ENGL 201-01, Introduction to Fiction Writing, Fall 2015

Abstract

This course is designed to develop individual fiction writing skills, emphasizing process and elements of craft rather than product. In this course, we will practice the craft of fiction while also thinking about the broader significance of literature. This course aims to help students develop critical reading skills so we might read as writers, paying close attention to the text. Writing is risk, revision, and imaginative creation, which is itself a moral act. As such, our goal as a class will be to develop generative ways to describe and analyze literary texts, their elements, and their implications. The literary texts we engage with will allow students to explore how writers achieve certain effects using elements of craft as well as how texts help us to understand ourselves and the world around us. Through the reading of literary texts and through the workshop process, we will practice the craft of reading generously, engaging with an author’s intent, and discussing our responses to texts.