Creative Writing II Schedule

Hybrid Course, Spring 2015

Following each date below are reading or other assignments due for that day. Also following each date are tentative activities and topics for the class period. If you miss a meeting, you should 1) get full notes and updates from several classmates; and 2) check with me again you have specific, informed questions. Because this schedule is flexible and subject to change, and because it's a workshop course, it's vital that you attend regularly and keep up with current announcements. Be sure as well to check your email and this online schedule regularly for changes and updates.

Jan. 15/17 —

  • Introduction to course.
  • Watch for email this week!

Jan. 22/24—

Before Class
  • Explore our Bb site, and read over our Course Info page.
  • Create a personal thread in our PUB (see instruction at Bb).
  • Complete your weekly cyber work. (Go to our Blackboard menu and click on WEEKLY CYBER ASSIGNMENTS. You'll see instructions for each week's task.)
In Class
  • PLEASE BRING A LAPTOP IF YOU HAVE ONE.
  • Look at Pub threads.
  • Share faves from Skittish Libations. Perspectives wheel.
  • Snow snack and begin fiction unit.

Jan. 29/31—

Before Class
  • Read about Workshop.
  • Read Carver's, "Cathedral." (You can also access this story in our Blackboard CLASS LIBRARY.)
  • Complete your weekly cyber work. Remember that instructions for these assignments are posted in Bb, and that you will also submit your completed work there.
  • Be thinking about a story you might like to write.
In Class
Tues. section: no Tues. class meeting this week. See email for instructions (forthcoming).
Thurs. section:
  • Workshop schedule set-up.
  • Return to snow exercise: what's makes any random collection of events a "story"? Share sketches of stories based on the snow-eating experience: where does/should the story actually begin and end? who is the main character? what is the situation? what keeps us engaged as readers?
  • Guest speaker.
  • Discuss Carver's "Cathedral" briefly, time permitting. Examine final scene. "Art is thinking in images."—AleksanderPotebn
  • Fiction Project assignment, time permitting.

Feb. 4/6 —

Before Class
  • Read Tim O'Brien's How to Tell a True War Story.
  • Be working on Fiction Project assignment. See this week's Cyber Assignment for full instructions.
In Class
Tues. section:
  • Workshop schedule set-up.
  • Return to snow exercise: what's makes any random collection of events a "story"? Share sketches of stories based on snow-eating experience, and then this week's cyber work.
  • Briefly discuss Carver's "Cathedral." Examine final scene. "Art is thinking in images."—AleksanderPotebn.
  • Work with O'Brien story. (Please bring print-outs of this item if you can, or have it available on a laptop.)
  • Draft of Fiction Project assignment due. Bring 2 hardcopies, stapled.
  • Begin work with flash fiction?
  • Discuss any questions or issues with Fiction Project.
  • Peer response exercise.
Thurs. section:
  • Draft of Fiction Project assignment due. Bring 2 hardcopies, stapled.
  • Work with O'Brien story.
  • Begin work with flash fiction.
  • Peer response exercise.

Feb. 11/13—

Before Class
  • Read flash fiction samples (pay attention especially to those with an * by their name).
  • Optional: take a look at two documents to help you develop characters in your stories: Character Tips and Characterization (U. of Berkeley).
  • Browse through Harmonious Confusion.
  • Complete your weekly cyber work. Remember that instructions for these assignments are posted in Bb, and that you will also post your completed work there.
In Class
  • Work with flash fiction.

Feb. 18/20—

Before Class
  • Complete your weekly cyber work. Remember that instructions for these assignments are posted in Bb, and that you will also post your completed work there.
In Class
  • Finish class discussion of fiction-as-craft. Thurs. section: quick look at sample flash fiction and revisit snow-eating exercise. Harmonious Confusion.
  • Workshop. Please remember to bring hardcopy print-outs of the items to be workshopped. You may alternately have them available on a laptop.

Feb. 25/27—

  • Dollar Bill Exercise.
  • Workshop catch-up.

Mar. 3/5—

  • Workshop catch-up.

Mar. 10/12—

  • Begin work with poetry and Poetry Project #1: The Luminous Object.
  • Workshop.

Mar. 17/19—SPRING BREAK

Mar. 24/26—

  • Continue work with poetry.
  • Workshop.

March 31/April 2—

  • Sample student concrete and surrealist and/or formalist poems. Look at sestinas. Free verse exercise. Using a thesaurus. Loving words.
  • Workshop.

April 8/10—

  • The oral and visual traditions. Sampling of spoken-word performances.
  • Workshop.

April 15/17—

  • The oral and visual traditions. Sampling of visual performances. Possibly look at Hoagland, Bidart, et al. (see cyber assignment for 8/10).
  • Workshop.

April 22/24—

  • Discuss chapbooks and letters.
  • Possibly look at Hoagland, Bidart, et al. (see cyber assignment for 8/10).
  • Workshop.

April 29/May 1—

Workshop. Possibly begin Poetry Project #3 presentations.

May 6/8—

Poetry Project #3 presentations.

Finals Week—

We will NOT meet for finals week.

Final Deadlines

Tuesday section deadline:May 13th 5pm
Thursday section deadline: May 15th 5pm

Materials Due

Chapbook (see assignment for full instructions)
Should contain:
  • Title page (no cheesy, cliché, or overly general “umbrella” titles such as, “The Journey of Life,” or “Love Poems,” or whatnot; be interesting and distinctive)
  • Table of contents
  • Optional acknowledgements and/or dedication page
  • Fiction Project and Poetry Projects 1-3* (these should be just regular, titled items of the book, but please lightly pencil the project numbers at the top of each)
  • Other work you’ve completed independently to help make the book whole
  • Firm binding of some sort for the whole book
  • Pagination
  • No frilly or cute or weird fonts!
Reflective Letter(see assignment for full instructions)(folded and placed inside chapbook, or clipped securely to chapbook)
Any late cyber assignments or class exercises(hardcopy, stapled, with attached notes clearly explaining what assignments are being handed in and when they were originally due; don’t attach these to the Chapbook; just turn them in separately)
* Even though Poetry Project #3 is a performed or presented piece, you should include some facsimile of it in your chapbook. For instance, if your piece is a Power Point or audio document, you can include it on a labeled CD; if it was a large hardcopy visual item, you could take a photo and include that in your book; if it’s simply a written poem which you performed live for the class, you can include the written copy (perhaps with a note explaining that it is meant to be spoken-word); if your work is on YouTube or the web, you could simply include a page in your book which the URL address; and so on.

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