Creative Writing II Schedule, Spring 2008

Installment #1

Last updated: Jan. 8

 

Following each date below are reading or other assignments due for that day. In parentheses are tentative activities and topics for the class period. If you miss a meeting, you should 1) get full notes and updates from several classmates; and 2) check with me again if you have specific, informed questions. Because this schedule is very flexible and subject to change, and because it's a workshop course, it's vital that you attend regularly and keep up with current announcements. Be sure as well to check your email and this online schedule regularly for changes and updates.

Week 1, Jan. 8/9 —(Introduction to course. CW and art in culture (the rhetorical dimension). Purposes of, audiences for, kinds of "creative writing." "Art Views." Pecker, 1 hr. 26 min.

Week 2, Jan. 15/16 —MEET IN IACC 116 THIS WEEK!

By class time, do the following:

  1. Post a self-profile in our Blackboard Discussion Board ("Student Profiles").

  2. Read our Homepage, look over this schedule, and browse around Skittish Libations.

  3. Print out and read "Cathedral." Bring to class.

  4. Read "Sonny's Blues" (handout). This story is also available in BB "Course Documents."

  5. Read Fiction Project.

  6. Read Workshop.

  7. Check your email and/or the Blackboard Discussion Board "Workshop" Forum for anything your classmates may have submitted for discussion this week. (Be sure to read that material carefully before class.)

(Weekly food assignment? Continue discussion of arts, creative process, and Pecker. Offensiveness and censureship; questions about art and morality, art and beauty. Look at two short stories. Character and plot. Discuss Fiction Project #1. Workshop procedures. Video segment from Hollywood Shuffle prior to first workshop session.)

Week 3, Jan. 22/23—BACK IN MORRILL!

By class time:

(Review art perspectives, story plotting. Character and scene/plot exercises for Fiction Project #1. Snow snack? Workshop.)

Week 4, Jan. 29/30 —IN IACC 116 ONCE AGAIN

Print out and read "How to Tell a True War Story." Also read "How to Talk with Your Mother" (handout).

Bring $5 bill to class!

(Sketches and previous in-class work for Blackboard. Review alternative plot structures and discuss stories. To Tell the Truth exercise. Workshop. Examine style sheet handout. )

Week 5, Feb.5/6 —Read and print out flash fiction samples (you only need to print out the authors with an * by their names—but read all of them).

WED. CLASS will NOT meet this week. See email for full info.

TUES. CLASS WILL meet this week.

(Brevity and the micro-story. Workshop.)

Week 6, Feb. 12/13—No readings this week. We'll catch up on any and all previous readings. Use this time to WRITE!

(Discuss formula fiction option for Fiction Projects. Workshop and other.)

Week 7, Feb. 19/20 —Read "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" and "The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World."

Optional: read additional Márquez stories.

(Discuss magical realism. Workshop and other.)

Week 8, Feb. 26/27 —Drafts of Fiction Project due.

TUES. CLASS will only meet to do critiques of fiction project drafts. Find the forum in Blackboard "Discussion Board" for instructions.

WED. CLASS WILL meet this week.

(FINALLY finish truth-telling contest. Written critiques of projects. Writer's Link exercise and report: post in Blackboard Discussion Board "Notepad." Workshop.)

March 4/5—SPRING BREAK

Week 9, March 11/12 — Begin work with poetry. Completed Fiction Project due.

Week 10, March 18/19—Completed Fiction Project Due. Bring hardcopy, stapled, with any hardcopy critiques attached. Study Poetry and Form before class time.

Tues. Class: visit (talk and reading) by David Martinson. Click here for additional information and instructions.

Wed. Class: before class, read selected poems TBA. Form in poetry. Workshop.

 

 

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