WesMaps - Wesleyan University Catalog 2023-2024       Summer Session       Winter Session       Home       Archive       Search
CS92PROD
Techniques of Fiction
ENGL 296
Spring 2024
Section: 01   02  

This introduction to the elements of fiction and a range of authors is for students who want to write and, through writing, increase their understanding and appreciation of a variety of short stories.
This is a class for those with a deep love of the written word and a boundless curiosity for what transpires when the imagination is given room to roam. We will work together to develop certain skills: a poet's love of metaphor and gift of compression; a playwright's sense of dramatic tension; an essayist's penchant for startling observations and investigation; and a translator's attention to meaning and language. We'll attend to the customary struggles of fiction writers: moving people around in time and space; showing rather than explaining; giving people things to say that sounds natural and revelatory; and making sure everybody wants something they can't have and shouldn't get. In other words, we will be looking at elements of fiction such as action, character development, plot, dialogue, and description. We'll be reading short stories by the acknowledged experts. And we will be focusing intensely on revision as an act of re-visioning your stories. I repeat: Be prepared to revise.
Credit: 1 Gen Ed Area Dept: HA ENGL
Course Format: DiscussionGrading Mode: Graded
Level: UGRD Prerequisites: None
Fulfills a Requirement for: (ENGL)(ENGL-Creative W)(ENGL-Literature)
Past Enrollment Probability: Less than 50%

Last Updated on NOV-12-2024
Contact wesmaps@wesleyan.edu to submit comments or suggestions. Please include a url, course title, faculty name or other page reference in your email ? Wesleyan University, Middletown, Connecticut, 06459