Concerning fiction, Virginia Woolf writes, "Fiction must stick to the facts, and the truer the facts the better the fiction." Then, what is fiction? What can be meant by "truth" in the imaginative act of writing fiction? This class will explore this question through establishing a definition of fiction as an art of language, a form, and a craft that has its roots in storytelling. The class will include weekly in-class writing sessions; we will generate a significant amount of pages, experimenting with point-of-view, setting, plot, voice, time, and language; reading one's work out loud will also be required. Emphasis on generating material as well as re-writing, using self-assessment, supportive feedback, and various revision techniques. To expand our ideas of prose style, we will read works by several established and groundbreaking writers. Individual conferences with the instructor will be required.

:: Workshop Structure

This is a workshop, meaning we will work on writing together during class. Each class period will begin with free-writing. Then we will do structured writing exercises in response to the author for that week and in response to writing themes or style concerns. We'll sometimes share these works-in-progress during class. We'll take a short break in the middle of the class time-please bring food to eat and share at this time. I have found that hungry writers are not good writers so during the break we'll eat together and talk about whatever. (I'll provide seltzer water, soda, and juice and occasionally cookies.) The last part of class will consist of workshop members reading their work out loud and giving/getting constructive feedback.

:: Our Workshop Community : Some Guidelines and Ground Rules

"Invention, in the literary as in many other contexts, is a term nuanced toward reciprocity-between the creative imagination and utility, between originality and the world. As an act brings a community into being, the community must be there to provide advocacy (or publication, in the broad as well as literal or literary sense-bringing the act into a public space), social and professional support, intellectual challenge, aesthetic stimulus, etc. The community creates the context in which the work's happening happens. It does so by generating ideas and work that might not have come into being otherwise, and, in the best sense, by challenging everyone involved. In this last respect, a community presents a more difficult milieu than that of the support group. To be simultaneously permissive and rigorous is the challenging task that a highly functional community must attempt. A community that can manage it will be an improvement to the world that is always with us."

-Lyn Hejinian, from the essay, "Who is Speaking?" published in The Language of Inquiry, University of California Press, 2000.

:: For the writer receiving criticism:

your writing is not you
your work is a work in-progress
listen without defending-remain actively silent
decide what criticism is useful and what is not
view criticism as an opportunity to see how your work is read
know that all writers receive criticism many times
after the critique, ask questions to clarify statements made, but do not defend

:: For the writer offering criticism:

begin by saying what you think the piece is about-its theme
frame all criticisms in the form of questions or begin with "What if . . ."
tell the author of the piece if you would like to know more about some aspect of the story
use phrases like " . . . reminds me of . . . in my own life" and "I'd like to know more about . . . "
reflect on what you will say before the critique
when in doubt, don't say anything
don't apologize for your reading, for your opinion

:: Course Schedule and Readings

Introduction to the class : Where do stories come from?

Family, childhood : read Jamaica Kincaid

Love : read Harold Brodkey

Silence : read Yasunari Kawabata

Death : read Flannery O'Connor

Selfhood, ghosts : read Garcia Marquez

"No-grand-narrative fiction," voice, collage : read excerpts from Lyn Hejinian, Marguerite Duras, Donald Barthelme, Carole Maso

Film and fiction : Poetry and fiction : Wrap-up.

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