Fundamentals of Fiction

This intensive, immersive course is designed for graduate-credit students with strong writing skills and an interest in becoming fiction writers but little formal experience, students who would like to develop a solid foundation in story and scene structure before embarking on an advanced fiction writing course. The first part of the course focuses on a close analysis of plot and structure in several short stories and novels. Students then apply these techniques and methods to generate and shape their own ideas, build a solid narrative foundation, and use scene structure to craft a dramatic story. Using Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, students explore and learn the fundamentals of character, dialogue, showing versus telling, and point of view.  By the end of the course, students complete a short story or the first chapter of a novel (about 15 to 20 pages of fiction), which is workshopped in class.