ENGL 441 - 01: Fiction Workshop
Syllabus—Fall 2014
T/TH 9:30-10:45AM, Gannett Hall (GAN, BLDG. 7B), Room 2070
Credits: 3
Professor:
Email:
Office Hours:
Office Location:
Robert Glick
[email protected]
T/TH 11:00-12:00, 2:30-4:00, or by appointment
Liberal Arts Hall (LBR, BLDG. 6), Room 1311
The game is worthwhile insofar as we don’t know where it will end.
---Michel Foucault
Screwing things up is a virtue. Being correct is never the point. Being right can stop all the momentum of a very
interesting idea.
---Robert Rauschenberg
Description
Technically speaking, English 441 is a workshop: the course focuses on the production,
reading, and constructive critique of student fiction. We’ll be doing a lot of writing in this
class – stories, improvisatory prompts, exercises, and critiques. Much of our class time
will be spent in a workshop format where the class conveys responses and suggestions to
student work in a compassionate but honest and precise manner.
Becoming a better fiction writer, however, is not simply a matter of learning tips, tricks,
and rules. You must choose to involve yourself (deeply!) with writing, reading,
analyzing, listening, noticing the world around and inside you, messing around, screwing
up, starting over. The act of writing well will engage your micro-brain for language
choices and a macro-brain for story structure, left brain for creation and right brain (as if
they are truly disconnected) for logic and revision. It will force you to engage with some
things that give you comfort and pleasure, others that challenge you. Sometimes writing
can be downright scary.
You write not only because you want to convey something important or because you
want to experience pleasure, but also because you have questions you wish to explore.
And the answers don’t come easy. Writing is not a field one can master. Instead, it is a
field where the psyche plays around, experiments, gets muddy, tries stuff out and on.
There are more failures than successes, but the failures are successful – if you learn from
them, if you engage with the process as well as with the end product. In any case, the
only prerequisites to becoming a better prose writer are a willingness to work and an
open, inquisitive mind.
Regardless of whether you write game narratives, conceptual scores, flash poems, or lyric
essays, regardless of your major or career path, you’ll benefit from creative writing. A
close attention to language will help you in almost any field – grant applications,
technical documents, patient notes, scientific papers, code comments – not to mention
how a greater attention to word choice, diction, and genre will prevent misunderstandings
in your written communications with bosses, lovers, and family members.
ENGL 441 – FICTION WORKSHOP
FALL 2014 COURSE SYLLABUS
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Six tenets of this class:
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Notice stuff. The more you pay attention to inner and outer worlds, and the more
time you spend describing them in interesting ways, the more unique, specific,
and useful material you have to torque. Cliché and abstraction are your
mortal enemies.
Be precise. There is a right word for everything. A more compressed way to say
something. A more specific term, a new and striking metaphor for what a
character feels. Find it.
Write with interestingosity. You can have interesting ideas, interesting
characters, interesting plots, interesting structures, interesting language. Our
goal is not to reproduce what we’ve read, but to advance and challenge it.
Language is your play-d’oh! Imagine language the way you might imagine paint
or sound. You can do something realist, something cubist, something fantastic.
You can remix, echo, reverb, sample, steal, mash up. Mold, flatten, make weird
shapes with language. Put things together that don’t seem to go. Write sentences
wrong. Your imaginations are unbelievable; now translate what’s in your brain
to written language.
Engage the inspired and intense. This world is strange and terrifying and joyful.
Write it.
Go deep! We’re full of complex, ambivalent emotions. Explore them, express
them, roll them across your tongue like a blackberry or a thumb tack. Let us
grapple with many sides of the same thing; let us consider the same side of
many things.
A note on “Fiction” In this class, we will focus on literary fiction rather than genre fiction. According to
Wikipedia: “In broad terms, literary fiction focuses more on style, psychological depth,
and character…”
You must write literary fiction in this class. That means no robot vampires, no elves or
dragons, no spaceships, no Pokemon (you may, perhaps, want to develop a character who
wants to write about Pokemon). While many of you are interested in writing fantasy, fanfiction, or other genre fiction, a deep engagement with the conventions of literary fiction
(and its emphasis on word choice, precise, vivid language, and emotional states) will
dramatically improve your writing, regardless of genre.
Exception: later in the semester, we will read literary fiction that employs the conventions
of genre fiction (sci-fi, horror), or, perhaps, merges literary and genre fiction. The lines
between genres are in no way set in stone.
Objectives
By the end of the semester, you will:
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Required Texts
become a more precise, nuanced, disciplined, and productive fiction writer
read and analyze different kinds of literary fiction
articulate constructive critiques (oral and written) in peer workshops
implement the rules of craft (and perhaps break them)
gain an awareness of local and national literary circles
rule the universe
Gotham Writers’ Workshop Writing Fiction (required)
Other required and optional texts available via handout, myCourses, or the interweb.
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To-Do List
Here’s a quick guide to deliverables and grades:
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Stories (two): (20%, 20%), 40% total
Revised Story: 15%
Take-Home Exercises (including prompts, live reading review, and quizzes, if
necessary): 15%
Participation: 10%
Peer Reviews: 10%
Journal: 10%
Now let’s break it down:
Stories (two) (20/20%, 40% total): You will be writing two new stories, composed this
semester, written specifically for this class.
METHOD OF SUBMISSION: A typed, stapled hard copy given to me at the start of class
on the due date.
Revised Story (15%): At the end of the term, you will turn in a revision of one of your
stories. This revision is not simply a light edit or a response to peer critique, but a radical
rethinking of your story – new scenes, new structure. It must also include a one-half to
one-page (single-spaced) evaluation of what kinds of revisions you made.
METHOD OF SUBMISSION: Uploaded to myCourses.
Take-Home Exercises (including two to three prompts, a response to one live reading,
and quizzes, if necessary) (15%): All take home exercises should be 1-3 double-spaced
pages, though you can write more should you wish. I will generally give you the exercise
the week before it is due. Exercise assignments will also be uploaded to myCourses.
METHOD OF SUBMISSION: Uploaded to myCourses before the start of class on the
due date.
Participation (10%): Participation means that you maintain an active, engaged
participation in peer workshops, class discussions about readings, and in-class
collaborations. This is incredibly important – give your colleagues as much attention as
you would like them to give to you and your work. If you are shy, please see me in
private and we can come up with ways for you to participate.
Peer Reviews (10%): For each peer critique, you are responsible for writing
approximately a half-page commentary. This commentary is given to the writer on the
day of his/her workshop.
METHOD OF SUBMISSION: Peer Reviews must be printed and given to the writer
along with the hard copy of his/her story. You will then aggregate all peer reviews for
that workshop series and combine then into one document, which will be uploaded to
myCourses by the start of the class period on the last workshop date.
Journal (10%): You must keep a paper journal, which you can use to write notes, great
lines from stories, things you see on the road, in-class exercises, doodles, and other
flashes of genius. As I don’t do Powerpoint, and much of the important material in class
will come from discussion rather than from documented lectures, you will need to take
notes to prepare for and rock potential quizzes. Much of the work of this class is about
paying attention both inside and outside the classroom, and you never know when an idea
will come up. The notebook allows you to capture all these ideas in a single location.
METHOD OF SUBMISSION: Turned in at the end of the semester.
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Grading
It is especially difficult to grade creative writing – there are no right and wrong answers.
Grading involves an assessment of talent, quality, imagination, ambition, engagement,
and work-rate. Creative assignments in this class will be graded on your effort, your
growth, and your understanding of the concepts we discuss. On the one hand, I want you
to have an awareness and control of the techniques and terms of creative writing. On the
other hand, I want you to experiment, take risks, and not be penalized for taking these
risks. I don’t want you to write for me or for your classmates. If you are engaged with the
subject matter, if you care about your writing, your work, your critiques, and your peers,
and if you do all the work, you will get a very good grade. The best way to earn a poor
grade in this class is to miss assignments or turn in work late.
A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE: It is impossible to earn an A if you do not have excellent
grammar. Writing a story that contains poor, sloppy, or clunky grammar is like wrapping
your story in gauze. I may recommend that you go to the Writing Center for help with
grammar.
You can always check your provisional grade in myCourses. In general, I go by a fairly
standard percentage scheme, as per RIT guidelines:
Percentage
93.00-100.00
90.00-92.99
87.00-89.99
83.00-86.99
80.00-82.99
77.00-79.99
73.00-76.99
70.00-72.99
60.00-69.99
<60.00
Plus/Minus Equivalent
A
AB+
B
BC+
C
CD
F
I do, however, reserve the right to alter the grading scheme to a curve. What shows
up in myCourses is not always exact, complete, or final.
Late Work:
• For peer reviews, late work will not be accepted.
• For major works and take-home exercises, late work will be accepted the
following day at a 5% reduction in grade per day for ten days. After that, you
can turn in the work, but it can only receive a maximum of half credit. It is way
way way better to turn in a work four weeks late than not to turn it in at all.
• You can turn in late work until 11:59PM EST on the last day of class.
If you know you will be absent on a day work is due, be sure to hand in your work in
advance of the deadline.
LATE WORK METHOD OF DISTRIBUTION: Any late work must be uploaded to the
appropriate Dropbox. It’s also helpful if you email me so that I know the late work has
been posted to the Dropbox.
Attendance
While you do not gain points for attendance, you can lose points, which will be
deducted from your participation grade. I will pass around an attendance sheet at the
beginning of each class. You must sign this sheet. After four absences (barring
emergency), I will drop your final grade by 2 points, with each successive absence
ENGL 441 – FICTION WORKSHOP
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counting as a ½ percentage point from your final grade. Late arrival to class counts as
half an absence.
Feedback
You can expect the following feedback in this class:
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Document
Guidelines
I will give extensive written feedback (line edits and comments) on your major
works. I will give feedback on rough drafts of these works if they are turned in
well in advance, provided you meet with me during office hours.
I may give light commentary on your take-home exercises.
From your peers, you will receive detailed critiques of each of your major
works. This feedback includes both line editing and typed comments.
I’m always happy to talk about stories or your writing in office hours. If there’s
anything you want to discuss, all you have to do is show up during office hours
or set an appointment time.
We will have one-on-one meetings after your first two stories.
I try very, very hard to return stories and exercises within two weeks.
Typing and formatting your documents isn’t simply a matter of following arbitrary rules:
it’s something that helps your colleagues and facilitates the reading of your work. How
are we supposed to discuss a particular sentence on page if we can’t find page five? How
can we write comments if there’s not enough space in the margins? As a result, please
follow these guidelines for all file documents (with the exception of typed peer critiques,
which can be single-spaced, or any experimental fiction that employs unorthodox
typography):
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Typed
Double-spaced
Name at top of first page
12-point – some standard font like Helvetica or Times New Roman
One-inch margins
Paginated
Spillcheck!!!
To do, right away: set up a document template using these formatting rules, with your
name and the page number in the footer. Then you can copy this template each time you
need to start a new document. I have uploaded a template file (template.docx) to
myCourses for your use.
Contacting Me/
Confusion?
During the first week of class, we go over the syllabus in detail. I expect that you have
read and reviewed the syllabus, and I will give you an opportunity to ask clarifying
questions. After the first week, I consider the syllabus as a binding document – there are
no excuses for not understanding your assignments, their correlative deadlines, and/or
methods of assignment submission.
If you are confused about an assignment or have missed a class, please, please check the
syllabus, myCourses, and the class schedule – I try to make class documents as
comprehensive as possible. If you can’t find the answer, ask one of your classmates. If
you still can’t locate an answer or need clarification, please feel free to email me at
[email protected]. I try to return emails in 24 hours on weekdays. Weekends take me a
little longer, as I do occasionally leave my house for ramen and rubber bands.
ENGL 441 – FICTION WORKSHOP
FALL 2014 COURSE SYLLABUS
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In the Class
Please turn your phone off before class. iPads, tamagotchi, beepers, laptops, tablets – all
verboten. I start on time, so please be on time – either we will have a writing prompt at
the start of class, or I go through all logistics and attendance, so if you’re late, you will
miss vital information.
I realize that many of you read via tablet, Kindle, and so forth. Having said that, you must
print the works we’re looking at so that you can scribble, write notes on them, and so
forth. It’s harder to pay really close attention to literary works when you’re reading on
screen. Please bring hard copies of the texts into class.
You might be wondering where you can print. The answer? Each college has a lab where
you can print a certain number of copies. The library also has printing services for a small
fee. Printing at the last minute counts and having a problem with printing accounts for
72% of all late work (not really).
Names And
Pronouns
Ethics and
Plagiarism
If you would like to be called by a specific name and/or pronoun, please let me know.
Students must complete their own, original work. Plagiarism is against university
standards, and can result in a failing grade for an assignment or for the entire class.
Here’s the university definition of plagiarism:
Plagiarism is the representation of others' ideas as one's own without
giving proper credit to the original author or authors. Plagiarism occurs
when a student copies direct phrases from a text (e.g., books, journals,
internet) and does not provide quotation marks, or paraphrases or
summarizes those ideas without giving credit to the author or authors. In
all cases, if such information is not properly and accurately documented
with appropriate credit given, then the student is guilty of plagiarism.
The RIT definition of academic dishonesty can be found at
http://www.rit.edu/studentaffairs/studentconduct/rr_academicdishonesty.php.
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ENGL 441 - 01: Fiction Workshop
Schedule—Fall 2014
T/TH 9:30-10:45AM, Gannett Hall (GAN, BLDG. 7B), Room 2070
Credits: 3
Professor:
Email:
Office Hours:
Office Location:
Robert Glick
[email protected]
T/TH 11:00-12:00, 2:30-4:00, or by appointment
Liberal Arts Hall (LBR, BLDG. 6), Room 1311
Current Version:
Date Last Modified:
Change Log:
1.3
9/17/14
8/24/14
9/17/14
9/19/14
9/25/14
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Version 1.0 uploaded to myCourses
Added some “Further” materials to first part of course
Added extra Shepard story, changed date of Novakovich revision
Un-cancelled last class, made Smith chapter a “Further”
Due dates for all assignments (reading, exercises, writing) are binding unless I explicitly
note a change in class. Method of distribution noted in syllabus.
If we are discussing a story, craft essay, or Gotham chapter, you should have read it in
advance of class and be fully prepared to discuss in class that day.
Key:
GWW = Gotham Writers’ Workshop
All other writings can be found in myCourses unless otherwise indicated.
Please bring GWW and other writings in printed hard copy when we are using them.
ENGL 441 – FICTION WORKSHOP
FALL 2014 CLASS SCHEDULE
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PROF. GLICK
Week
1
Date
Aug. 26
Introduction
Aug. 28
2
Sept. 2
Image
Sept. 4
3
Sept. 9
Character
Sept. 11
4
Sept. 16
Plot
Sept. 18
5
Sept. 23
Dialogue
Setting
Sept. 25
6
Sept. 30
Workshops,
Revision
7
Oct. 2
From Story
to Plot
Oct. 9
8
Oct. 14
Oct. 7
In Class…
Syllabus and Schedule
Video: George Saunders (online)
Craft: Lauren Martin, “Why Readers, Scientifically, Are The
Best People To Fall In Love With”
GWW Chapter 1
Craft: Francine Prose, “On Close Reading”
Craft: Anne Lamott, “Shitty First Drafts”
Craft: Joan Didion, “Why I Write”
Story: David Foster Wallace, “Incarnations of Burned
Children”
GWW Chapter 5
Story: Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”
Further (listen): “A Good Man is Hard to Find”
Craft: James Wood, “On Detail”
Story: Mary Gaitskill, “Daisy’s Valentine”
Brain/Storm!
GWW Chapter 2
Craft: Binyavanga Wainaina, “How to Write About Africa”
Mini-Lecture: Desire and Conflict
Story: Charles D’Ambrosio, “The Dead Fish Museum”
Story: Raymond Carver, “Cathedral”
Brain/Storm!
GWW Chapter 3
Craft: Wikipedia, “The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations”
Craft: John Gardner, “Plotting”
Story: Anthony Doerr, “The Caretaker”
Further: Benjamin Percy, “Don’t Look Back”
Brain/Storm!
Story: ZZ Packer, “Brownies”
Further: Janet Burroway, “Conflict, Crisis, and Resolution”
GWW Chapter 6
Lecture: Dialogue
Story: Percival Everett, “Hear That Long Train Moan”
Craft: Edit of “Hear That Long Train Moan”
Becoming a Better Workshopper / Mini-Workshop
GWW Chapter 7
Story: Jim Shepard, “The First South Central Australian
Expedition”
Further: Jim Shepard, “Gojira, King of the Monsters”
Workshop
Further: GWW Chapter 10
Workshop
Further: Josip Novakovich, “Revision Checklist”
Post-Mortem: Q&A
Mini-Lecture: Post-Modern Tactics
Further: Hazel Smith, The Writing Experiment, Ch. 7
Story: James Baldwin, “Sonny’s Blues”
Craft: Interview with Melanie Rae Thon
Further: Melanie Rae Thon, “Nobody’s Daughters”
Mini-Lecture: Time and Action, Story to Plot
NO CLASS (Columbus Day, Monday Schedule)
ENGL 441 – FICTION WORKSHOP
FALL 2014 CLASS SCHEDULE
Due On This Date
EXERCISE 1
EXERCISE 2
EXERCISE 3
EXERCISE 4
EXERCISE 5
(DRAFT)
Group A Distribute
Group B Distribute
PEER REVIEW 1
STORY 1
Turn In Journal
EXERCISE 6
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PROF. GLICK
Point of
View
One on One
Meetings
9
Point of
View (cont).
Oct. 16
Oct. 21
Oct. 23
Voice
10
Oct. 28
Voice (cont).
Beginnings
and Endings
Oct. 30
11
Structure
Nov. 4
Nov. 6
12
Workshops
13
Nov. 11
Nov. 13
Nov. 18
The Digital
Nov. 20
Unrealism
and Genre
14
Fairy Tales
Nov. 25
One on One
Meetings
Nov. 27
Brain/Storm!
GWW Chapter 4
Story: Dorothy Allison, “River of Names”
Story: Tobias Wolff, “Bullet in the Brain”
Mini-Lecture: Focalizing
Mini-Lecture: 2nd Person redux
Story: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, “The Thing Around
Your Neck”
Story: Stuart Dybek, “We Didn’t”
GWW Chapter 8
Story: Junot Díaz, “Otravida, Otravez”
Story: Edgar Allan Poe, “The Tell-Tale Heart”
Brain/Storm!
Further: Sarah Stone, “Self-Awareness & Self-Deception:
Beyond the Unreliable Narrator”
Story: Susan Steinberg, “Superstar”
Craft: Susan Steinberg, “On Punctuation”
Story: Wells Tower, “Everything Ravaged, Everything
Burned”
Further: Adult Swim, “Too Many Cooks” (video)
Mini-Lecture: Beginnings and Endings
Story: Anton Chekhov, “Gusev”
Craft: David Jauss, “Returning Characters to Life:
Chekhov’s Subversive Endings”
Story: Karen Brennan, “Wild Desire”
Further: Madison Smartt Bell, “Modular Design”
Story: Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried”
Further: Bryan Cranston reads “The Things They Carried”
Workshop
Workshop
Mini-Lecture: The Digital
Story (online): Aimee Bender, “Hotel Rot”
Story (online): J.R. Carpenter, “…and by islands I mean
paragraphs”
Story (online): Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries,
“TRAVELING T0 UT0PIA: WITH A BRIEF HIST0RY 0F
THE TECHN0L0GY”
Story (online): Caitlin Fisher, “These Waves of Girls”
Story (online): Lily Hoang, “The Woman Down The Hall”
Story (online): Matthew Kirkpatrick, “Light Without Heat”
Story: Alissa Nutting, “Ant Colony”
Story: Karen Russell, “Reeling for the Empire”
Additionally, Pick One To Discuss In Your Journal:
Story: Nam Le, “Cartagena”
Story: Ursula Le Guin, “Solitude”
Story: George Saunders, “Sea Oak”
Story: Donald Barthelme, “The Glass Mountain”
Story: Angela Carter, “The Tiger’s Bride”
Further: Kathy Acker, Blood and Guts in High School
(excerpt)
Further: Catherine Burgass, “A Brief Story of Postmodern
Plot”
No Class (Thanksgiving)
ENGL 441 – FICTION WORKSHOP
FALL 2014 CLASS SCHEDULE
EXERCISE 7
EXERCISE 8
EXERCISE 9
EXERCISE 10 (Draft)
Group B Distribute
Group A Distribute
PEER REVIEW 2
STORY 2
EXERCISE 11
EXERCISE 12
Group A Distribute
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PROF. GLICK
15
Dec. 2
Workshop
Workshops
16
17
Dec. 4
Workshop
Dec. 9
Conclusion / Wrap-Up / Next Steps / Reading
FINALS WEEK
DONOTCOMETOCLASSTHEREISNOCLASSTHEREISNOFINALEXAM
REVISION DUE ELECTRONICALLY ON DEC 15 AT 11:59PM
ENGL 441 – FICTION WORKSHOP
FALL 2014 CLASS SCHEDULE
Group B Distribute
Turn In Journal
PEER REVIEW 3
Live Reading Review
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