LITR 3731: Creative Writing
Lecture Notes

fiction workshops & readings

Thursday, 15 October: Fiction workshop + discussion of reading assignments

Reading assignment:  Three Genres, ch. 12 (pp. 145-154);

Reading highlight: Veronica Nadalin

1^st Fiction Author: Peter Becnel

1^st fiction Author’s Discussion Leader: Paul Acevedo

2^nd Fiction Author: Hillary Roth

2^nd fiction Author’s Discussion Leader: Tara McGee

Thursday, 22 October: Fiction workshop + discussion of reading assignments

Reading assignment: ch. 14 (pp. 167-174); ch. 15 (pp. 175-181)

Reading highlight: J J Torres

1^st Fiction Author: Jackie Baker

1^st fiction Author’s Discussion Leader: Karina Ramos

What's left for you to do with poetry?

Revise / Resubmit for webpage?--

Optional

Email me a fresh file any time this semester (or beyond)—doesn’t take long for me to make changes on the webpage.

Resubmissions aren’t required and don’t necessarily help or change any grades, but a few students usually want this option, and sometimes it’s part of your overall improvement during a semester > grade considerations.

Possibility of resubmission at any point before or soon after final

Regardless . . .

Submit poem(s) to Bayousphere

Bayousphere, Marrow

Student Research Conference

or many other publications, print or online

Even if I criticized your poem and you think I didn’t like it, consider submitting  

I’m judging only from an academic standpoint, having to do not only with poetic appeal but with what you’re showing from class + poetic standards I’ve learned as a scholar and teach—not as an editor.

Your poem’s positive reception in the workshop and draft exchanges may indicate its potential popularity

Just how exclusive is Bayousphere? The answer depends on the competition or standards set by other submissions.

Writers’ proverb: “the worst they can say is No.”

What's left for you to do with poetry?

Revise / Resubmit for webpage

If you want to revise your posted poem, you may send in a fresh file at any time this semester—it doesn’t take long for me to make changes on the webpage.

Resubmissions aren’t required and don’t necessarily help or change any grades, but a few students usually want this option, and sometimes it’s part of your overall improvement during a semester > grade considerations.

Already one completely new poem posted.

Possibility of resubmission at any point before or soon after final

Confer over poetry, submissions, work in general

welcome to follow up on my response to your poetry submission--by email, phone, or conference. I’ll be around during Spring Break or after.

Submit to Bayousphere or other publications

Even if I criticized your poem and you think I didn’t like it, consider submitting their poem to Bayousphere. 

I’m judging only from an academic standpoint, having to do not only with poetic appeal but with what you’re showing from class + poetic standards I’ve learned as a scholar and teach—not as an editor.

Your poem’s positive reception in the workshop and draft exchanges may indicate its potential popularity

Just how exclusive is Bayousphere? The answer depends on the competition or standards set by other submissions. Writers’ proverb: “the worst they can say is No.”

Possibility of resubmission at any point before or soon after final

Note for first lecture: students swap emails, phones

assignments & handouts

introduction to fiction

basic instruction--

comparable to lesson on poetry re "sight and sound"

sight: visual images--picture in the mind

sound: rhythm, rhyme, muting, repetition / chant

poem on screen

fiction: narrator + dialogue

fiction scene on screen

fiction scene overdoing narrative

fiction scene overdoing dialogue

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 character

Classical idea from Socrates, Plato, Aristotle:

Art is an imitation of reality.

Art: Not just visual art, but writing as art, creation

imitation: representation, mirror

reality: nature, the world, society, life, the soul, etc.

Another way: art is "like" life

doesn't pretend to be exactly the same

146 real life: jumble of unconnected events and repetitious activities

147 edit unconsciously [humans are story-telling creatures--we can do this without thinking about it--but can get better with thinking about it]

Many different meanings, ways to interpret poetry and fiction

Everyone needs to learn something, but de-emphasize "rules" for sake of learning process, life-time learning, good learning habits and models

Compared to other areas, literature teachers or language practitioners do not so much provide rules and definite answers (though we're supposed to know more about language), but to help people use language ask questions, think for themselves, develop thoughts, express insights, and discuss answers.

hard to fit with "teaching to the test" but important to civilization

testing and accountability = minimal skills

But some resources and efforts have to go beyond minimal skills

> leadership, imagination toward a better society

Literature and language teachers can't make that better society happen by themselves, but language and literature classes are often the only places where young people ever get a glimpse of another reality.

3. art is imitation & reshaping of life, reality

Classical idea from Socrates, Plato, Aristotle:

Art is an imitation of reality.

Art: Not just visual art, but writing as art, creation

imitation: representation, mirror

reality: nature, the world, society, life, the soul, etc.

Another way: art is "like" life

doesn't pretend to be exactly the same

146 real life: jumble of unconnected events and repetitious activities

147 edit unconsciously [humans are story-telling creatures--we can do this without thinking about it--but can get better with thinking about it]

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]

Review last class on poetry > fiction

1. form of fiction (compare-contrast lyric poetry and drama)

2. fiction as fact or invention / lies > truth?

3. art is imitation & reshaping of life, reality

instructor's follow-up

Fiction discussion

Many different meanings, ways to interpret poetry and fiction

Everyone needs to learn something, but de-emphasize "rules" for sake of learning process, life-time learning, good learning habits and models

Compared to other areas, literature teachers or language practitioners do not so much provide rules and answers (though we're supposed to know more about language), but to help people use language ask questions, express insights, and discuss answers.

Difficult approach for "teaching to the test" but more important to civilization

Can defend testing and accountability in terms of minimal skills

But some resources and efforts have to go beyond minimal > leadership, imagination toward a better society

Literature and language teachers can't make that better society happen by themselves, but language and literature classes are often the only places where young people ever get a glimpse of another reality.

Review last class on poetry > fiction

1. form of fiction (compare-contrast lyric poetry and drama)

2. fiction as fact or invention / lies > truth?

3. art is imitation & reshaping of life, reality

3. art is imitation & reshaping of life, reality

Classical idea from Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: Art is an imitation of reality.

146 real life: jumble of unconnected events and repetitious activities

147 edit unconsciously [humans are story-telling creatures--we can do this without thinking about it--but can get better with thinking about it]

2. fiction as fact or invention / lies > truth?

Chapter 13: Where Stories come from

145 experiences, details from real life > reshape: divide , mix, alter, transform

145 select what we need and invent the rest

160 one foot in circle of familiar + one foot reaching out

conclusion: Literature may not be as real as reality, but it can be more true than reality

denser, richer, more intense than everyday life

Minot's changes in what really happened > "Sausages and Beer"

176 memory of own life

176 combination of emotions, odd mix of fascination, revulsion, & fear [when you make something completely up, your emotions become predictable—reality is stranger and richer than our power to invent—but we can rearrange]

176 language of insane, x-invention

177 mother, not father

takes pressure off

major transformations > delicious discovery

189 viewpoint, point of view, means of perception, [perspective]

viewpoint does not equal attitude

189 1st person = I

190 third person [limited]

190 increases readers’ sense of identification

190 maintains suspense

191 deliberate withholding of information

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

200 episodes in life > scenes in fiction: basic units

arrangement of scenes = plot

200 “Sausage & Beer”: 3 major blocks: hospital, visit, bar

206 pace < style: length & complexity of sentence structure

206 rate of revelation

206 high-speed car crashes & catastrophic explosions x subtlety of theme and richness of character

Effect and organization of poetry and fiction < numbers and types of voices

"genres"—types or classes of literature

Lyric poetry: intense impression < single voice (usually one speaker "sings" the poem, like a song on the radio)

Fiction: moments of intensity, but effects are more varied, less centrally focused < more than one speaker: narrator + dialogue of characters

178 cutting blocks of material is painful > Lost Gems file

180 initial memory

borrowed memories

pure invention

181 imagine self as new reader

Today’s tastes in literary fiction discount third-person omniscient viewpoint in favor of more limited perspectives like “first person” and “third-person limited.” With their internal views, these limited styles expose deeper psychological identities and conflicts. In contrast, “omniscient” or “all-seeing” view may appear old-fashioned and shallow. Along with first-person style, omniscient perspective dominated the early novel, with third-person limited perspective developing later. Yet third-person omniscient viewpoint remains standard for mass-market fiction—e. g., The Da Vinci Code or The Hunt for Red October—which rapidly shifts perspective from one character or scene to another like a movie camera. For later readers this resemblance between Cooper’s viewpoint and cinema remains one of the author’s greatest appeals.

Two effects make the third-person omniscient an useful vehicle for Cooper’s Tales. Omniscient or “all-seeing” perspective observes action like a wide-screen movie camera watching people move through vast landscapes, as in films like Dances with Wolves or Braveheart. In the historical novel Waverly (1814), the British novelist Walter Scott used such a technique to describe battles between English and rebel forces in Scotland. Cooper skillfully adapted this point of view for the military maneuvers, perilous journeys, and spacious landscapes of his frontier and sea romances. Pathfinder employs this technique strikingly in the opening chapters, where Leather-stocking and others help Mabel escape a river ambush to join her father at Fort Oswego.

Third-person omniscient also succeeds with populous social scenes in which characters’ speech and gestures declare their identities and, to an extent, their inner states of mind. Cooper found this style comfortable for novels of manners like Precaution and The Spy. In Pathfinder he relocates it to the frontier of North America. The novel’s richest social scene is a “shooting match” at Fort Oswego. Like medieval ladies at jousting tournaments in Scott’s Ivanhoe, the spectators—officers’ wives, Mabel, and the common soldiers’ wives—seat themselves on planks according to “the etiquette of rank” (XI). Everything glitters, but all is witnessed from outside.

By 1840, however, fashions in literature were changing. As fiction matured, perspective became more personal. “Third-person limited” point of view focuses selectively on the internal consciousness of individuals. Fiction by Nathaniel Hawthorne such as The Scarlet Letter influenced this style’s development. Abandoning the omniscient’s wide scope, limited viewpoint deepens psychological intensity. The resulting ambiguities appeal to modern tastes for irony and self-deception.

Hard to summarize fiction b/c multi-voiced

"Novel theorists" defend fiction as best imitation of modern reality

modern reality is multi-voiced > novel automatically multi-voiced (narrator + characters in dialogue, each expressing a different take on the world)

poems make you feel, open up your heart-mind to totally new impressions

fiction makes you see or experience reality from different angles, perspectives

Preview final exam: what are you learning? About creative writing, teaching it, or both?

(leftover notes from 2005)

Online student communications:

(2nd email)

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