Kashyap, Aruni
M 9:10 AM
Park Hall 67
Advanced Creative Writing: Fiction
How to Write an Unputdownable Story
This course is for fiction writers who have successfully completed English 3800 (Introduction to Creative Writing). But this is not a mandatory pre-requisite if you have taken writing and reading intensive classes before or have attended creative writing classes.
This course will teach you the basic elements of fiction writing, such as how to use suspense, how to create believable characters, what are the different ways you can deepen the setting, how to write realistic dialogue and hold the attention of your reader, and in general, how to write compelling fiction that your reader can't stop reading. In other words, how to write unputdownable fiction.
So how will we achieve this? We will read a wide range of short stories and novel excerpts during the class. They are written by established as well as debut writers but what's common among them is this: they create vivid worlds and write compelling stories that you can't stop reading. To learn the elements of storytelling, we will also watch movies and read excerpts from screenplays and try to understand what makes a story work.
You will write one short story, and receive feedback from your peers and me on it. You will also respond to a short weekly prompt to hone your narrative skills. They are usually fun and thought-provoking and geared to generate material as well as to get you into the habit of writing regularly. The tools you will learn in this class will help you take those drafts to the next level even after you leave the class. What you learn in this class doesn’t end here but is rather a glimpse of what you should do as a writer.