Whether your goal is to write the next big thing in fantasy, or a captivating essay that only a handful of college admissions officers will read, we got you. In this course, you will read (and watch and listen) across genres: fiction and creative nonfiction, prose and poetry and script, exploring various approaches to how best to get the tale told, whether it’s yours or something you can only imagine. You will complete a series of quick writing assignments: honing your voice, creating vivid moments, characters, and language. Whatever your chosen medium or genre, the simple goal is to become a coherent, compelling storyteller. Because everyone loves a good story, and absolutely everyone has a story to tell.
Each session will begin with a focused lecture from the instructor on the day’s topic: personal essays, novels, poetry, scripts, etc. Along with short between-session readings you will do on your own, we will read topical pieces aloud, view segments from film and television, listen to sung and spoken word. We will discuss as a group what we’ve read/seen/heard as works of creative writing: not just whether we like (or dislike) them, but why? What has the writer achieved (or not) through subject, language, form, etc. to compel, entertain, illuminate? In the second week, we will workshop everyone’s pieces, offering guided insights into what is appealing and works well, and what might benefit from revision.
No creative writing experience is necessary for this course. You don’t have to be able to distinguish an epistle from a sonnet. But when we’re done, you will be able to write a sonnet (promise!). An epistolary sonnet, perhaps. It’s easier than you think.
