ENGL 283-01 – Intro to Fiction Writing

Instructor: Prof. Phil Sandick

Meeting Schedule: TTh 11am – 12:15pm

Meeting Location: ICC 113

Section Description:

In this course, we will produce compelling fiction and study how fiction works. We’ll look at published fiction, analyze the strategies that writers employ, and use these works as models for developing our own fiction. We’ll read and discuss our own short stories, and those of emerging/established writers from the pages of small literary journals and magazines. Some readings will be paired with craft talks, interviews, or critical pieces that ask: What does contemporary fiction look like? What might it become? We’ll use the full-class workshop format, but also incorporate other methods of response and dialogue. In addition to producing two short stories for workshopping, we will produce a series of lower-stake assignments, such as imitations, storyboards for adapting fiction to film, book reviews, and responding to readings on campus or in the DC area. Students enrolled in the Creative Writing minor will develop a portfolio of revised fiction as well as an artist’s letter describing your writing process and how your work might grow from here. By special work arrangements with the instructor, this course can count as an advanced genre course for the Creative Writing minor.