English 2250: Creative Writing
Stephen D. Gibson
LA 114 G (12:00-1:00 & by appointment), 863-6287, stephen(dot)gibson(at)uvu(dot)edu
Texts and Materials:
Bishop, Wendy. Thirteen Ways of Looking for a Poem. New York: Longman, 2000.
LaPlante, Alice. Method and Madness. New York: W.W. Norton, 2007.
A functioning UVlink email account
Access to Canvas
Course Goals:
A Story About the Body
Robert Hass
The young composer, working that summer at an artist’s colony, had watched her for a week. She was Japanese, a painter, almost sixty, and he thought he was in love with her. He loved her work, and her work was like the way she moved her body, used her hands, looked at him directly when she made amused and considered answers to his questions. One night, walking back from a concert, they came to her door and she turned to him and said, “I think you would like to have me. I would like that too, but I must tell you that I have had a double mastectomy,” and when he didn’t understand, “I’ve lost both my breasts.” The radiance that he had carried around in his belly and chest cavity—like music—withered very quickly, and he made himself look at her when he said, “I’m sorry. I don’t think I could.” He walked back to his own cabin through the pines, and in the morning he found a small blue bowl on the porch outside his door. It looked to be full of rose petals, but he found when he picked it up that the rose petals were on top; the rest of the bowl—she must have swept them from the corners of her studio—was full of dead bees.
What techniques allow these words to hold our attention? What did Hass do to make this prose poem successful? What choices did he make? Is it possible for us to do similar things in our own work?
By the end of the semester, you’ll write effective short stories and poems. You’ll describe the basic strategies of these types of writing and demonstrate the application of these techniques in your own writing. You’ll provide helpful and specific feedback on the writing of others and revise your own work well. You’ll know how to prepare and submit a manuscript for publication. Finally, you’ll have demonstrated the discipline required to write consistently. These are our goals in this class.
Reaching the Goals: In order to successfully reach these goals, you must take responsibility for your own learning and participate as an active learner. The best way to learn what writers do is to try and do what writers do. This course gives you the opportunity to draft and revise short fiction and poetry, to join a community of writers engaged in similar tasks, and to receive feedback from a range of readers.
Most Wednesdays you’ll have the opportunity to present your work in progress to your peers. In order to have this opportunity, you’ll need to bring an anonymous hard copy of new work to class each Monday. As a class, we will discuss your work on the following Wednesday.
One of the most important things writers do is learn from other genres. They also actually finish (after revising) stories and poems they start. You’ll have the chance to do these things by completing two portfolios, one devoted to fiction, the other to a set of five poems. It’s possible to earn as much as one hundred points from each. Complete portfolios include the following:
- Final draft (Prose should be no longer than twelve double-spaced pages and no shorter than ten. Two of the five poems need to be examples of a poetic form; one a sonnet and the other a form of your choice. This will indicate the ways strict forms can be useful and even inspiring.)
- Rough drafts (Rough drafts let you demonstrate the revision involved in your writing. Remember, significant revision involves major rewriting. Changes to words, small percentages of the stories, and the correction of grammatical and mechanical errors are not examples of significant revision.)
- Self-reflective writing on the process of composing your story and poems (You’ll be able to think about your writing process by considering your writing habits, techniques and exercises, suggestions you receive in the process of workshopping, and your writing generally.)
Detailed descriptions of the portfolio requirements are attached to this syllabus. The greatest benefits the portfolios provide are only realized if all three parts are completed. I’ll encourage you to finish all three parts by refusing to grade incomplete portfolios.
You’ll also have the chance to write in class almost each time we meet. Since in-class writing will often grow out of in-class events, it can’t be made up. The in-class writing you’ve completed documents your attendance and punctuality. In-class writing provides an opportunity to record ideas, try out some of the techniques we’ll discuss, and actually rough draft parts of your short fiction and poetry. Usually I’ll collect in-class writing. Evaluations of in-class writing include zero points (if it’s not completed), three points (completed poorly), and five (completed well). By the end of the semester, in-class writing will total approximately one hundred points.
The last way you’ll show how well you understand the techniques the course identifies will be the final exam. Students will write a brief essay in which they identify a journal that seems appropriate for their work. Having identified a journal, they will submit work to it for the final exam. The final is worth fifteen points.
Approximately three hundred and twenty-five points are possible in the class. Earning more than 93% of the total points possible in the class will result in an “A” grade, 90%-92.9% an A-, 86%-89.9% a “B+,” and so on. As the UVU Catalog indicates, “The letter grade ‘A’ is an honor grade indicating superior achievement; ‘B’ is a grade indicating commendable mastery; ‘C’ indicates satisfactory mastery and is considered an average grade; ‘D’ indicates substandard progress and insufficient evidence of ability to succeed in sequential courses; ‘E’ (failing) indicates inadequate mastery of pertinent skills or repeated absences from class.”
In order to protect their privacy, students must come to see me privately in my office if they wish to discuss a grade on an assignment or for the course. It is your responsibility to periodically check your grade on Canvas.
Late Work Policy: If for some good reason you won’t be able to turn something in, contact me (preferably in advance). You’ll be able to develop the habit of meeting deadlines by bringing hard copies of papers and rough drafts to class at the beginning of class on their due dates. In order to discourage procrastination, I’ll take ten points away from the total points earned each day (not class period) a paper is late. For example, a paper due on Friday but not turned in until Monday would have thirty points deducted from the total points it earns. A paper is turned in on the day when I personally receive it, when I can hold a hard copy in my hands, not when it is left in my box, office, or in the English department. I don’t plan on grading papers faxed to me, and I encourage you to always make and keep a copy of all the work you turn in. You can, of course, turn things in early.
Peer Review: “The purpose of a writing workshop is to give and receive constructive feedback . . . This is not a time to show off your polished work; it is a time to test out material you’re working on, a time to receive suggestions on how it might be improved, a time to ask a receptive audience specific questions about your work. The spirit of these workshops must be cordial and helpful. As the writer, you are not there to defend or explain your work; you merely need to find out, from others’ viewpoints, what works and what doesn’t. As a reader, you are there to help a fellow writer improve a specific piece of writing.”
–Chris Crowe
Classroom Behavior and Grievance Criteria: The “Student Rights and Responsibilities Code,” section VI A-X is the guide for your classroom behavior, and section XVI C is the guide for registering a formal grievance or requesting a grade change. The “Student Rights and Responsibilities Code” is available on line at http:www.uvsc.edu.
Students with Disabilities: If you have any disability that may impair your ability to successfully complete this course, please contact the Accessibility Services Department (room BU145). Academic accommodations are granted for all students who have qualified disabilities. Services are coordinated with the student and instructor by the Accessibility Services Department.
Academic Honesty: “Plagiarism, or the use of others’ words or ideas without proper attribution, is an impediment to your education and to the educational mission of Utah Valley State College. Under the policy of the English and Literature Department of UVSC, work that has been plagiarized must receive a failing grade. A distinction is made between unintentionally plagiarized work, which must be corrected in order to be considered for a passing grade, and intentional plagiarism, which will be forwarded to the Office of the Dean of Student Life as a disciplinary matter in accordance with UVSC’s statement on Student Rights and Responsibilities. Evidence of intentional plagiarism will cause you to fail this course. Please refer to http://www.uvsc.edu/courseinfo/engl/plagiarism_policy.html to read the department’s full statement on plagiarism, and speak to your instructor if you have any questions about avoiding plagiarism.”
–Utah Valley State College English and Literature Department Homepage
Tentative Schedule
Complete the reading assignments listed below before coming to class on the specified dates. Your books are yours. Explore them by reading beyond the syllabus. While we will do some in class, consider doing the exercises in both books.
Jan 9 Introduction to the course, the instructor, the students
Jan 11 Bishop: Introduction xxix-xli
Jan 13 Writing and Reading Poetry 1-18
Jan 16 Martin Luther King Day
Jan 18 Writing and Reading Poetry II 19-36
Jan 20 Accentual and Syllabic Verse 37-62
Jan 23 Haiku 153-160, New material due
Jan 25 Peer review new material
Jan 27 Haiku 161-180
Jan 30 Couplets and Rhyme 63-74, New material due
Feb 1 Peer review new material
Feb 3 Couplets and Rhyme 75-88
Feb 6 Listing and Repetition 181-197, New material due
Feb 8 Peer review new material
Feb 10 Listing and Repetition 197-215
Feb 13 Sestina 292-316, New material due
Feb 15 Peer review new material
Feb 17 Villanelles 362-373
Feb 20 President’s Day Holiday
Feb 21 Sonnet 317-327, New material due
Feb 22 Peer review new material
Feb 24 Sonnet 327-343
Feb 27 Prose Poems 238-251, New material due
Feb 29 Peer review new material
Mar 2 Prose Poems 251-265
Mar 5 Poetry portfolio due
Mar 7 LaPlante: “What Is This Thing Called Creative Writing?” 1-13
Mar 9 “The Short Story” 96-118
Mar 12 Spring Break
Mar 14 Spring Break
Mar 16 Spring Break
Mar 19 “Details, Details” 61-78, New material due
Mar 21 Peer review new material
Mar 23 “Raising the Curtain” 366-376
Mar 26 “Why You Need to Show and Tell” 147-163, New material due
Mar 28 Peer review new material
Mar 30 “Recognizable People” 326-342
Apr 2 “He Said, She Said” 257-269, New material due
Apr 4 Peer review new material
Apr 6 “What Happens Next?” 278-290
Apr 9 “Who’s Telling This Story?” 190-208, New material due
Apr 11 Peer review new material
Apr 13 “How Reliable is This Narrator?” 234-243
Apr 16 “What’s this Story Really About?” 397-406, New material due
Apr 18 Peer review new material
Apr 20 Fiction portfolio due
Final exam: Monday, Apr 23, 9-11
Poetry Criteria
Poetry (100 points):
When grading poems, I ask myself the following set of questions:
- Can I identify images—examples of particular sensory details? Does the poem avoid editorializing or moralizing that distracts from the images?
- Does the confusion-free language of the poem avoid hiding information or riddling? Does punctuation aid the poem?
- Has the language of the poem been condensed and shaped? Are line and stanza breaks used with premeditation?
- Do efforts to achieve rhyme or rhythm avoid stilted, unnatural language? Do efforts to achieve rhyme or rhythm add to the poem?
- Does the poem avoid obvious clichés? Are there thoughtful examples of figurative language?
Total: _____
A check mark in the margin indicates a grammatical issue on the line that corresponds with the mark.
Self-reflection on poetry writing
In order for your poems be graded, you will need to think and write about the process of composing. To do this, explicitly answer the questions below.
- What’s the most important thing you have learned about writing poetry? What do you wish you had learned that you didn’t?
- What have you learned about your poetry writing habits?
- What techniques, authors, or exercises have been most useful to you?
- What insights have you gained into the practice of poetry?
- What moment of revision are you most proud of? Why?
Fiction Criteria
Fiction (100 points):
When grading fiction, I ask myself about the following principles:
Language
- Does the confusion-free language of the story hold my attention? Does the language of the story avoid cliché? Is figurative language used strategically? Can I identify images—examples of particular sensory details?
Character
- Does the use of point of view add to the story? Does characterization create the illusion of a person? Does dialogue reveal characters and move the plot forward?
Action
- Do dangers to the fulfillment of a character’s desire and the character’s actions in response to those dangers lead to drama? Are scene and summary used strategically?
Setting
- Does the story happen in a setting readers can imagine?
Theme
- Does the story develop a sense of momentum? Is it engaging and interesting? Does the story have a subtext?
Total: _____
A check mark in the margin indicates a grammatical issue on the line that corresponds with the mark.
Self-reflection on fiction writing
In order for your story to be graded, you’ll need to think and write about the process of composing. To do this, explicitly answer the five questions below.
- What’s the most important thing you’ve learned about writing fiction? What do you wish you had learned that you didn’t?
- What have you learned about your fiction writing habits? Are they different than those your have for poetry? Why or why not?
- What techniques, authors, or exercises have been most useful to you?
- What insights have you gained into the practice of writing fiction?
- What moment of revision are you most proud of? Why?
