English 201------Writing Fiction------James Plath

Class: T-TH  9:25-10:40, SFH 208

Instructor's Office: English House 104

Hours: T-TH 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and by appointment

Phone: 556-3352

E-Mail/Website: jplath@iwu.edu; http://sun.iwu.edu/~jplath/

Texts: An Introduction to Fiction, Tenth Edition, ed. by X.J. Kennedy & Dana Gioia, literary links and instructor handouts.

Suggested Reading for Independent Study

Course Objectives: This is not a hobby course, schedule filler, or easy grade. This is the basic nuts-and-bolts course on writing fiction for students serious about their writing. Students will be expected to approach the writing of fiction in workmanlike fashion, with the goal of learning characteristics and techniques, as well as formal and stylistic options. Yet, there must be freedom to experiment and fail. Writers must be readers, and each week students will be expected to read and discuss the week's reading and other elected reading. Perhaps the toughest expectation: despite taking the craft of writing seriously, students must learn to relax and enjoy the act of literary creation.

Course Requirements:

• Attendance is mandatory. More than 2 unexcused absences affects grade.
• The class will partially operate on a workshop basis, meaning that students will be responsible for reading and critiquing works-in-progress by their peers.
• All writing assignments MUST be completed for students to receive a grade for the course. Assignments are due at the beginning of class. When a student is scheduled for workshop, barring disaster, a serious draft must be presented, with copies provided for all. Hard copies must be handed out the previous class period; electronic copies must be sent two days prior to workshopping. Written assignments will be penalized one grade for every class period they are late.
• All stories must be typed, double-spaced, with standard margins and in standard format (to be shown in class). Most students will use computers, but please be sure the printout is dark and readable, and please staple your papers and indicate which assignment it is. Use standard margins, double-spaced, in 12pt. Times.
• Two individual conferences required, more suggested.
• Students are encouraged to form a literary community that extends beyond the classroom, and to attend any/all of the readings and literary events in the Bloomington-Normal area.
• Since class will sometimes be held in more "writerly" locations than a seminar room, often with one class period's notice, students who miss class are responsible for phoning the instructor or classmates to find out where the class is meeting next time.
  

Grades will be determined on the following basis:

• 75 percent--Final Portfolio of at least 24pp and no more than 50pp
• 25 percent--Exercises and class participation

Tentative Schedule:

NOTE: You will  receive a writing "prompt" just about every class period that will help you generate fiction of your own. Those prompts may lead to a story, or you can write independently of the prompts. Due dates for all short story drafts and final versions will be announced IN CLASS, based on the pace at which the class seems comfortable working. You are responsible for learning those dates and meeting those deadlines, even if it was announced when you were not in class.

Aug 29--Taking inventory; where ideas come from; setting standards. In-class handouts.

Aug 31--Read (and be prepared to discuss) "Story of an Hour" (Kate Chopin) and "Girl" (Jamaica Kincaid). Follow-up on inventory exercises.

Sept 5--Stories vs. narratives. Read "Everyday Use" (Alice Walker) and be prepared to discuss.

Sept 7--Openings: Read ALL openings (the first two pages) from stories in the text and be prepared to discuss your top five and worst five picks.

Sept 12--Combining "facts" and fiction. Read "Cathedral" (Raymond Carver)--For the curious and insatiable, access two Carver interviews published in Clockwatch Review and CarverWeb.

Sept 14--Character: Read "The Yellow Wallpaper" (Charlotte Perkins Gilman)

Sept 19--Character: Read "The Chrysanthemums" (John Steinbeck)

Sept 21--Point of view: Read "Sonny's Blues" (James Baldwin); DUE: 6 pp. (minimum) short fiction

Sept 26--Point of view: Read "I Stand Here Ironing" (Tillie Olsen)

Sept 28--Dialogue: Read "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" (Ernest Hemingway). For the curious and insatiable, access Ernest Hemingway & F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Oct 3--Coffee-house class (groups meet on own; individual conferences)

Oct 5--Plotting (linear design) Read "A&P" (John Updike) and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" ( Flannery O'Connor); DUE: 6 pp. (minimum) short fiction

Oct 10--Coffee-house class (groups meet on own; individual conferences)

Oct 12--Plotting (modular design): Read "The Things They Carried" (Tim O'Brien)

Oct 17--Workshop (Carson, Paula)

Oct 24--Settings and description: Read "Shiloh" (Bobbie Ann Mason)

Oct 26--Workshop (Khayla, Megan)

Oct 31--Workshop (Tux); setting and description: Read "The Handsomest Drowned Man" (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)

Nov 2--Workshop; DUE: 6 pp. (minimum) short fiction

Nov 7--Mood and atmosphere: Read "The Five Forty-Eight" (John Cheever)

Nov 9--Workshop (Carson); mood and atmosphere: Read "A Rose for Emily" (William Faulkner)

Nov 14--Workshop (Paula, Hailey)

Nov 16--Workshop (Charlie, Khayla); DUE: 6 pp. (minimum) short fiction)

Nov 21--Workshop (Megan, Tux): individual conferences

THANKSGIVING RECESS

Nov 28--Rewriting strategies

Nov 30--Putting together a portfolio/manuscript

Dec 5--Getting pubished

Dec 7--Group feedback

Final Exam (Wednesday, Dec 13, 8:30-10 a.m.):  READING/PERFORMANCE