Fiction Workshop II: Narrative Time

Undergraduate / Graduate

A story's endpoint determines its meaning, yet the history of a life can be covered in a sentence, a few pages, or seven volumes. How do writers make these choices? We'll look at different ways to handle narrative time, paying special attention to related building blocks like direct and summary scene, setting, point of view, prose rhythm and tense. More specifically, we'll examine categories of time, including classic/straightforward, flashback, compression, slowed time, Swiss cheese time, and fabulist time. We'll read and discuss long stories that have the sweep of novels alongside those that say everything in a single scene. You'll be encouraged to experiment with time in writing exercises, story assignments and revision. *NOTE: Undergraduate students are expected to have taken Fiction Workshop I (CRWR 10206) before enrolling in this class.