Fiction Writing

Fiction Writing: Eng 305/602
Dr. Gerlach
Office: Rhodes Tower 1810.
Office hours: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11-11:50; Monday 5-6.
Phone: 216-687-3973. On days when I'm not on campus I try to check my messages in the late afternoon.

Texts: Antonya Nelson, Family Terrorists

Rick Bass, The Watch

Robin Hemley, Turning Life into Fiction

Then choose one other:

Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird or

Anne Bernays & Pamela Painter, What If

What kind of writing will we do?
This is a course in fiction writing. You won't be writing poetry, plays, or screenplays. You could possibly work on a memoir (Hemley discusses t hat), because the line between fiction and memoir is hard to draw. I expect most of you to work on mainstream short stories, but you are permitted to work in genres (science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, horror, romance, children's stories), and you are permitted to concentrate on a couple chapters from a novel.

How much writing will we do?
You must draft and revise a story of at least ten pages (more if you've chosen to do part of a novel). You will write quite a bit more than that, actually, given false starts, assigned exercises, critiques of other's work, journals. Beyond the revised story, much of the work you do is left up to you.

When will we turn in work?
You will owe me a work report every two weeks. See the description of a work report on page 3. You may also turn in work anytime if you want feedback before the next work report.

How will we be graded?
You will be graded on the revised story (50%) and on your effort (50%). Effort includes such items as exercises, critiques, journals, false starts, attendance, classroom participation, doing work on time. You won't receive a letter grade until the end of the course, but you will receive comments, and I will give you a short evaluation and a grade in progress before the drop deadline. I will also meet with you around then to establish a contract for the kind and amount of work you will do to complete the course.

What kinds of thing will we do during class?

study writers' techniques (Nelson, Bass)

work in small groups on student stories or exercises

have whole class workshops on student stories

have individual conferences with the instructor

present individual assigned exercises

What's the difference between taking the course as a graduate or undergraduate?
Most cross-listed courses make distinctions in terms of additional workload--an additional term paper, for instance. For creative writing, I'm not sure that works. In general I expect graduate students to be more self-directed, to be more willing to take on leadership roles, to produce more advanced work. When we move to small-group work, graduate students will form their own group or groups, and may wish to establish small groups of their own beyond regular class meetings.

Can I use material I've written for another creative course?
Only if you telling me you're doing that, and only if you are revising that material. I will need to see a copy of work done before revision.

Does my work have to be polished, you know, all that crap about spelling words right and where the commas go?
I can be reasonably tolerant about drafts, but you sure in hell better polish revised work. Hey, you're a writer! Obviously you can punctuate creatively, but do so consistently and with a purpose.

I don't really want to be a writer, but I'd like to try my hand at writing, and I'd like to learn about seeing a story through the eyes of a writer. Is there a place for me in this course?
Yes. You still have to write the ten page story, but other assignments can be tailored to your needs.

Do I have to provide copies of my work for the workshops?
Yes, you do. That's part of your effort. Here's one case where you can single-space work, to cut your costs.

What's a Work Report?

A work report is collection of the work you've done for the last two weeks. It could include starts on stories, exercises we've done in class, exercises you done on your own, comments on your reading the one of the craft books, work you've presented to class, journals or extracts from journals.

A work report must start with a cover sheet, and the cover sheet must indicate what kind of work is included. The individual items must be clearly marked (whether something is a revision, whether it's a fragment, whether it's just a sketch or summary, etc.)

The cover sheet should identify one item that you particularly want feedback on, and possibly even what you're curious to know about it. I'm not going to comment on everything I see in the work report.

Save the work reports, and submit them all together at the end of the course

You can use a three ring notebook to collect them, but don't give me the work reports in bulky formats; it's okay to use the whole notebook for the final submission. In general the best way to submit a work report is to put it in a folder; sheets clipped together are okay, too.

Some work may be handwritten (including the cover sheet), but otherwise my eyes sure do like typed work! Double spaced!

What kind of writing will we do?
This is a course in fiction writing. You won't be writing poetry, plays, or screenplays. You could possibly work on a memoir (Hemley discusses t hat), because the line between fiction and memoir is hard to draw. I expect most of you to work on mainstream short stories, but you are permitted to work in genres (science fiction, fantasy, thrillers, horror, romance, children's stories), and you are permitted to concentrate on a couple chapters from a novel.

How much writing will we do?
You must draft and revise a story of at least ten pages (more if you've chosen to do part of a novel). You will write quite a bit more than that, actually, given false starts, assigned exercises, critiques of other's work, journals. Beyond the revised story, much of the work you do is left up to you.

When will we turn in work?
You will owe me a work report every two weeks. See the description of a work report on page 3. You may also turn in work anytime if you want feedback before the next work report.

How will we be graded?
You will be graded on the revised story (50%) and on your effort (50%). Effort includes such items as exercises, critiques, journals, false starts, attendance, classroom participation, doing work on time. You won't receive a letter grade until the end of the course, but you will receive comments, and I will give you a short evaluation and a grade in progress before the drop deadline. I will also meet with you around then to establish a contract for the kind and amount of work you will do to complete the course.

What kinds of thing will we do during class?
study writers' techniques (Nelson, Bass) work in small groups on student stories or exercises have whole class workshops on student stories have individual conferences with the instructor present individual assigned exercises

What's the difference between taking the course as a graduate or undergraduate?
Most cross-listed courses make distinctions in terms of additional workload--an additional term paper, for instance. For creative writing, I'm not sure that works. In general I expect graduate students to be more self-directed, to be more willing to take on leadership roles, to produce more advanced work. When we move to small-group work, graduate students will form their own group or groups, and may wish to establish small groups of their own beyond regular class meetings.

Can I use material I've written for another creative course?
Only if you telling me you're doing that, and only if you are revising that material. I will need to see a copy of work done before revision.

Does my work have to be polished, you know, all that crap about spelling words right and where the commas go?
I can be reasonably tolerant about drafts, but you sure in hell better polish revised work. Hey, you're a writer! Obviously you can punctuate creatively, but do so consistently and with a purpose.

I don't really want to be a writer, but I'd like to try my hand at writing, and I'd like to learn about seeing a story through the eyes of a writer. Is there a place for me in this course?
Yes. You still have to write the ten page story, but other assignments can be tailored to your needs.

Do I have to provide copies of my work for the workshops?
Yes, you do. That's part of your effort. Here's one case where you can single-space work, to cut your costs.

What's a Work Report?
A work report is collection of the work you've done for the last two weeks. It could include starts on stories, exercises we've done in class, exercises you done on your own, comments on your reading the one of the craft books, work you've presented to class, journals or extracts from journals. A work report must start with a cover sheet, and the cover sheet must indicate what kind of work is included. The individual items must be clearly marked (whether something is a revision, whether it's a fragment, whether it's just a sketch or summary, etc.) The cover sheet should identify one item that you particularly want feedback on, and possibly even what you're curious to know about it. I'm not going to comment on everything I see in the work report. Save the work reports, and submit them all together at the end of the course You can use a three ring notebook to collect them, but don't give me the work reports in bulky formats; it's okay to use the whole notebook for the final submission. In general the best way to submit a work report is to put it in a folder; sheets clipped together are okay, too. Some work may be handwritten (including the cover sheet), but otherwise my eyes sure do like typed work! Double spaced!

Schedule (Version I)

I'm trying to keep the schedule flexible at this point, so that I can design future assignments best suited to your needs. In general the earlier part of the semester will focus on generating material for stories, and the later part of the semester will focus on developing and shaping this material into a complete story.

Aug 31 Discussion of the Hemley, Lamott, and Bernays/Painter books; questionnaire to take home; writing careers; writing daily; stories I've written; getting acquainted: major, job, public secret about you family. We'll stop at 7pm. Bookstore stays open until 8pm.

Sept 2 Read "Journals" pp. 9-34 in Hemley, and do one of the five exercises on pp. 32-34. Bring the exercise to class--we'll talk about it (you don't need to make copies). Bring your copy of Nelson's Family Terrorists. Fill out the questionnaire from the first day, and bring it in. Prepare an exercise we'll do in class: comment on two very brief things that you have done in your life--one of them true, one of them a lie. Someone in the class will have to guess which is true, which is a lie.

Sept 7 Holiday

Sept 9 From Family Terrorists: read "Loaded Gun"; small group work: read Hemley, 35-52 and do three exercises: choose #1-2 or #3-4, then everybody does #5--bring four copies of this exercise for your small group; distribution of work for Sept 14 (I'll explain)

Sept 14 Possible older work for whole class workshop; First work report due.

[Filed as 602syl at home, courses]

Texts:	Antonya Nelson, Family Terrorists
	Rick Bass, The Watch
	Robin Hemley, Turning Life into Fiction
	Then choose one other:
	Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird or
	Anne Bernays & Pamela Painter, What If