4:40p-6:35p M (15) 3 cr.
REQUIRES PERMISSION OF THE INSTRUCTOR. OBTAIN AUTHORIZATION FROM
BH442.
This is an advanced fiction writing workshop focusing on writing the
short story. While
self-contained novel excerpts are accepted, please bear in mind that
it is difficult to
critique isolated bits and pieces of a longer work. You will write
35-40 pages of
original fiction over the course of the semester, which will include
at least one story of
length (10 pages or more). All work must be written for this class.
You are strongly
encouraged to start writing over the summer, but no recycled work from
other classes, even
if revised, will be accepted. There will also be weekly craft
exercises and a short paper.
Workshops will follow traditional format, and full participation by
all members is crucial.
Everyone will also write 1-page critiques of all the work seen in
workshop, and should be
willing and prepared to give and receive thoughtful constructive
criticism.
We will focus on craft issues, as well as world view and ideology
generated by the stories.
We will also work a lot on language. If you function strictly by the
intuitive model and
believe that you are a vessel through which the Muses speak, this is
not the class for
you.
This class treats writing as the discipline it is, which requires a
commitment on your part
to write daily for at least one hour (this does not include exercises
for class or the
reading of peer manuscripts, etc.). The only way to learn to write is
to write.
Outside readings will include several books with a focus on
contemporary writers who provide
interesting models for us, as well as readings dealing with place,
voice, dialog, narrative
structure, etc. We will discuss these thoroughly in class, examining
particular choices the
writers made and the effects of those choices. While you certainly do
not need to be an
English major to take the class, it is essential that you are a reader
and have more than
just passing familiarity with a range of writers of literary fiction.
John Grisham and
Danielle Steele don’t count.
I do ask students not to submit stories about chained women in
dungeons being ravished by
reptiles, accounts of fraternity parties, “the time I got really drunk
or loaded,” “if my
shoes could talk,” space aliens (particularly as a device to explain a
protagonist’s strange
behavior), “my worst roommate experience,” psycho killers who go
around bumping off the
protagonists, or anything that ends with “And then I woke up. It was
all a dream.”
This is not meant as censorship--it is meant to free you from easy
devices and reliance on
strictly sensational material to learn to really “see” and “hear” the
world around you. You
can write about anything you like, but you must do it well. Writing
is about discovery. Let
yourself be surprised.
Pre-requisite: W103 (or equivalent) and either a W301 fiction workshop
or a W203 fiction
workshop, with a minimum of B in both classes. Familiarity with Janet
Burroway’s Writing
Fiction, Madison Smartt Bell’s Narrative Design, etc..
Application process: Admission to the class is by application and
instructor permission
only. Application materials should be placed in a 9x12 manila
envelope inside my mailbox in
BH 402. Please be sure to mark the envelope for “Alyce Miller, W401
Application.” While I
accept students on an ongoing basis, the class often fills within the
first few weeks of
registration. No one will be admitted after finals week of the spring
semester.
What to include: (1) a short letter describing what writing courses
you’ve already had, who
your instructors were, and what grades you received, as well as
anything you’d like me to
know about your interest in writing and your background (major,
interests, etc., and your
expectations of the advanced workshop). (2) a 20-page writing sample
of your fiction
(preferably one or two stories)—choose whatever you feel happiest
about having written. (3)
your full name, your email address, your mailing address, and your
phone number.
I will post a list of admitted students on my office door, BH 524.