov 24 Workshop.
Thanksgiving....
Week 16
Mon Dec 1 Workshop.
Wed Dec 3 Conclusion….Submit journals.
Dec. 10 Portfolios due.
Portfolios, due Dec. 10: use a folder. Place clean copies of your final, most polished version of stories 1, 2, and 3 on the right hand side. Add to this any other stories or fragments you’ve revised this semester and want me to consider along with your formal assignments—anything, in other words, that you think represents your best work. Stories should be paper-clipped or stapled. In the folder’s left pocket, please include all drafts of all stories, as well as informal assignments of which you still have copies. Please make sure your name is visible on the front of the folder.
--You may certainly submit your portfolio earlier than the deadline. But you must submit it (to me in my office, or in the wall pocket outside my office if I’m not there) by 4:00 on Wed. December 10th.
Course Goals
Program Goals