Creative Writing: Introduction

(5 Credit Hours) · Undergraduate

Have you ever wondered what it means to write creatively? Or how you might articulate what Zadie Smith calls 'your way of being in the world?' We'll address these questions and explore the work of various writers while also ensuring that you receive guidance on your own writing. This course will get you writing prose fiction and/or poetry. While there is no single, authorised way to write, there are things worth knowing about: you will develop an understanding of the craft of writing (observation, drafting, and submitting to deadlines). You will be guided through themes and concepts such as voice, structure, theory, and form. In prose you will look at character, dialogue, point-of-view, 'showing' versus 'telling,' plotting, etc. In poetry, you will explore the possibilities of pattern and form, sound, voice, imagery, and rhythm. By the end of the course you'll have developed a body of work to call your own and and a sense of what it means/takes to write seriously.