CREATIVE WRITING
ENG 2910
Junior Asparagus: “How did we get here?”
Bob
the Tomato: “We’re using our imaginations.”
Course Instructor:
Office: 219 Clement Hours: to be announced Office phone: 540-2776
Home: 388-7278
email: hardin@columbiastate.edu
TEXTS:
Poems New and
Collected 1957-1997, Wislawa Szymborska.
Sudden Fiction
International.
Miscellaneous books on reserve in the library.
Handouts.
Links on the web page (http://www.jhardin.columbiastate.edu/).
COURSE DESCRIPTION:
Creative Writing is a workshop style course with exchange and
evaluation of participants' writings.
Students will be expected to try work in all genres and to participate
in all class practice exercises, but each student will be encouraged to choose
a particular genre for special interest.
We will read samples, do practice exercises, and produce our own
writing. These writings will be shared
occasionally with the class for group criticism, and students will be expected
to participate in an educated and positive manner.
MATERIALS:
A notebook. A memory. A seeking attitude.
POLICIES:
*You may contact me by phone or in my office if you are going to miss a
class or if you have a question regarding assignments. We will plan to read numerous texts during
the course of the class (poems, stories, creative non-fiction, interviews,
etc.), and we will discuss how to use their techniques/forms/issues to spur our
own growth as writers. Come prepared to
read, to analyze, to discuss, and to write during class time.
*You must see me about any make-up work.
*I do expect you to write your own texts in this class, and any
plagiarized material will receive an F.
METHODS OF INSTRUCTION:
This class will be taught as a discussion of the texts we have read,
paying attention to how the text is developed as a piece of creative
work. When possible, we will conduct
workshops, wherein we will examine either as a class (or in smaller groups) the
creative works of fellow class members, offering suggestions for
improvements. There will be limited
audio-visuals used. A balance between lecture and discussion will be
sought. Often, we will write during
class time, then discuss what we have written, then write some more.
GENERAL OBJECTIVES: By the end of
the semester you will have:
1. developed critical judgment about
writing in respected genres
2. experimented in styles and forms
3. perfected mechanics
4. developed your own style, subject
matter, concerns
5. come to an understanding of
audience
6. learned specific techniques, terms,
etc.
7. developed confidence
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES: You will have learned:
1. to observe accurately and
objectively
2. to select appropriate language
3. to translate personal experience
into objective writing
MINIMUM REQUIREMENTS:
1. Attendance
2. Participation in class
discussions/evaluations
3. Completion of specific pieces of
writing
4. Completed assigned readings,
assignments, etc.
5. In-class writing assignments as
given
Four written
assignments covering at least two genres (poetry, fiction, or creative
nonfiction). These assignments will be
collected periodically throughout the semester.
We will pursue many more writing prompts than the four collected. Your
job is to choose your best four pieces.
1 conference
with the instructor to discuss your writing
2 essays detailing
the writing of a text
Anatomy of a
Poem assignment (a collaboration)
Journal
April is National Poetry Month project (details to follow)
Final
portfolio: This portfolio will include
revised versions of your work. 8-12
pages.
Participation in
the end of the semester class reading
Grading
70% for all
written work
30% for
participation (includes class discussion, workshop preparation, April is National Poetry Month project,
end of semester class reading, etc.)
I will evaluate your development as a writer, which includes not only
your ability to construct challenging texts of your own, but also your ability
to read with expertise and insight the texts of others. A's are reserved for exceptional work that
shows a unique creative talent. I expect
you to improve with each assignment and to incorporate suggestions, as well as
studied re-evaluation of your own writing.
Writing is a creative act, but good writing is a craft act, an attention
to detail, word play, sound, resonance, metaphor, etc.
Essays detailing the writing of a text
A couple of
times during the semester, you will turn in essays about the writing of one of
your poems, stories, or creative non-fiction pieces. In each essay, you should think about your
purpose in the piece, connecting your choices in the writing to what we have
discussed and read. In other words, what
have certain texts taught you about the choices, techniques, and moves that are
possible for you to make in your own writing.
Discuss the text’s origin and/or evolution. If you were trying to do something similar to
another writer’s work, then explain.
What moments in the writing surprised you in the composition, took you
in a new direction, brought about a need for revision, etc.? What moments do you see providing payoffs and
why? What line, image, or sentence do
you see as most important and why? Why
did you settle on certain word choices rather than others available to
you? If this text were the only thing
you could ever write or that others would ever see from you, how would this
text reflect your worldview? What would
it say about you? In other words, in
these essays I’m looking for evidence that you have thought deeply and
objectively about your work, about how its parts fit together to make a whole,
all within the context of our class discussions and reading selections.
Bring your
journal with you to class and to our conference. In fact, get in the habit of keeping this
journal with you at all times. Your
journal should consider the following items:
·
I
will provide you with quotations and/or essays about poetry, stories, the
writing life, etc. Use these quotations
as a launching pad to ponder the things we are talking about in class and your
own private thoughts concerning the writing and reading of poetry, stories, and
creative non-fiction. Are your ideas
and attitudes changing or expanding?
Your responses to the ideas of others will help to shape your own
understanding of what writing is or might be, what its presence in your life
might accomplish.
·
Use
this journal as a place to collect important lines, phrases, statements, etc.
from other writers’ works. These
examples might be an arresting image, a clever metaphor, or just simply
language you find evocative for some reason.
Begin thinking about finding passages which you feel you must not let
fall away into oblivion. In the case of
poetry, perhaps certain lines could be used in the “April is National Poetry
Month” project. These lines could also
be used as epigraphs or prompts for poems of your own.
·
Based
upon the poems you read this semester, think about possible ideas for poems of
your own. Begin to think like a
poem-seeker, someone who is always on the look-out for an idea for a poem. When you get these ideas, jot them down in
your journal.
·
Based
upon the stories we read, think about what is possible in terms of dialogue,
character development, dialogue, metaphor, setting, and conflict. Jot down story ideas. Write prompts for yourself.