Fiction Workshop II: The Love Story

Undergraduate / Graduate

This workshop approaches "the love story" as both a narrative genre and a foundational subject for all kinds of stories. As we read a selection of unique and provocative works involving love, we'll ask: What distinguishes a good love story from a bad one-and, for that matter, a great from a good one? As writers, how might we deepen the genre's most potent tropes while avoiding its most devitalizing clichés? How does exploring romantic love uniquely enable us to write not only about other kinds of love but about the most elusive subjects in life? Underlying all these questions is one that each student should ask for themself throughout the quarter: What am I truly writing about when I write about love? Through focused writing exercises and workshops of their own love stories, students will work toward answering these questions and writing as honestly and convincingly as possible about this most examined of human experiences.