Back when I was in school, I took two creative writing classes: one was an introduction (so we did a unit on essays, one on short stories, one on poetry, and one on screenplays) and the other focused on fiction, albeit in short story format. I love fiction writing, but I'm not very involved on short stories; I want to write novels and I didn't get much advice on how to do it. So I thought of a rough curriculum for a class that would favor novel writing (well, more like novella, because they'd probably cap off at about sixty pages or so).
First day would be introductions. I'd have the class do short written intros that included information about what kind of stories they like to write/read too. That way, if they didn't have groups for workshops in mind, I'd be able to put them in groups that would hopefully be compatible. There would be a total of three workshops over the semester, all with the same group (of around three or four), all for about twenty pages of the same story. I'd give the group members about a week to come up with reviews and suggestions for their groups' stories.
During class times in between workshops, I'd have students anonymously (or not, if they choose) send in writing problems for the class to discuss. If no problems arose, we could talk about different tropes or writing methods. It'd be very "free-flowing" and hard to fail because I'd mostly grade on participation and completion (aside from the final, which would be the finished story, where I'd grade on how much the student improved from their rough drafts).
The biggest pain would be grading the sixty-page finals. I'd probably have to cap off the class at like, twelve people or so (sixteen at max). It'd be neat to read so many stories though, and I think it would help students who want to write novels work with issues like plot development, foreshadowing, and long-term character development that don't really come up in short story classes.
... can I teach a class like this if I become an English major? I wonder...
No comments:
Post a Comment