English: Intro to Creative Writing

Introductory course on techniques of writing poetry, short prose fiction, and creative nonfiction. Classes organized around discussion of student work; weekly writing assignments.

Open to Degree and PACE students

This course focuses on experimentation, imitation, and exploration in the art and craft of creative writing. Here, you’ll read with a keen writer’s eye and spawn original pieces of your own—works in four genres: creative nonfiction, fiction, playwriting, and poetry. Introduction to Creative Writing is student-driven in its spotlight on paying attention and asking questions, on making choices and connections—and in its emphasis on risk-taking and vulnerability. Throughout these rigorous, hope-driven fifteen weeks of learning within a writing community, you will be you will be asked to dabble—to “try on”—to play by drafting works in four genres and to produce, in the end, final drafts in two of your chosen forms. From the beginning, you will explore the relationship between the human self and the mysteries of inspiration to excavate the multitude of undiscovered stories within. You will learn the science-based whys behind resistance and ways to overcome these blocks to win your inner creative battles. To expand exposure and that essential creative component of surprise, you and your newfound fellow creative writers will also be given the opportunity to BYO-inspiring examples of essays, short stories, plays, and poems to share. Companion motivational and craft-based readings from The Creative Act: A Way of Being,, Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer, How to Tell a Story, The Essential Guide to Memorable Storytelling from The Moth, and Poetry Unbound present options as well—a kind of design-your-own writing adventure by plucking the “Daily Warm-ups” and other creative exercises that work best for you as you generate inventive pieces of writing. This creative writing course emphasizes process over finished product—yes, the journey over the destination—and honors the doing (the essai in French means “to try” or “attempt”) over being done (that’s for cakes). You will seek messes over perfection as you tackle prompts to spur thinking and inspire words. And you’ll come to appreciate the magic of revision and importance of feedback through peer interaction (in small groups) and one-on-one professor conferences (face-to-face and/or via MS Teams). Throughout this semester, amidst a community of creative souls, you’ll feel challenged to heighten your imagination, deepen your thinking, and expand your personal lexicon through diction and syntax. In the art and act of creating, you’ll discover the critical role of reading—modeling and imitating—while discerning purpose, audience, and point of view. Through your own creative writing endeavors, you’ll discover an innate passion for craft as well as attain confidence in your ongoing potential as a writer. Most essential to this course, to writing—and life itself: Trust the process.

In this reading- and writing-intensive course, you will (note all these verbs!): • Explore and immerse yourself in multiple genres of writing—as both reader and writer • Read—a lot—closely and critically, as a writer, for discernment, imitation, and variation • Play with varied and inventive rhetorical devices to discover the power of language • Ponder the integral connection between purpose, audience, and point of view • Discover the essence of your own passion for the craft of writing • Expand, improve, and refine your writing skills and mechanics • Experiment in multiple forms to make meaning of the universe • Realize the power and necessity of revision—and surprise! • Hone editorial skills in exchanging valuable feedback with peer writers • Master invention and revision at all stages of the writing process • Synthesize approaches to writing so that each nourishes the other • Attain confidence in your ongoing potential as a creative writer

Class presence and participation, includes Peer Group Workshops: 30% Four Genre Writing Project “Attempts” (Creative Nonfiction, Fiction, Playwriting, and Poetry), including process (“Thinking Pages” and “Second drafts”): 20% Midterm Portfolio, including Two Drafts and “Best Of” Writer’s Notebook entries: 10% Final Writing Portfolio, including process pieces and two Final Drafts (choice of genre): 15% Writer’s Notebook (sharing reading responses, freewrites, and “Daily Warm-ups”): 10% Student-led Craft Discussion: 10% Final Creative Course Reflection (your final exam): 5%