One-semester Course
open to 10, 11, 12
range of difficulty 1-4
1. Rationale
The exercise and education of the imagination is the foundation of this course. Creative writing is taught to provide opportunities for students to explore inner landscapes and imagined vistas articulated by published writers and to enhance the skill necessary for them to try to cultivate their own artistic voices.
2. Topics or Themes Emphasized
The following types of writing and components of writing are discussed and used in the course: journal writing, interior monologue, stream of consciousness, narrative voice, dramatic monologue, dramatic dialogue, screenplay writing and adaptation, poetry, children’s literature, science fiction, fantasy, meter, tone, texture, scansion, tempo, style.
3. Methods and Sample Assignments
• Inspiration in the form of art, music, photography; anything that stirs the imagination.
• Vocabulary and word play.
• Grammar and editing skills.
• A variety of listening: guest speakers, recordings of readings, music.
• A variety of forms and critical skills.
• A critical language in order to edit one’s own and other’s work in a constructive manner.
• Workshop atmosphere in which writing is always considered in process.
Sample Assignments
Robert Creely’s poem “The First TIme” addresses issues related to time and memory. In the excerpt from Light in August, Faulkner writes, “Memory believes before knowing remembers.” Using your own experience, write ten images that use time, memory, or remembering as their source.
Each image should convey a specific, recognizable tone or texture.
Prepare two drafts (one paragraph for each) of a detailed description of an inanimate object. Use a different point of view in each. Accompany the drafts with process notes in which you explain which one you believe is more effective and why.
4. Expectations for Students
Reading: Weekly: several poems, a short story, section of a novel.
Writing: Daily: work to be kept in a journal, much ungraded; some graded only after considerable editing and revision.
Listening and speaking: Students will listen to each other’s works.
Other: Students will keep a portfolio of original works. From it, at the end of the semester, each student may host a reading featuring material she or he selects for presentation.
5. Reading List and Other Materials
What If?, Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter
On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, Stephen King
other readings selected by the teacher
6. Selected Bibliography
Burroway, Janet, Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, 7th Edition
Goodman, Richard, The Soul of Creative Writing
Kiteley, Brian, The 3 A.M. Epiphany
Kiteley, Brian, The 4 A.M. Breakthrough
Smith, Hazel, The Writing Experiment: Strategies for Innovative Writing
Starkey, David, Creative Writing: Four Genres in Brief