MA in Writing Graduate Course Schedule, Northwestern University School of Professional Studies - Northwestern School of Professional Studies

Program Courses

Please note that course schedules may be amended due to low enrollment, faculty availability, and/or other factors.

Online Sync Sessions are an integral part of the online learning experience. Additional information about learning concepts and assignments may be discussed and sync sessions offer valuable opportunities for students to interact with their faculty and peers during the term. We encourage all students to attend live, but if they are unable to, sync sessions will be recorded and posted within Canvas to allow for an asynchronous model of success as well.

MCW 413-0 : Fiction Writing Workshop

Description

Though the four most essential features of fiction: character, subtext, point of view, and language—sentence-by-sentence and word-by-word—will be the principal subjects of study in this course, we will shine a spotlight on one additional element of fiction each week. We’ll be thinking, writing, and talking about how these elements of craft are at play in the weekly reading assignments. Writers will produce two original short stories to be workshopped by the class, and one substantive revision. Students will also write three annotations—explorations of craft aligned with their own fictive interests. Throughout the course, great emphasis will be placed on the importance of putting precise and efficient language to how we think and feel about the work produced by pros and peers. Reading assignments will include short stories, three novellas, and a novel in vignettes that you may have read in high school, but not the way you’ll read it here.