“Literature, the most seductive, the most deceiving, the most dangerous of professions.”
—Viscount John Morley

English 108: Writing Short Fiction
Offered online via Ohlone College
Fall 2007

Click here for information about how to enroll in English 108

Course Description
This course is designed to help you in your pursuit of one of the most grueling and rewarding of endeavors: writing short fiction. I began writing fiction about fifteen years ago, and since then I’ve had many writing teachers, each with a different tone and a different set of ideas about writing. In this course I try to combine the most helpful things I learned from these teachers with some of my own ideas. We will begin this course by examining the creative process and looking at various ways of dealing with the writer’s greatest fear: the blank page. We’ll search for sources of inspiration in our daily lives and in the world around us. Next, we’ll study some of the key elements of craft—plot, character, point of view, dialogue, and style—and the “rules” associated with them. And because rules are only fun when they’re broken, we’ll also practice rejecting convention. Above all, I hope that by the end of the course, your fingers will be pleasantly numb and that you will have a thick stack of new work.

Course Goals
During this course, you will:    
1. Examine the creative process and the key elements of the craft of writing fiction;
2. Apply these elements to your own writing;
3. Practice the craft of fiction by experimenting with several different techniques and forms of writing;  
4. Analyze and discuss how selected examples of short fiction are crafted; and
5. Evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of your own writing and the writing of others.

Course Text(s)
Required: Behind the Short Story: From First to Final Draft by Ryan G. Van Cleave and Todd James Pierce, ISBN: 0-321-11724

For Further Reading: Reading Like a Writer by Francine Prose and Novel Voices edited by Jennifer Levasseur and Kevin Rabalais

How to Log Onto WebCT and Begin the Course
All enrolled students can access WebCT at http://cvc.webct.com/ during the first week of classes. Once there, click on “Ohlone College” in the left sidebar to create your username and password. When you log into the site, you will be able to access the homepage by clicking on English 108/J. Hurley. Vital information to the course will be posted on the homepage. Every week, please check the link entitled “Discussion/Email/Chat” to see what questions I have posted on the discussion boards and what e-mail you have received. If you have any trouble with WebCT, please contact the Ohlone Online helpdesk at ohloneonline@ohlone.edu.

My Philosophy About Writing
Writing is not just for scholars and bookworms. Everyone has stories worth telling. The craft of writing can be taught, and that’s a major part of this class, but more important than craft is developing an awareness about your writing, an ability to recognize when your writing is honest and when it is false. I don’t mean “honest” in the sense of “true”—we’re writing fiction after all—but rather writing something emotionally honest as opposed to writing what we think will impress people. That is the heart of my own writing practice: trying to write what I see and hear and what I know is true about people and the world.

If you want to improve as a writer, my advice is to: 1) write a lot, as much as you possibly can, no matter what kind of nonsense you’re scribbling down; 2) to find a supportive community of writers, people who really have your best interests at heart and who will offer you feedback, and even better, deadlines; 3) to read voraciously and widely, stuff you like and stuff you don’t; and 4) to do other things besides reading and writing—climb Machu Pichu, take up Russian folkdancing, get to know the janitor at your office—so that when you do sit down to write, you will have an abundance of topics to write about.  

I think a writing class should address the process of writing as well as the final product. I’m interested in how stories are created. How do we go from a germ of an idea to a fully realized story? How do we get ideas in the first place? Why are we obsessed with certain places, characters, and ideas? And what do we do if we have no ideas?

Tentative Course Outline
Week One: Getting Started
How do writers find their stories? What specific methods can be used to gather material and jumpstart the creative process?
Read Part One of RLAW

Week Two: Creating Compelling Characters
How are characters created? What makes us like, dislike, or care about a character? How do writers make their characters compelling to a reader?
Read Part Two, Chapter 5 of RLAW

Week Three: Story Structure
What is plot, anyway? Do stories require a plot? How should a story begin and end?
Read Part Two, Chapter 4 of RLAW

Week Four: Constructing a Scene
What is a scene? What are its essential elements? When should a scene begin and end?
Read Part Two, Chapter 7 of RLAW

Week Five: Description
Why is description so important to a story? What makes a piece of description effective?

Week Six: First Person POV
What are the advantages and disadvantages of first person POV? What are the different types of first person narrators (uninvolved observer, unreliable narrator, etc.)? How can dramatic monologues be useful in creating an effective first person narrator?
Read Part Two, Chapter 6 (focus on example of first person POV) of RLAW

Week Seven: Other Types of Point of View (Third, Multiple, and Second)  
What is the difference between an “up-close” third person limited POV and a distant one, and what are the effects of each? When can a writer use multiple POV or second person POV? Is third person omniscient appropriate for short fiction?
Read Part Two, Chapter 6 (focus on examples of second and third person POV) of RLAW 

Week Eight: Creating a Fictional World
What is the "world" of your story? Where are you in time and place? How does a writer create "the world of the story" without long passages describing every last detail of the setting?

Week Nine: Dialogue
What are the functions of dialogue in a story? How does a writer write "good" dialogue?

Week Ten: Avoiding Sentimentality & Appealing to Reader Sympathy
How does a writer write about emotional topics without resorting to sentimentality? How does a writer "earn" emotion? What can a writer do to appeal to the reader's sympathy?
Read Part Three, Chapter 10 of RLAW

Week Eleven: Revision Techniques
How do professional writers revise? How is a large-scale revision conducted? How does a writer know when a story is "done"?
Read Part Three, Chapter 9 of RLAW

Week Twelve: Style
What are the various elements of style (word choice, length and variety of sentences, use of imagery/dialogue)? What are some innovative ways that fiction writers are using style? How can writers improve their style?

Week Thirteen: Theme
What is your story actually about? What are some common themes in fiction? What are the “best” stories about?
Read Part Three, Chapter 11

Week Fourteen: Developing a Unique Voice
What topics, themes, and styles have become cliched?  How does a writer avoid cliches and develop a fresh, unique voice? How does a writer avoid imitating other writers?

Week Fifteen: Publishing Your Work
Where should fiction writers submit their work for publication? What is the process of preparing and submitting a manuscript?