Short Story II: Surprising Characters and Sudden Twists (Online Course)

(EGL 296 W)

This course is meant for students who have taken a fiction workshop in the past and want to deepen aspects of their short story craft and technique. We will work extensively on producing detailed characterizations and writing crisp, sub-texted dialogue, as well as exploring what it means for our endings to be "surprising yet inevitable." In addition to reading published pieces, we will complete a series of weekly assignments geared toward tackling some of the thornier issues of short story writing, including how to sculpt a convincing voice, handle flashbacks, and construct a seamless third-person point of view.

In the second half of the course, each student will hand in one short story, ten to twenty-five pages in length, to be workshopped by the class in a supportive online environment. Finally, we will explore potential markets for our fiction, and attempt to demystify—as much as possible—the process of getting our pieces ready for publication.

Please note: This is an online course.
For more information on additional online courses, please visit http://continuingstudies.stanford.edu/onlinewriting/.

Rusty Dolleman, Former Stegner Fellow

Rusty Dolleman received an MA in English and Writing from the University of New Hampshire. His work has appeared in The Iowa Review and The Beloit Fiction Journal, among others. His short story, “September, 1981” was named in “One Hundred Other Distinguished Stories of 2007” in the 2008 edition of The Best American Short Stories. Dolleman is currently at work on a novel.

Preview the textbooks for this course:

The Portable MFA in Creative Writing, The New York Writers' Workshop ISBN 1582973504

3X33: Short Fiction By Thirty -Three Writers, Mark Winegardner - ISBN 0155104802