Spring 2023
Introduction to Creative Nonfiction
Margaret Deli PhD, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This is a workshop-based course for students interested in creative nonfiction: reading it, discussing it, and writing it for yourself (perhaps for the first time). Drawing on a wide variety of forms and voices, we close read for craft by analyzing the internal mechanics of style. The focus of these discussions is exemplary work by authors like Zadie Smith, Chang-Rae Lee, Susan Orlean, and James Baldwin. These conversations are the jumping off point for students' own writing: by the end of term, students produce two different essays to be workshopped by their peers.
Spring 2023
Story Development
Shelley Evans MFA, Screenwriter
This workshop introduces the unique challenges of longform storytelling, and helps writers develop strategies for approaching long projects, either screenplays or novels. Many writers are drawn to the page by character or language or theme, but story is the scaffold on which movies and novels depend. Over the course of the semester, we learn to work creatively with the tasks of story building. We begin with ideas where and how do we find them? What kinds of ideas can carry a story? How can you turn a wobbly idea into one that works? We then consider character who does the story belong to? How do their desires, problems, and drives give the story its essential energy? Then we turn to story development and structure, the primary work of the course: how do you keep an idea alive for two-hundred pages, or two hours? What elements help a story build energy and momentum, and deliver us to a satisfying close? We explore these essential story energies using writing exercises, examples from film and literature, and the shared experience of working writers.
Fall 2022
Introduction to Fiction Writing
Randy S. Rosenthal MTS, Editor
A workshop for writers with little or no experience in writing fiction. The class focuses on the elements of fiction: dialogue, voice, image, character, point of view, and structure. Students are asked to read and discuss fiction by major writers, to critique each other's work, and to write and revise at least one short story. Requirements also include several short writing exercises.
Fall 2022
Introduction to Fiction Writing
William J. Holinger MA, Director, Secondary School Program, Harvard Summer School
A workshop for writers with little or no experience in writing fiction. The class focuses on the elements of fiction: dialogue, voice, image, character, point of view, and structure. Students are asked to read and discuss fiction by major writers, to critique each other's work, and to write and revise at least one short story. Requirements also include several short writing exercises.
Fall 2022
Beginning Poetry: Listening to Lines
David Barber MFA, Poetry Editor, The Atlantic
This intensive workshop offers students the opportunity to develop their aptitude and affinity for the practice of poetry. Students follow a structured sequence of writing assignments, readings, and exercises aimed at cultivating a sound working knowledge of the fundamental principles of prosody and the evolving possibilities of poetic form. There is a special emphasis on listening to lines and saying poems aloud, in concert with an eclectic assortment of audio archives. Another principal focus is the verse line through time, as we turn for instruction and inspiration to what the critic Paul Fussell calls the "historical dimension" of poetic meter and poetic form. The collective goal of the course is to create the conditions for reading and writing poems with a stronger sense of technical know-how and expressive conviction as well as a renewed appreciation for why poetry matters.
Fall 2022
Beginning Screenwriting
Susan Steinberg PhD, Filmmaker, Writer
This is an intensive course that provides members with a command of basic screenwriting elements and creative methods. The course goal is to promote each member's originality, voice, knowledge, and screenwriting technical skills, and to give scripts a written script structure and an act one of which they feel proud and can use to advance their work. Students are welcome to write an entire script, should they wish to and some have. During the semester, students produce a completed feature film or television treatment and the film first act in script format, as well as the film logline or pitch. Those who wish to use the course to write an entire screenplay or to rewrite a screenplay may pursue these goals, but must notify the instructor to arrange a writing schedule. Students need not enter with a script concept. Ideas are developed in class. Each person is encouraged to develop a creative approach and method appropriate to their working style. Alternative narrative styles and methods are presented in class.
Spring 2023
Fundamentals of Fiction
Tracy L. Strauss MFA, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This intensive, immersive course is designed for graduate-credit students with strong writing skills and an interest in becoming fiction writers but little formal experience, students who would like to develop a solid foundation in story and scene structure before embarking on an advanced fiction writing course. The first part of the course focuses on a close analysis of plot and structure in several short stories and novels. Students then apply these techniques and methods to generate and shape their own ideas, build a solid narrative foundation, and use scene structure to craft a dramatic story. Using Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, students explore and learn the fundamentals of character, dialogue, showing versus telling, and point of view. By the end of the course, students complete a short story or the first chapter of a novel (about 15 to 20 pages of fiction), which is workshopped in class.
Spring 2023
Fundamentals of Fiction
Christopher S. Mooney MA, Author
This intensive, immersive course is designed for graduate-credit students with strong writing skills and an interest in becoming fiction writers but little formal experience, students who would like to develop a solid foundation in story and scene structure before embarking on an advanced fiction writing course. The first part of the course focuses on a close analysis of plot and structure in several short stories and novels. Students then apply these techniques and methods to generate and shape their own ideas, build a solid narrative foundation, and use scene structure to craft a dramatic story. Using Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, students explore and learn the fundamentals of character, dialogue, showing versus telling, and point of view. By the end of the course, students complete a short story or the first chapter of a novel (about 15 to 20 pages of fiction), which is workshopped in class.
Fall 2022
Fundamentals of Fiction
Christopher S. Mooney MA, Author
This intensive, immersive course is designed for graduate-credit students with strong writing skills and an interest in becoming fiction writers but little formal experience, students who would like to develop a solid foundation in story and scene structure before embarking on an advanced fiction writing course. The first part of the course focuses on a close analysis of plot and structure in several short stories and novels. Students then apply these techniques and methods to generate and shape their own ideas, build a solid narrative foundation, and use scene structure to craft a dramatic story. Using Janet Burroway's Writing Fiction: A Guide to Narrative Craft, students explore and learn the fundamentals of character, dialogue, showing versus telling, and point of view. By the end of the course, students complete a short story or the first chapter of a novel (about 15 to 20 pages of fiction), which is workshopped in class.
Fall 2022
Fundamentals of Dramatic Writing
Shelley Evans MFA, Screenwriter
This course is designed for students with strong writing skills who have an interest in writing plays and/or screenplays, but little formal experience. The course introduces basic principles of dramatic writing and provides a foundation for advanced playwrighting and screenwriting courses. Using both plays and screenplays as study texts, we elucidate the elements of dramatic writing and consider how those elements work differently in different mediums. Plays and screenplays are similar but not the same both genres create narrative using character and dialogue, but plays lean more heavily on the inner life and voice of characters, while screenplays unfold in the external world, building stories with images and action. Weekly exercises guide students through the process of developing different kinds of scripts assessing potential story ideas, doing pre-draft character and backstory exploration, finding structure, and writing scenes. By the end of the semester, students have completed a short outline and the first twenty pages of a play or screenplay, which are workshopped in class.
Prerequisites: This course is intended for students with strong writing skills, not beginning writers.
Spring 2023
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Short Story
Shay Youngblood MFA, Commissioner, Japan-US Friendship Commission, United States State Department
This is an intensive workshop in the craft of writing short fiction for students who have read widely among past and contemporary masters of short fiction and who are accomplished in the elements of prose composition (mechanics, syntax, and structure). Students are expected to produce two new short stories (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: A beginning or intermediate fiction writing course or permission of the instructor. Students should bring a 10-page sample of their work to the first class.
Fall 2022
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Short Story
Elizabeth Ames MFA, Writer
This course is for writers who love to read short stories and wish to make their own short stories come alive on the page. Students should arrive with a commitment to and curiosity about the short story form; we build on that foundation through close reading and in-depth discussion of exceptional published short stories. To better understand and employ key craft elements, students complete in-class writing exercises, reflect and present on both their own short stories and published work, and offer clear-eyed critiques of their peers' works-in-progress. Much of our time is spent in workshop. Students carefully read and thoughtfully respond to one another's short stories and we work together to determine how best to filter and synthesize the feedback offered in a workshop setting. The skills honed via peer critique are crucial in editing one's own work and students showcase their growth through the revision of one of two stories they write this semester.
Prerequisites: A beginning or intermediate fiction writing course or permission of the instructor. Students should bring a 10-page sample of their work to the first class.
Spring 2023
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Short Story
Thomas Wisniewski PhD, Lecturer on Comparative Literature, Harvard University
This is an intensive workshop in the craft of writing short fiction for students who have read widely among past and contemporary masters of short fiction and who are accomplished in the elements of prose composition (mechanics, syntax, and structure). Students are expected to produce two new short stories (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: A beginning or intermediate fiction writing course or permission of the instructor. Students should bring a 10-page sample of their work to the first class.
Fall 2022
Writing a Nonfiction Book
Christina Thompson PhD, Editor, Harvard Review, Harvard College Library
This is a course for people who are embarked on a book-length work of nonfiction: biographers, memoirists, historians, journalists, science writers, and others who are writing for a non-specialist audience. Students should have a clearly formulated book idea or, ideally, be already working on a project. In the course we talk about voice, structure, audience, and how to pitch projects to agents and publishers. We also read samples from a wide variety of nonfiction books.
Prerequisites: At least one creative writing class; preferably beginning or advanced narrative (or creative) nonfiction.
Fall 2022
Writing a Nonfiction Book
Deirdre Alanna Mask JD, Writer
This is a course for people who are embarked on a book-length work of nonfiction: biographers, memoirists, historians, journalists, science writers, and others who are writing for a non-specialist audience. Students should have a clearly formulated book idea or, ideally, be already working on a project. In the course we talk about voice, structure, audience, and how to pitch projects to agents and publishers. We also read samples from a wide variety of nonfiction books.
Prerequisites: At least one creative writing class; preferably beginning or advanced narrative (or creative) nonfiction.
Spring 2023
Writing a Nonfiction Book
Christina Thompson PhD, Editor, Harvard Review, Harvard College Library - Elizabeth Greenspan PhD, Lecturer, University of Pennsylvania
This is a course for people who are embarked on a book-length work of nonfiction: biographers, memoirists, historians, journalists, science writers, and others who are writing for a non-specialist audience. Students should have a clearly formulated book idea or, ideally, be already working on a project. In the course we talk about voice, structure, audience, and how to pitch projects to agents and publishers. We also read samples from a wide variety of nonfiction books.
Prerequisites: At least one creative writing class; preferably beginning or advanced narrative (or creative) nonfiction.
Fall 2022
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Novel
Elisabeth Sharp McKetta PhD, Writer
This is an advanced fiction-writing course. Class meetings run mainly as workshops: students respond to one another's novel excerpts. We also discuss process, as well as elements of fiction that relate to the novel. Students are expected to produce two new chapters (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: Students should have successfully completed other fiction-writing courses and begun writing a novel when the semester begins.
Fall 2022
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Novel
Elizabeth Ames MFA, Writer
This is an advanced fiction-writing course. Class meetings run mainly as workshops: students respond to one another's novel excerpts. We also discuss process, as well as elements of fiction that relate to the novel. Students are expected to produce two new chapters (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: Students should have successfully completed other fiction-writing courses and begun writing a novel when the semester begins.
Spring 2023
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Novel
Elizabeth Ames MFA, Writer
This is an advanced fiction-writing course. Class meetings run mainly as workshops: students respond to one another's novel excerpts. We also discuss process, as well as elements of fiction that relate to the novel. Students are expected to produce two new chapters (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: Students should have successfully completed other fiction-writing courses and begun writing a novel when the semester begins.
Spring 2023
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Novel
William J. Holinger MA, Director, Secondary School Program, Harvard Summer School
This is an advanced fiction-writing course. Class meetings run mainly as workshops: students respond to one another's novel excerpts. We also discuss process, as well as elements of fiction that relate to the novel. Students are expected to produce two new chapters (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: Students should have successfully completed other fiction-writing courses and begun writing a novel when the semester begins.
Spring 2023
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Novel
Elizabeth Ames MFA, Writer
This is an advanced fiction-writing course. Class meetings run mainly as workshops: students respond to one another's novel excerpts. We also discuss process, as well as elements of fiction that relate to the novel. Students are expected to produce two new chapters (10 to 20 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Prerequisites: Students should have successfully completed other fiction-writing courses and begun writing a novel when the semester begins.
Spring 2023
Advanced Poetry Writing: The Art of the Line
David Barber MFA, Poetry Editor, The Atlantic
Good poets pay attention to the words in a poem. Great poets attend to the sounds. How do you suggest anger in a line? How do you create levity, melancholy, suspense just by working with vowels, consonants, and meter? In this poetry writing workshop, we survey an array of poetic forms, from the ancient hemstitch of Beowulf to the recent sonnet cycles of John Murillo. We study the line: the meter, the caesura, the break. And with these tools, students explore new possibilities in their own writing.
Prerequisites: A beginning poetry course or permission of the instructor.
Fall 2022
Advanced Fiction: Writing Suspense Fiction
Christopher S. Mooney MA, Author
Learn how techniques used in suspense fiction structure, pace, tension, and plot can be applied to your own writing. In addition to studying the bestselling works of both commercial and literary writers of suspense, students complete weekly writing assignments and participate in writing workshops. Writing samples will also be read and critiqued by a literary agent.
Prerequisites: An introductory and/or intermediate fiction course or permission of the instructor. Students should bring to class either a work in progress or an idea for a novel or short story.
Spring 2023
Advanced Fiction: Writing Suspense Fiction
Christopher S. Mooney MA, Author
Learn how techniques used in suspense fiction structure, pace, tension, and plot can be applied to your own writing. In addition to studying the bestselling works of both commercial and literary writers of suspense, students complete weekly writing assignments and participate in writing workshops. Writing samples will also be read and critiqued by a literary agent.
Prerequisites: An introductory and/or intermediate fiction course or permission of the instructor. Students should bring to class either a work in progress or an idea for a novel or short story.
Fall 2022
Advanced Creative Nonfiction
Kurt Pitzer MFA, Author
This workshop is for students who want to stretch their abilities as writers. The goal of the course is to produce publishable short memoirs, essays, profiles, literary nonfiction, or any of the other subgenres often called creative nonfiction. We develop pitches for editors; gather material through interviews, research, and observation; and then organize and rewrite our pieces until readers won't put them down. Although we deal strictly in facts, we use literary devices such as scene, plot, character, and voice. We draw inspiration from masters of the craft such as Susan Orlean, Zadie Smith, David Foster Wallace, Virginia Woolf, and Ryszard Kapuscinski.
Prerequisites: A beginning writing course or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2023
Advanced Creative Nonfiction
Brian Pietras PhD, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This workshop is intended for serious writers of creative nonfiction who want to produce publishable work. In the first half of the course, we study work by major authors in this capacious genre, including Virginia Woolf, James Baldwin, Joan Didion, Audre Lorde, and Jo Ann Beard. In the second half, we use what we have learned about scene, plot, character, and voice to produce new work. Students may write short memoirs, personal or lyric essays, profiles, literary nonfiction, and more. Toward the end of the course, we focus on strategies for getting published, including how to identify likely publication venues and how to effectively pitch editors.
Prerequisites: A beginning writing course or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2023
Advanced Creative Nonfiction
Ian Shank MFA, Preceptor in Expository Writing, Harvard University
This is an intensive workshop in the craft of writing literary essays for students who have read widely among past and contemporary masters of the form and who are accomplished in the elements of prose composition (mechanics, syntax, and structure). Students are expected to produce two new essays (10 to 15 pages each) and to revise them during the term.
Fall 2022
Advanced Screenwriting
Wayne Wilson MFA, Screenwriter
In this advanced screenwriting workshop, students watch films and discuss the work of workshop members. During the course, each student presents two 20- to 30-page acts from his or her screenplay for class discussion. The final project is a revision of one of these two workshop submissions.
Prerequisites: CREA E-45 or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor. Students should e-mail a sample of their own writing (ten pages or fewer) to Mr. Wilson before the first class.
Fall 2022
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Middle Grade and Young Adult Novel
Mary Sullivan Walsh BA, Author and Freelance Editor
This is an intensive workshop for writers interested in developing a middle grade or young adult novel. During each class meeting, we workshop chapters of students' novels-in-progress, focusing on elements of craft (character, point of view, dialogue, and plot). In addition, by reading and analyzing sections of work by such exemplary novelists as Angie Thomas, Lois Lowry, and Kwame Alexander, students learn to read like writers and to develop their own voices. Students are expected to have completed approximately 40 pages and a working synopsis of their novel by the end of the course.
Prerequisites: A ten-page writing sample to be submitted to mlswalsh@g.harvard.edu before classes begin.
Spring 2023
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Middle Grade and Young Adult Novel
Mary Sullivan Walsh BA, Author and Freelance Editor
This is an intensive workshop for writers interested in developing a middle grade or young adult novel. During each class meeting, we workshop chapters of students' novels-in-progress, focusing on elements of craft (character, point of view, dialogue, and plot). In addition, by reading and analyzing sections of work by such exemplary novelists as Angie Thomas, Lois Lowry, and Kwame Alexander, students learn to read like writers and to develop their own voices. Students are expected to have completed approximately 40 pages and a working synopsis of their novel by the end of the course.
Prerequisites: A ten-page writing sample to be submitted to mlswalsh@g.harvard.edu before classes begin.
Spring 2023
Advanced Fiction: Writing Fairy Tales
Katie Beth Kohn MA, Doctoral Candidate, Visual and Environment Studies, Harvard University
Fairy tales have inspired authors for centuries and we are still very much under their spell. In the first part of this course, we study fairy tales both classic and contemporary, including works by Helen Oyeyemi, Neil Gaiman, Margaret Atwood, and Kelly Link. In the second part, students workshop their own original prose fiction fairy tale, which may be a piece of short-form fiction or an excerpt from a longer work in progress. Throughout, we explore how fairy tales have encouraged authors to develop their own style and voice even as they seem to speak in a language all their own.
Prerequisites: A beginning creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2023
Advanced Playwriting
Bryan Delaney MA, Playwright and Screenwriter
This course is intended for students who have some experience with playwriting or dramatic writing in general so that they can refine the skills they have already acquired and take them to the next level. Topics covered include techniques for approaching the first draft, in-depth characterization, dramatic structure, conflict, shaping the action, language and dialogue (including subtext, rhythm, imagery, and exposition), how to analyze students' own work as playwrights, dealing with feedback, the drafting process, techniques for rewriting, collaboration (with directors and actors) and the business of the art working with theaters, agents, literary managers, and dramaturges. The focus of the course is more on what might be called the classical principles of dramatic writing rather than the more avant-garde approaches to the art.
Prerequisites: Ideally, students come to the first class with an idea for a one-act play to write throughout the course, although this is not mandatory, as the first class explores techniques for generating ideas.
Fall 2022
Advanced Fiction: Writing Horror
Katie Beth Kohn MA, Doctoral Candidate, Visual and Environment Studies, Harvard University
How do authors achieve the spine-tingling, bone-chilling, nightmare-inducing effects of great horror fiction? In addition to studying works of classic and contemporary horror, students in this course complete two works of short fiction before workshopping and presenting a final work. Throughout, we consider the diversity of the genre, from the gothic romanticism of Bram Stoker and Nathaniel Hawthorne to the paranoiac parables of Shirley Jackson and Ira Levin as well as the blockbuster works of Stephen King. We also pay considerable attention to emerging voices in the genre, studying selected works from Tananarive Due, Paul Tremblay, Carmen Maria Machado, Otessa Moshfegh, Emily Carroll, and Iain Reed. For final works, students are invited to workshop standalone works of short form fiction or selections from larger projects (novels, anthologies, scripts) provided these works are developed and drafted during the course.
Prerequisites: A beginning-level creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2023
Advanced Memoir: Mythic Structures
Elisabeth Sharp McKetta PhD, Writer
Both myth and memoir share a structure: somebody goes into the woods and comes out wiser about the ways of the world, emerging with an elixir (real or symbolic) to bring healing and hope. In sharing a memoir with readers, we share our lessons, the morals of our stories, the keys to our versions of happily ever after. Yet memoir writers often get stuck choosing which stories (from all of the stories we have lived) to include. In this course, we study myths and fairy tales, and write memoirs. We read short memoirs by writers who use these imaginary stories as a framework to examine their own lives, including Linda Grey Sexton, Sabrina Mark, Alexander Chee, and Michael Mejia. Students borrow structure from the great pool of myth and fairy tale lore and then fill in their stories with the particulars of their human-sized lives. Using mythic structure to help shape ordinary life events helps writers to combine universal themes with their own true voice a way to write our lives and make it matter. Students must craft new material for this course or develop new material for an existing project, such as a chapter in a longer memoir.
Prerequisites: A beginning-level creative writing course or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2023
Advanced Fiction: Writing the Murder Mystery Novel
David Freed ALM, Novelist and Journalist
Murder mysteries have become the most popular realm of commercial fiction, with an insatiable demand for new titles each year among the millions of the genre's loyal devotees. This course guides students in conceiving their own murder mystery, from plot outline to the execution of a commercially viable first chapter.
Prerequisites: At least one advanced writing course, or by prior permission from the instructor.
Fall 2022
Advanced Fiction: Writing Flash Fiction
Thomas Wisniewski PhD, Lecturer on Comparative Literature, Harvard University
How can you tell a story in a single paragraph? In a page? In three? This advanced writing course explores one of the hottest forms of fiction published today: flash fiction. Students read widely and experiment freely with the form, which offers a range of possibilities both in style and in length. In weekly writing workshops, students receive regular feedback on their work-in-progress and significantly revise 20-25 pages of prose with the aim of publication. As students draft their work, we study and dissect models of masterful very short fiction by writers both classic and contemporary, including Colette, Guy de Maupassant, Franz Kafka, Jorge Luis Borges, Clarice Lispector, Ernest Hemingway, Yasunari Kawabata, Dorothy Parker, Jamaica Kincaid, Lydia Davis, Charles Baxter, Anne Carson, Keith Taylor, Joyce Carol Oates, and Amy Hempel. We discuss these texts with the eye of a writer attentive to elements of craft, including dramatic structure, tone, point of view, suspense, prose style, rhythm, characterization, and plot. Working in this genre pushes students to write with economy and to polish their sentences as they aspire towards the hallmarks of excellent prose fiction: precision and economy, clarity and urgency. The course concludes with a conversation about how to break into publishing by working in a form that offers many opportunities for literary contests, awards, and first publications.
Spring 2023
Advanced Nonfiction: Writing Biography
Maggie Doherty PhD, Biographer and Critic
The biography is one of the most popular and enduring genres of nonfiction writing. This course teaches students the skills needed to bring people to life through biographical writing. Students read excerpts from different types of biography scholarly, popular, and experimental as well as read about the process of writing biography. Students practice interviewing, learn about accessing archival resources, and work on aspects of prose and style that bring characters to life. Students work to complete one chapter of a biography in progress. By the end of the course, students have the skills to enhance all their nonfiction writing projects, making them more marketable to editors and agents and more engaging to readers.
Prerequisites: A beginning writing course or permission of the instructor.
Spring 2023
The Art of the Pitch
Catherine Eaton BA, MFA, Director and Writer
You have an idea or you have created a brilliant piece of work: a novel, a screenplay, a concept for a TV series, maybe even a scripted nonfiction podcast. Now what? How do you convince others to jump on board to buy or create or collaborate or publish or produce your story? How do you move it out of your desk drawer or hard drive or imagination and into the world? In this course, we break down the making of a pitch into its core elements generating the idea, developing the story, and stress-testing the material as we practice strategies for producing pitch materials and for pitching your project, in the room, to a live audience. Students write and revise two treatments: one for a work they have created and one for an idea they have yet to develop. Students build one look book and one pitch deck and do three live pitches. Students develop an insider's perspective on industry practices and etiquette, essential knowledge for anyone interested in the business of creation.
Prerequisites: An advanced creative writing course or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
January 2023
The Art of the Pitch
Catherine Eaton BA, MFA, Director and Writer
You have an idea or you have created a brilliant piece of work: a novel, a screenplay, a concept for a TV series, maybe even a scripted nonfiction podcast. Now what? How do you convince others to jump on board to buy or create or collaborate or publish or produce your story? How do you move it out of your desk drawer or hard drive or imagination and into the world? In this course, we break down the making of a pitch into its core elements generating the idea, developing the story, and stress-testing the material as we practice strategies for producing pitch materials and for pitching your project, in the room, to a live audience. Students write and revise two treatments: one for a work they have created and one for an idea they have yet to develop. Students build one look book and one pitch deck and do three live pitches. Students develop an insider's perspective on industry practices and etiquette, essential knowledge for anyone interested in the business of creation.
Prerequisites: An advanced creative writing course or the equivalent, or permission of the instructor.
Fall 2022
Precapstone: Building the World of the Book: Fiction
Leah De Forest MFA, Writer
In this course, students engage in a series of structured creative writing exercises that make it possible for them to delve deeply into their characters what they look like, what they want and need, and how they interact with the world in which they live as they structure the imaginative world of their fiction. Students draft the first chapter of their capstone novel or the first story in their capstone collection (15-20 pages). Students also write a plan for their projects (5-10 pages) in which they create a roadmap of their book, bringing the plot and key characters into focus and defining the audience for their stories.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature, who are in their penultimate semester. Prospective candidates and students with pending admission applications are not eligible. Candidates must be in good academic standing and in the process of successfully completing all degree requirements except the capstone, CREA E-599, which they must enroll in the upcoming spring term as their final course with the same instructor. Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.
Fall 2022
Precapstone: Building the World of the Book: Fiction or Nonfiction
Elisabeth Sharp McKetta PhD, Writer
In this course, students engage in a series of structured writing exercises that make it possible for them to delve deeply into their characters what they look like, what they want and need, and how they interact with the world in which they live as they structure the world of their fiction or nonfiction. Students draft the first chapter of their capstone novel, memoir, or nonfiction book, or the first story or essay in their capstone collection (15-20 pages). Students also write a plan for their projects (5-10 pages) in which they create a roadmap of their book, bringing the narrative arc and key characters into focus and defining the audience for their work.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature, who are in their penultimate semester. Prospective candidates and students with pending admission applications are not eligible. Candidates must be in good academic standing and in the process of successfully completing all degree requirements except the capstone, CREA E-599, which they must enroll in the upcoming spring term as their final course with the same instructor. Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these degree requirements are dropped from the course.
Spring 2023
Capstone: Developing the Manuscript: Fiction
Leah De Forest MFA, Writer
This course is meant to follow CREA E-597, in which students built the imaginative world of their books and produced the first story or chapter of them. In this workshop, students write two additional chapters or stories, or approximately 30 pages of new work. The capstone project in total should be about 50-60 pages the equivalent of a thesis. Students submit the entire manuscript the plan and the three chapters developed during both the precapstone and capstone courses at the end of the second semester, but instructors read and comment on only the two new chapters.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature. Candidates must be in good academic standing, with only the capstone and the on-campus summer residency left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone course, CREA E-597, with the same instructor in the previous fall term. Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these requirements are dropped from the course.
Spring 2023
Capstone: Developing the Manuscript: Fiction or Nonfiction
Elisabeth Sharp McKetta PhD, Writer
This course is meant to follow CREA E-597, in which students built the imaginative world of their books and produced the first story, essay, or chapter of them. In this workshop, students write two additional chapters, stories, or essays, or approximately 30 pages of new work. The capstone project in total should be about 50-60 pages the equivalent of a thesis. Students submit the entire manuscript the plan and the three chapters, stories, or essays developed during both the precapstone and capstone courses at the end of the second semester, but instructors read and comment on only the two new chapters.
Prerequisites: Registration is limited to officially admitted candidates in the Master of Liberal Arts, creative writing and literature. Candidates must be in good academic standing, with only the capstone and the on-campus summer residency left to complete (no other course registration is allowed simultaneously with the capstone), and have successfully completed the precapstone course, CREA E-597, with the same instructor in the previous fall term. Candidates are allowed to complete the summer residency after the capstone. Candidates who do not meet these requirements are dropped from the course.