Course Title: The Short Story Intensive: Taking Our Stories to the Next Level
Course Code: FICT 200 W
Instructor Name: Matthew Iribarne
PLEASE NOTE:
This course offers an intensive workshop experience for students who have taken one
or more online short story courses with Stanford Continuing Studies.
Although the time commitment for this course is dependent upon one’s degree of
participation, students should plan on investing four to six hours per week in order to
participate at a substantial level.
COURSE SUMMARY & A NOTE FROM THE INSTRUCTOR:
How can we find the inspiration to keep on working on our short stories? How can we
create even stronger work, and in so doing deepen our stories as we venture toward
these previously unknown areas that beg exploration and discovery? In this class we're
going to continue the journey begun in previous fiction writing classes. Using the fiction
workshop as our foundation, we'll hone in toward that which makes for the successful
short story, discussing these ways to make the work even better. With readings from
published stories to complement our discussion of one another's work, we'll engage in
exercises that will help us to define what makes for a successful short story. In so doing
we'll consider point of view, dialogue, the use of detail, the importance of place, these
so-called "hot spots" where the writer might slow down and develop the story further
as we think about these strategies for revision. In short, we'll use our writer's toolbox to
bring out the greatest potential in our stories, looking for these areas of possibility as
we persist and forge ahead in making our work the best it can be.
Expectations:
Each week, there will be several short (500 words or less) writing exercises based in
some way upon the week’s topic. You will be asked to take on one of these writing
exercises, with the hope that it might guide you more deeply into your material. Please
keep in mind these exercises are not meant to generate finished work (i.e. a complete
story), but should be used as explorations and beginning points, as well as re-entry
points for pre-existing material. It’s my hope that these exercises will prompt you to go
further, and that you might well continue with the work after you have started it. As
well, these exercises could well end up being one of the pieces you submit for the
workshop, something that begs expansion and that you feel excited about. What’s
important is that you feel inspired by the work, that you take on these exercises and
they end up pushing you toward surprising places.
Your responses to the exercises will be posted in the forum by Thursday afternoon, so
your classmates will have the opportunity to read and offer comments on them (I’ll post
feedback as well). Although your comments on these exercises won’t necessarily be as
in-depth as your comments on the full-length pieces we’ll be workshopping, it’s critical
that we all become comfortable with reading and discussing one another’s work, and I’ll
be giving explicit instructions on what you should be looking for each week.
ASSIGNED TEXTS:
Deepening Fiction: A Practical Guide for Intermediate and Advanced Writers by Sarah
Stone and Ron Nyren
The Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction, Edited by Lex Williford and
Michael Martone
Weekly Reading Assignments:
Each week we’ll be reading a story from the assigned text and/or Canvas page.
For the first three weeks we’ll be reading stories that will be posted on Canvas, and
from thereon from the assigned text. Questions relating to the text will be posted each
week, and you will be expected to answer these questions.
The Workshop:
Beginning in the fourth week of instruction, we shall begin workshopping one another’s
work. Over the course of the term the entire class will read and offer in-depth, detailed
comments on these pieces. The material you present for workshop can be a preexisting story that you want to continue working on, or a new piece inspired by the
writing exercises we will be doing in class, it’s entirely up to you.
Responses and suggestion in the workshop will be aimed at helping the author explore
her/his work and getting aid in getting a manuscript to the NEXT step of development.
Revision will be seen as an on-going process of exploration. We will discuss stories
always remembering to look at the larger intent of the work, pointing to elements of
craft and how the writer might best use the tools discussed in the readings, where it is
we can see the piece heading. The work will be examined for the balance of craft that
makes it a successful portrayal of the author’s vision inside that particular world, how
this draft could be developed to the next point in the creative process.
What’s most important, that we feel safe in exploring those areas that open up these
areas in our own creative development, and we will establish guidelines in helping us
achieve such a goal. This class is indeed all about pushing ourselves further as writers,
and in order to do as much of this type of work we’ll be sure to create an environment
that makes this possible.
In the next-to-last week of instruction you will also be asked to submit a revision of the
story that was workshopped in class, to be placed in the forum. This work will not be
expected to be finished. But it will be expected it reflect consideration of commentary
and suggestion that has come up in workshop discussion, with some evidence of the
story evolving. We will all have a chance to look at this work and comment upon it.
Workshop Note:
One (full-length) short story (2000-5000 words).
In-depth (roughly a page) of comments by all students, for each workshop story.
Chat:
At the end of each week, I will host an hour-long “chat” session via ZOOM. This session
is an online “office hour” of sorts, but in a group context. Attendance is optional, and
the session will be recorded if you can’t make it. This is where I’ll address your issues of
craft and process, talk about these readings covered and how we might apply them to
our own material. We’ll discuss the exercises, questions that might have come up for
you this past week as related to the readings and your own work, continue the
conversations regarding student work posted in the forum. As well, we will continue our
discussions of the workshopped student pieces. My greatest hope is that we all can
nurture one another’s work here, gently push each other further. As well, that we can
simulate the traditional classroom environment, all of us contributing to the
conversation and coming up with answers and inspiration in a true dialogue that
inspires.
Your Weekly Responsibilities:
Log onto Canvas, and read through the entire “Schedule” page. This page included my
“lecture” for the week, as well as assignments, supplemental readings and links, and
other reminders.
Read the assigned stories and stories in the text, and post your responses to the
discussion section in the forum.
Participate in an hour-long “chat” session via ZOOM, hosted by me (optional).
What I’ll be Doing:
Sending out a weekly email containing general class information and the upcoming
reading and writing assignments.
Setting up the forums and moderating the discussion within. I will generally check in at
least once every weekday, although I don’t generally post on weekends.
Reading and commenting on all student work in a positive and helpful manner, keeping
in mind the goals of this class, to push ourselves toward deepening our fiction and
taking it to the next level. For short exercises, my responses will be a couple of
paragraphs long, with perhaps a few lines of technical advice. For the full-length pieces,
I’ll provide a page or so of comments, to push your further into your work and help you
continue with it.
Hosting the weekly online “chat” sessions.
Grading Options and Requirements:
Grading:
For those of you who are taking this course for a grade, the breakdown is as follows.
Please note that you can change your grading status at any point before the final class
meeting (Friday of the last week of class) by contacting the Stanford Continuing
Studies Department).
Writing Exercises (Weeks 1-3): 20 %
Full-length workshop piece (Weeks 4-8): 30 %
Revision (Week 9): 20%
Forum/Workshop Participation: 30%
Here are the ways in which you can apply for grade status:
No Grade Requested (NGR)
This is the default option. No work will be required; no credit shall be received; no proof
of attendance can be provided.
Credit/No Credit (CR/NC)
Students must attend at least 80% of class sessions.
Letter grade (A,B,C,D, No Pass)
*Please Note: If you require proof that you completed a Continuing Studies course for any
reason (for example, employer reimbursement), you must choose either the Letter Grade
or Credit/No Credit option. Courses taken for NGR will not appear on official transcripts or
grade reports.
TENTATIVE WEEKLY OUTLINE
Week 1, Go For Broke:
Developing and Complicating Characters, Deepening Fiction, pp. 1-16, pp. 18-27
Drinking Coffee Elsewhere by ZZ Packer, Deepening Fiction
Silver Water by Amy Bloom, Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction
Writing Assignment (choose ONE):
PART I:
Empty out your pocket or purse.
Write about a black sheep in your family, an eccentric or embarrassment
Major event exercise.
PART II:
CHOOSE ONE
Character Exercise: Choose one of the exercises (1, 2,3) offered in Deepening Fiction, pp.
26-27.
Week 2, How to Tell:
Point of View, Deepening Fiction, pp. 28-35, pp. 37-46, pp. 46-50
Winners on the Pass Lane by Dagoberto Gilb, Scribner Anthology of Contemporary
Short Fiction
Gooseberries by Anton Chekhov
Writing Exercises:
PART I
CHOOSE ONE:
Write a story in first-person singular about something that happened to somebody else;
tell it as though it happened to you.
Take something that happened to you, and write it in the third person.
Select a tense situation such as an auto accident, a potentially violent encounter, or a
disintegrating love affair, and describe it four times from four different points of view:
a. first person
b. third-person limited omniscient
c. third-person objective
d. third-person omniscient
Which point of view works best for this material, and why?
PART II
Do either number 2 or 3 of the POINT OF VIEW exercises on p. 50 in Deepening Fiction.
Week 3, A Little Bit About Voice, A Little Bit About Plot:
The Uses of First and Second Person, Deepening Fiction, pp. 52-62, pp. 64-66
Nilda by Junot Diaz, from Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short Fiction
Plot, Narrative Drive, Deepening Fiction, pp. 71-81
Father by John L’Heureux
Writing Exercises:
CHOOSE ONE
PART I
1. Point of View Exercise 1, from Deepening Fiction, p. 69.
500 words, to be posted in Forum
2. Plot and Structure Exercise (1 OR 2 OR 3 OR 4)
PART II
If you are feeling stuck, just for fun, here’s a RANDOM PLOT GENERATOR:
http://writingexercises.co.uk/plotgenerator.php
Week 4, Time After Time:
Time in Fiction, Deepening Fiction, pp. 94-102, pp. 104-109, pp.110-111
Friends by Lucia Berlin
This week we will begin workshop. This means that we’ll be focused on longer pieces
and more detailed peer feedback. Please keep in mind the remaining writing exercises
will be optional, but I encourage you to do them and to share with the class.
Writing Assignments:
CHOOSE ONE!
PART I
Keep an image notebook in your journal this week (and beyond).
Describe a pair of shoes in such a way that a reader will think of death. Do not mention
death in the piece of writing.
One time exercise.
Memory exercise.
Write about an accident you once had in different ways.
PART II
Exercise 1 or 2 or 3 from Deepening Fiction, p. 112
Week 5, So That’s What My Story is About:
Workshop Continues!
Discovering the Story’s Subject: Deepening Fiction, pp. 113-129, pp. 131-132
A Wagner Matinee by Willa Cather
Writing Assignment:
PART I
CHOOSE ONE!
TAKE THE PICTURE, TAKE THE GODDAMNED PICTURE.
Begin a story with these lines.
PART II
Subject Matter Exercise, Exercise 1 or 2 or 3, from Deepening Fiction, p. 133.
Week 6, Setting and Detail:
Workshop Continues!
Macrosetting, Microsetting and Detail, Deepening Fiction, pp. 135-140, pp. 142-145, pp.
147-150
A Temporary Matter by Jhumpa Lahiri from Scribner Anthology of Contemporary Short
Fiction
Writing Assignments
CHOOSE ONE!
PART I
Limit: 500 words (one-single space page)
Write a description of a place where you live as if you are writing to someone who has
never been there.
Take a photograph taken in youth in the place where you grew up or spent a good
amount of time growing up. You’re in the photograph and you’re outside. Now describe
the world of that photograph. The details, each and every small thing that might
escape notice.
Write two pieces, each beginning with line:
I am a stranger here.
I am home.
PART II
Setting Exercise, Exercise 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5, from Deepening Fiction, p. 149-150.
Week 7, RE/Search and Imagination:
Workshop Continues!
Research and the Imagination, Deepening Fiction, pp. 151-159, pp. 160-165, pp. 167-169
Orientation by Daniel Orozco
Writing exercise:
CHOOSE ONE!
500 words.
1. Society, Culture, and Content Exercise, Exercise 1 or 2 or 3 or 4 from Deepening
Fiction, p. 168-169.
2. Workplace writing exercise.
3. Historical figure writing exercise.
Week 8, You Talkin’ to Me?:
Style and Dialogue, Deepening Fiction, pp. 170-179, pp. 181-192
A Conversation With My Father by Grace Paley
Writing Exercises:
CHOOSE ONE!
PART I:
Limit: 500 words (one single-spaced page).
1. MAN (OR WOMAN) ON A PLANE writing exercise.
2. Eavesdropping writing exercise.
3. Shame writing exercise.
4. Style and Dialogue Exercise, Exercise 1 or 2 or 5 from Deepening Fiction, p. 191-192
Week 9, Revision:
Revision: Beginnings, Middles and Endings, Deepening Fiction, pp 193-215
Pilgrims by Julie Orringer
Revision Exercise
All revisions due!
Limit: 500 words (one-single space page)
CHOOSE ONE!
Revision change-up writing exercise:
1. Cut one piece in half.
2. Put one piece of prose into line breaks.
3. Put one poem with line breaks into prose.
4. Take the ending of the piece, and make it the beginning — write it backwards.
5. Change the point of view.
6. Change the verb tense.
7. Cut off the beginning and the ending.
8. Change the form or structure of one piece. 9. Take scissors and physically cut up the parts of a piece, then rearrange. 10. Stitch two pieces together, finding the link or common thread.
Week 10, You Made It!:
Revision of the story that was put up for workshop.
Revision (2000-5000 words).
Commentary by all students, for each revised story.
Talent and Endurance, Writer’s Block, Rejection and Publication, Deepening Fiction, pp.
388-405
Cumulative Writing Exercise