Types of Creative Writing (Poetry and Fiction)

ENG 313 TYPES OF CREATIVE WRITING, FALL 2016

This course will introduce you to the fundamentals of writing poetry and short fiction. You will be introduced to the basic elements of these genres—imagery, figurative language, rhyme, cadence, setting, characters, conflict, point-of-view (POV), plot, etc.—and, using your understanding of these elements, will practice the writing of poetry and short fiction via short exercises. Your drafts will be critiqued in a workshop environment, and the final products of these workshops will be at least eight poems and a short story of about 1,500 words.

The class will be conducted in the format of discussion and workshop, with “workshop” meaning your involvement in a setting where you will be both critic and receiver of a critique. There will be two separate modules in this course: the first focusing on poetry and the second on the short story.

To help with the understanding of these elements, you will read poems and stories from master writers and analyze them as how a working writer would. A part of the developmental process of becoming a writer is mimicking the work of authors that you respect, and hopefully you will find good models from these readings.

ASSIGNMENTS:

Module One (poetry):
• ten writing exercises
• five written peer critiques (100 words minimum)
• ten poem drafts
• a portfolio of ten polished poems

Module Two (short fiction):
• five writing exercises
• five written critiques (100 words minimum)
• two short story drafts (minimum 500 words each)
• a final draft of a short story, approx. 1,000 words in length

Also required are active participation in all workshops and excellent attendance.

TEXTS:
• Growing Up Local (Bamboo Ridge Press)
• Songs for the Open Road (Dover Publications)