LITR 3731: Creative
Writing 
Lecture Notes
2nd class on fiction
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midterm postings,
schedule, email issues
handouts
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Thursday, 8 October: First fiction workshop + discussion of reading assignments
Reading assignment: Three Genres, ch. 13 (pp. 155-166)
Reading highlight: Jackie Baker
1st Fiction Author: Ryan Smith
1st fiction author’s Discussion Leader: Naomi Gonzales
Thursday, 15 October: Fiction workshop + discussion of reading assignments
Reading assignment: Three Genres, ch. 12 (pp. 145-154);
Reading highlight: Veronica Nadalin
1st Fiction Author: Peter Becnel
1st fiction Author’s Discussion Leader: Paul Acevedo
2nd Fiction Author: Hillary Roth
2nd fiction Author’s Discussion Leader: Tara McGee
update poetry postings
Final
submissions for poetry + revision accounts due within 36 hours of class
due this weekend--but if there's a problem with meeting the deadline, don't run and hide--email and explain the situation
Grading process:
You'll receive a note and grade by email.
If your submit your final poetry assignment by the deadline, I'll try to read and return it before our next meeting, so check your email on Sunday night or Monday morning.
Welcome to reply by email or confer by phone or in person.
I try to limit the length of my notes to 1-2 paragraphs because most students don't want more than that, but it's hard to guess what helps an individual student, so follow-up can be good for everyone.
Quality issues in grading:
It's conceivable that you may be disappointed in your grade, especially if you received positive feedback from your readers, etc.
Please reflect that instructor is the only one who reads all the poems, which are judged relative to each other.
review assignments
This class begins the fiction phase of our course, which is most of the second half of the semester.
Two issues:
1. schedule
2. what's expected
1. schedule
The arrangement of presentations and draft exchanges is similar to the poetry phase, but the names are reversed.
The poetry authors who did poetry draft exchanges
now do fiction presentations
The poetry authors who did poetry presentations
now do fiction draft exchanges.
Everyone gets experience of a presentation and a draft exchange.
Instructor's addition:
The fiction submission seems "challenging" to a lot of students,
maybe because it's more pages, more voices to handle than with poetry.
Also uncertainty about genre
students used to novels of many pages and short stories several times longer than the assignment
"fiction scene" hard to imagine, new concept
Suggestion: review last class's fiction submissions
onscreen presentation demo
purpose:
this semester, demonstrate possibilities in case one of you wants to use this approach (anticipated by Tanya)
but mostly for poetry passage next time course is offered
may do similar exercise first class
may also call in a former student in the class (one of you?) to stage a poetry presentation / discussion lead
reading discussion: Keely
Instructor's points:
1. form of fiction (compare-contrast lyric poetry and drama)
2. fiction as fact or lies > truth?
3. art is imitation & reshaping of life, reality
1. form of fiction (compare-contrast lyric poetry and drama)
title of book: Three Genres
What's a genre?
"A class or type of literature"
Concept of genre is a part of everybody's common sense:
What kind of book are you reading? A mystery, a thriller, a love story.
Genre can mean lots of different things.
151 four categories: short-short story, story, novella, novel
Our book mostly uses a more academic sense: what are the forms or elements of poetry (line, image, figure of speech, metaphor, etc.)
or of fiction
p. 150 five narrative modes of fiction: dialogue, thought, action, description, & exposition
A critic can constantly subdivide elements, but simpler options available
LITR
4533 Tragedy: handout on genres
[ > narrator + dialogue]
2. fiction as fact or lies > truth?
Chapter 13
145 experiences, details > reshape: divide , mix, alter, transform
145 select what we need and invent the rest
155 fresh material < own life, original, unique
what we know well + invent
160 one foot in circle of familiar + one foot reaching out
3. art is imitation & reshaping of life, reality
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Art is an
imitation of reality.
146 real life: jumble of unconnected events and repetitious activities
147 edit unconsciously
ch. 12 (pp.
145-154) Fact and Fiction
145 three
types of prose writing: factual, creative, and creative nonfiction
145 fiction +- lying
145 analyses
145 experiences, details > reshape: divide , mix, alter, transform
145 select
what we need and invent the rest
145 creative or literary nonfiction: informal essay
146 concern for language + personal, informal tone
146 [chart]
146 x “untrue” > “seems true”
146 real life:
jumble of unconnected events and repetitious activities
147 edit
unconsciously
147 fictional totally liberated from experience as it happened
147 [no arguing taste]
147 simple x sophisticated
148 comic strip x
Catcher in the Rye
148 sophisticated x suave and urbane
149 large
circulation magazines: New Yorker, Harper’s, Atlantic
149 literary journals and quarterlies
149 plot, characters, setting, theme
149 plot: conventions, formulas
149 characterization: simple x get to know
149 ambivalence
150 setting: simple: cliché + exotic
150 quick entertainment x memorable themes
150 five narrative modes of fiction: dialogue, thought, action, description, & exposition
[> narrator
+ dialogue]
151 character < dialogue & thought
151 four categories: short-short story, story, novella, novel
152-3 three motives for writing fiction
Private motive
Commercial motives
Literary motive (measure against best)
ch. 13 (pp.
155-166) Where Stories Come From
155 fresh material < own life, original, unique
what we know well + invent
155 formula writing
156 seven deadly sins of fiction
156 High-Tech Melodrama
search-and-capture / kill
156 Adolescent Tragedy: Lack of perspective, sentimentality, &
warning signs (perspective): real names, plot “how it happened”
157 avoid the big familiar pattern
157 Twilight Zone Rerun
gimmick x character, subject, theme
158 vampires resurrected
158 baby-boomer gone wrong
158 Temptations of Ernest Goodwriter
159 My Weird Dream
160 authenticity of personal experience
160 short fiction x high drama
160 one foot in circle of familiar +
one foot reaching out
160 “waiting for inspiration” = procrastination
161 genuine emotions are always fresh
161 try a page or two from perspective of other character
162 memory
163 transformation: from facts to fiction
163 conscious transformation
164 transformation = psychic liberation
165 “Not even your best friend would read it”
165 junk details
165 fuse 2 people into single fictional charcter
(Notes from 2005)
reading discussion
Three Genres, ch. 17 (pp. 189-198) Viewpoint: who’s seeing this?
189 fiction x-drama, film: eyes of a specific character
enter character’s mind, only guess what others thinking
other characters reveal minds through thought, action
195 x-phonetic spellings > phrasing for accent
197 4 first aid steps
198
1 don’t tear up draft
2 write sample x abstract analysis
3 trust instinct
4 focus: look at first and last pages
ch. 18 (pp. 199-208) Structure: from
scenes to plot
199 clock time, psychological time > sequence of episodes
episodes: setting, character
links blur
200 episodes in life > scenes in fiction: basic units
arrangement of scenes = plot
200 “Sausage & Beer”: 3 major blocks: hospital, visit, bar
flashback
200 flashback = scene within scene
200 number and length of scenes
202 flashback = episode before main flow or base time of
plot
202 past perfect > flashback
past of past
202 how come out of a flashback?
Action or dialogue clearly from base time
202 or present > past (“Three Hearts”)
202 even careless readers follow cues without idea how they work; writers aware of techniques
203 flash-forward increases distance
206 rate of revelation
slow down: digression, speculation, description, any exposition
206 high-speed car crashes & catastrophic explosions x subtlety of theme and richness of character
206 openings = high rate of revelation
207 alternate between vitality of fresh plot development and richness of description and exposition