Boise State University
English 407: Advanced Fiction Writing
Fall 2016
Instructor:
Cynthia Hand, Ph.D.
Class Time:
T Th 12:00-1:15 p.m.
Class Location: ASH 118
Office Location: Gateway 119
Office Hours: Tuesdays/ Thursday 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. or by appointment
Cell Phone: (see the Blackboard version for my number) (No calls after 9 pm or before 7 am)
E-mail: cynthiahand@boisestate.edu
CATALOG COURSE DESCRIPTION
Intensive
work in writing and critiquing fiction.
PREREQUISITES
Prerequisite: CRWR 306.
CREDIT HOURS
Three (3) units. This translates to approximately 2-3 hours of
studying outside of the classroom for every hour you spend in the classroom for
the course. (Which means you should spend 6-9 hours per week preparing for this
course. Ha. But seriously, how accurate this estimate is depends on how quickly
you read.)
COURSE OBJECTIVES
· To advance as a writer of fiction in general, literary short
stories in particular.
· To gain a working knowledge of the publishing industry.
· To effectively establish and improve critical and analytical
skills in the oral and written interpretation of both manuscripts and published
creative writing.
In
other words: to become a better writer, to learn how publishing works, and to hone
your skills in reading and analyzing creative work.
COURSE FORMAT
Class
will meet twice a week for an hour and fifteen minutes each session. Our time will be spent having in-depth conversations
about the writing craft and publishing, discussions of published work, writing
exercises, and class workshops.
REQUIRED MATERIALS
· Making Shapely Fiction by Jerome Stern.
· The Best American Short
Stories 2015.
Edited by T.C. Boyle.
· Fortune Smiles by Adam Johnson.
· Battleborn by Claire Vaye Watkins
· 2016 Novel and Short
Story Writer’s Market.
· Access to the internet, a Google account, and a Dropbox account
· A binder to hold all of the handouts with extra notebook paper.
COURSE REQUIREMENTS
Stories: You will write
TWO complete 10-20 page stories for the semester. All
work must be typed, double-spaced, titled, and page numbered. Use a 12 point font size in Times New Roman
font with one inch margins. You will
upload this story into our Student Stories Dropbox folder in the appropriate
week by 10am on the day the story is due (see the Workshop Schedule for the
specifics).
WARNING: Because I
take workshops so seriously, if you don’t
upload your story on the day that it is due, you can expect your assignment
grade to drop by a full letter.
If you are having trouble writing or finishing your story, please
contact me and I will read what you have and help you.
Workshops: Much of our class time will be spent in what writers refer to
as workshops. You should come to class
having closely read and marked the student stories up for discussion,
and also equipped with a 1 (single spaced) page typed critique that I may ask
you to read on occasion and that I will collect. Make two
copies of these letters, one to give back to your colleague along with
his or her story at the end of the workshop session, and the other to give to
me at the end of the class.
Readings: Every week I will assign readings from the class texts. You should come to class having fully read
the material and prepared to participate in discussion on it. As a rule of thumb, always come with two or
three passages from the text that you would like to examine. There will be periodic quizzes.
Conversational Topics Group Project: In the early weeks of
the class you will be divided up into groups of 2 or 3 and pick a topic about
the writing/publishing that interests you. Then your group will research this
topic and be responsible for leading the discussion on the day we discuss it.
See the Conversational Topics page for more detail.
Literary Journal Report: In the second half of class, you will research a number of literary
journals on your own, and pick one about which to write a 2 page report and
discuss with the class. See the Literary Journal Report page for more detail.
Portfolio: The
portfolio will be due at the end of the semester, (December 13 by 12:30pm) and
it will constitute 50% of your final grade.
The portfolio consists of:
1.
Your submission packet (a revised story,
query letter, SASE (plus a letter to me about your choice of journal, publication
strategy, and a printed copy of your tracking system).
2.
Your best 2 responses to other people’s
stories.
3.
An end-of-the-semester letter, detailing
your progress as a writer over the course of the semester.
COURSE POLICIES
Attendance:
· You will be expected to attend every class. Simply put, if you miss class, your grade
will suffer. If you have more than THREE absences for any reason, your grade
will drop one grade step for each absence (e.g. A to A-, B+ to B, C-to
D. . .) With excessive absences (6 or more) you will fail the course. I realize that sometimes emergencies will
come up, but more importantly, you should realize this and save those free
absences for a time when you will really need them.
· It is inexcusable to miss a day in class when you own work is going
to be discussed. In the case that the unimaginable does
happen, you can expect your grade to drop at least one full letter, and I might
even allow the class to poke you with pointy objects.
· If you do happen to miss a class, you are responsible for all
announcements made, policies set, and materials covered during any class
meeting. Please check our class website
and our Dropbox folder for announcements and materials handed out in class.
· 3 tardies equals an
absence.
Participation:
Each day in the course we will be discussing and/or engaging in
writing. Whether we are working in small groups or as a whole class, I will
expect active participation from everyone, which means engagement in course
materials and in-class assignments, as well as sharing your opinions in small
group and whole-class discussions. Each
day I will award you one point for participating in the course. If you don’t speak, you will not receive a
participation point for the day.
Extra Credit:
I
will occasionally bestow an extra participation point if your contribution to
the class discussion on a given day was simply outstanding. Here are some other
ways you can earn extra credit participation points in my class:
· Attending published fiction or poetry readings. There are a few of these on campus every
semester and several readings in the Boise area. To get credit you must write a quick
response/analysis of the reading.
· Attending amateur readings, such as student readings or area
open mics. Again, you must write up a
short response in order to receive credit.
· Commenting in a meaningful way on the course website.
Dropbox / Blackboard Nearly
everything that I use in this class (the syllabus, schedule, workshop and
presentation schedules, hand-outs, assignments, and so on) is posted in our
Dropbox folder. I will also keep a current grade standing on Blackboard.
GRADING
50% Portfolio (The quality, effort, and
revision that I find in your collected work at the end of the semester.)
25% Assignments (Quizzes, peer responses, presentations, and exercises. I will grade these for quality and effort, but
simply whether or not you turn them in is a big part of it.)
25% Participation (Your level of involvement in class discussions and the quality
of your feedback.)
Grading Scale:
A 93-100
A-
90-92
B+ 87-89
B 83-86
B-
80-82
C+ 77-79
C 73-76
C-
70-72
D+ 67-69
D 63-66
D-
60-62
F below 60
