Fiction final submissions & revision accounts due by noon Tuesday 8 December (welcome to submit earlier, but instructor out-of-town from 4-7 December)

Format:

• Email file (preferably Word or Word-compatible) to instructor at whitec@uhcl.edu
   

• Instructor posts submissions to course webpage.
   

• Instructor confirms posting soon, later returns final grade report with comments by email.

Fiction submission:

• Submit one fictional scene of 5-10 double-spaced pages.
   

• Your fictional scene must have a title.
   

• Either a “short short story” or a passage from a longer short story, a novella, or a novel. (Be careful of writing a super-fast novel in 5-10 pages)
   

• A brief explanatory note setting up the context of the scene is OK but not required.
   

• An identifiable beginning and conclusion with appropriate action or plot development between . . . .
   

• Narrative and dialogue required.
   

• You may submit an additional fiction scene if you wish, but you are not expected to. No automatic credit for extra effort, but it can't hurt and it might help.
   

• As with the poetry submission, the fiction submission must be accompanied by a Revision Account.

Revision Accounts:

• A “Revision Account” is required with your fiction submission.
   

• The Revision Account explains how the scene developed and how it was revised, especially as a result of the poem’s presentation or draft exchange.
   

Expectations for Revision Accounts

Length: 2 - 3 double-spaced pages (equivalent)

Content prompts:

1. Origins of your fiction piece? How did you come up with the idea? Did the work pre-exist our course, or did you write it only for the assignment?

2. Either in workshop or draft exchange, what kind of responses and what did you learn?

3. Quote and evaluate reactions. If you did a draft exchange, identify your reviewers and how you found them.

4. What changes or revisions did you make? What changes did you resist?

5. What is the current status of your submission?  What strengths? What further development? Is it part of a larger work?

5. Future developments: Possible publication? Additions or research required? What would you like to be able to accomplish for this manuscript that you can’t quite do yet?

 

Most common problem with Revision Accounts

• Most students don't write enough (mostly b/c they've never done anything like this).
   

• The required length is 2 - 3 pages.
   

• The best Revision Accounts offer more material for the instructor to work with.
  
   

• Two ways to extend your revision account:

  • Write a little, rest a little; return, revise, and write some more
     

  • Examples! Keep looking at different parts of your poem, especially the parts that changed + how & why. But you can also defend not changing parts, even when your reviewers pushed you.

+ Look at examples of assignment from previous semesters:

2008 Fiction Submissions with Revision Accounts (Model Assignments)