Course schedule for the Creative Writing Graduate Certificate Program, Northwestern University School of Professional Studies - Northwestern School of Professional Studies

Course Schedule

MCW 413-0 : Fiction Writing Workshop

Description

In this fiction workshop we will explicate and critique novel excerpts and short stories, as well as student work. The focus of the class is craft in all its aspects. For example, we will consider the many uses of reported speech, why a writer might choose one point of view over another, what makes for a successful opening, what work has to be done during the development of a novel or story to create a powerful and resonant ending, how a work of fiction finds and develops the “language” by which it speaks and makes meaning, what the keys to creating characters that are complex and compelling are, and how a writer recognizes when he or she is too present in his or her own work, undermining the delicate balance between reader, writer, and character—the sacred trinity of fiction.